At the start of high school, I never imagined that I would perform a song in Mandarin in front of a large audience—but there I was, preparing to sing, standing on the makeshift stage of Chinese Club’s downsized Lunar Show at the San Jose City College (SJCC) extension.
A few weeks earlier, my Chinese 3 teacher, Ms. Tao, had announced to our class that Chinese Club was looking for performers for its Lunar Show. Although the thought of performing at the Lunar Show as an Indian and without any singing experience was daunting, I decided to sign up to perform with my friend, eager to put my Chinese-speaking–and singing–skills to the test.
With Ms. Tao’s help, I settled on the song “Dì Yī Cì Ài De Rén” by Cyndi Wang. After school in the weeks leading up to the performance, I practiced with my teacher to master the melody and pronunciation of the Chinese characters, and I played the song on repeat at home to memorize the lyrics.
When the day came, I took to the stage and sang. I wish I could say I sang flawlessly, but I didn’t. My voice cracked on a high note and someone snorted at my ad-libs. As an Indian performing a song in Mandarin in front of an audience of mostly native Chinese speakers, I felt like an outsider–but afterward, people commended my pronunciation and bravery for performing. My bond with my teacher, who sat in the front row and mouthed the words to the song to guide me, only grew.
Embarking on this journey of learning and performing a foreign song was a transformative experience that helped me step out of my comfort zone and engage in a beautiful moment of cross-cultural interaction. In the hours I listened to the song before my performance, my ears began to detect subtle nuances in pronunciation that I came to realize make or break pronunciation in Mandarin. I also started to better appreciate the range of sounds and beauty of the Chinese language, and I became more motivated to continue learning it. In addition, I learned more about Chinese pop and culture through the song and its themes discussing love.
Studying a song in Mandarin also supplemented my learning in class; I not only built more confidence in my pronunciation, but also learned new phrases and gained a better understanding of grammar and sentence structure, with the song acting as an unexpected mnemonic device.
Foreign songs have long been considered an effective tool to supplement language learning, as they train students’ brains in how to auditorily process a language, and their repetitive and catchy nature allows students to better remember vocabulary and my experience was a testament to that. However, I also found foreign music as a way to explore other cultures and bond with people from other cultures through a shared appreciation of music. So, the next time you have to recite a nursery rhyme or karaoke in your foreign language class, embrace it and consider it an opportunity to better immerse yourself in the language.