Come ho promesso, ecco un nuovo corso. Sarà un po’ “sperimentale”: proviamo cose diverse, poi vediamo che cosa funziona, e che cosa non funziona.
Il principio didattico del corso è semplice: E’ possibile imparare una lingua straniera senza spendere, ma aiuta molto se stai facendo ANCHE qualcosa che ti motiva.
Quindi, faccio delle lezioni basati sulle canzoni nella lista “500 Greatest Songs Of All Time” della rivista “Rolling Stone”. La mia intenzione è di promuovere l’abitudine di ascoltare, leggere e scrivere inglese, senza essere troppo pesante…
Se vuoi scoprire di più per quanto riguarda la lista famosa della Rolling Stone, poi leggere l’articolo introduttivo che presenta la lista qui.
Ma è faccoltativo. Oggi, inizamo, dove altro, con numero 1. nella lista: “Like A Rolling Stone” di Bob Dylan.
Compiti di oggi
Hai fino a mercoledì mattina, quindi 48 ore:
- Ascolta la canzone
- Leggi le parole
- Spiegami in non più di 100 parole (in inglese, non italiano) di che cosa si tratta. (Clicca qui per scrivere il tuo compito, nella forma di un commento su questo articolo)
Non preoccupare per la qualità dell’inglese. Importante che hai tentato di capire la canzone (che non è facile) e che riesci a scrivere almeno qualcosa in inglese, anche solo una frase o due.
Risponderò a tutti che partecipano. Indica, per favore, se vuoi o no le correzioni degli eventuali errori (io no, grazie!)
A mercoledì.
Fabry says
Hi Daniel! First of all, this idea is really good, i think you’ll have a great replay! i’ve read and listened the song, and i’ve understood that it talks about a girl which had richness and beauty, but this are qualities that go away with the years. now she is poor and she does things she never thought to do. i think that the meaning of the song is that life is not ever good with us; sometimes it could become cruel and it could take away all our material world. if we are strictly linked with ephemeral things, when the life take away thees, it can take away even the values we have built around superfluous, leaving us alone and desperates. may i have the correction? i’m sorry for my late in the answering. thank you, Daniel!
Daniel says
Hello Fabry,
My, you are a pessimist, aren’t you??
Corrections:
replay= REPLY
listened the song = listened TO the song
this are qualities = THESE are..
never thought to do = never thought SHE WOULD do
thees = these
desperates = desperate
Thanks for your contribution!
Daniel
Fabry says
Thank you! when i wrote ‘thees’, i’ve done a mistake with my keyboard…what a bad impression! XD
can you teach me how to say in the correct way “che brutta figura!”? i don’t know if ‘what a bad impression’ is correct in english.
Fabry
Daniel says
You could just say “How embarrassing!”
“Brutta figura” doesn’t really translate into English…
dana says
hallo, I am a new student… daniela…I would like the correction, thank you.
The woman of the song didn’t think when she was a lovely pretty girl that her life will be broken from a man that would take her everything… now she’s bum, lonely, poor, without a home, identity, without direction… 🙁
thank you:-)
Daniel says
Hi Dana (nice name!),
Welcome to imparareinglese.com.
I agree with your explanation of the song.
Corrections:
– the woman (of) IN the song
– her life (will) WOULD be broken (from) BY a man…
– now she’s A bum…
Have a great day!
Daniel
dana says
Thank you!
Silvia says
Hi,
I don’t understand a lot of words 😉 I think he speaks about a rich girl who has everything and knows a man; this is a bad man but the girl fall in love with him and loose everything… she becomes like a “rolling stone” whitout home; she had a good and rich education but she doesn’t know how to live on the street … all that she hates and laugh about is now part of her life, but now she has nothing and nothing to loose 😉 Sorry for my English, I’m studying the language by myself 😉
Daniel says
Hello Silvia, and welcome. Thanks for contributing.
Your English is fine. I studied Italian by myself, too, so I understand your position.
In future posts, if you want me to correct your mistakes, please say so (otherwise I won’t).
Bye for now!
Daniel
Silvia says
Hi Daniel, thanks to you too… it’s very nice what you’re doing !Next time I’ll write: please correct me 😉
Have a good day!! Silvia
Gabriele says
I’ve listened the Bob Dylan’s song. It was very difficult for me understanding the meant while I was listening the song. After I listened the song I read the lyrics so I could understand in a better way. Bob Dylan spoke about a free life…….Blowin’ in the wind…….these words have an important meant…..A man can be free, maybe, only after he have had a lot of difficulties……. The freedom is very expensive in a life’s man!
Thanks a lot!
Daniel says
Gabriele!
Welcome, and thanks for writing your ideas. I really appreciate your contribution.
I’m not sure Dylan was so positive about being a rolling stone, “with no direction home”. I think it’s meant as a state of “loss”.
But I guess you can see some advantages? You have a very buddhist attitute, perhaps…
Daniel
Daniel says
Hi Gabriele,
Wise words! Thanks for your contribution.
Daniel
Leonarda says
Hi Daniel,
nice to”read” you again, and thank you for this very intersting course!!
This song, the better in word, as the “Rolling Stone” magazine wrote, talk about loneliness wich is fall fron grace.
Bob Dylan, would describe his solitude when he was an idol for his fans, and the new position in front of his life: to be free “like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone”.
I know that!!
I’d like to have your advices about my mistakes….
Thank you again, 🙂
leonarda
Daniel says
Hi Leonarda,
Nice to hear from you, and sorry it took so long to reply. I’ve had a crazy day!
You know what I think of this song?
Dylan was poor, a rolling stone, and patronized by “successful” folk artists. Then he got really big, and they were poor. It’s about changing status.. He knew what it was like to be a nobody, and took pleasure in reminding the previously successful, now failing artists, of their earlier “snobbish” attitudes..
But, what do I know? I was a baby at the time…
CORRECTIONS
1. When writing in English, use a capital letter after the salutation i.e.
2. consigli = advice (not advices). It’s considered “uncountable” in English….
Daniel says
Hi Leonarda,
Corrections IN CAPITALS:
Nice (start sentence with a capital letter after initial salutation – different in English/Italian)
“talk about” should be IS ABOUT
“would describe” should be “WANTS TO DESCRIBE”
“in front of his life” is wrong. Maybe you mean, “his new feeling about his life”?
Have a nice day!
Daniel
sebastian says
I don’t have understand nothing
I’ll try again, but seeing the text this time !
(if you want, you can correct to me )
Daniel says
Welcome Sebastian!
I don’t understand ANYTHING (not “nothing”)
“correct me” (no TO)
Have a nice day.
Clara says
This song talks about a proud and rich girl. One day she finds herself with nothing. The singer asks her: how do you fell now that you are on your own?
“Like a rolling stone” – the title of this song l- reflects the girl’s life, that goes without a goal
Daniel says
Welcome Clara!
Yes, I agree with what you wrote.
NB. sentire = feel
antonella says
Good morning Daniel!
In my opinion, this song is about a relationship between Miss Lonely and Napoleon. She learnt from him a way of living: outwardly brilliant, deeply empty and false. Then the story came to its end: ML became a RS, a person without any reference point. The song doesn’t tell us why and how it happened; now there is nothing to do but going back to him.
Very sad indeed. Overall: life has taught notingh to ML, she is going to make the same mistake again!
Thank you in advance for your correction! Antonella
Daniel says
Interesting theory, Antonella….
1 correction: nothing to do but going back to him.
should be “nothing to do but GO”
antonella says
Only 1 correction?!
Impossible I’ve made only 1 mistake!!!
What I found very hard in this lyric is: a word can mean many different things… I tried to read three or four Italian translations, and there was a great difference among them:
http://www.riflessioni.it/testi_canzoni/bob_dylan_2.htm
http://www.testimania.com/testitradotti/744.html
-Il tuo fondo schiena è stata una parte molto apprezzata nei suoi tempi migliori, non è vero? –
is very different from
– Per prima cosa lanciavi una moneta ai barboni, non è così? –
I tried to translate the text word after word… complete disaster, of course!!!
What have I to do, in situation like these ones?
Thanks again… for explanation and correction!
(may I have some Depeche Mode and Sting/Police songs, in the future?) Antonella
Daniel says
Ciao Antonella.
1. Tell me your favorite songs from Depeche Mode or Sting and, if I like them too, I’ll do a lesson for you.
2. If you want to know the REAL translation, post a short phrase and we can do it together.
P.S. Translation is much more complicated than you might imagine. I once taught English to a professor of translation at the university and she explained the various approaches.. It’s not a simple subject, and there’s definitely no single way to translate any text…
Giulio says
I felt the urge to write to you to thank you introduced in your English course an element of great emotion for many of us students, teenagers in the 60s, in the affected notes and the words of “Blowin ‘in the Wind”, and we teenagers affected and outraged by the news that came from Vietnam (the napalm, the massacre of Mi-Lai, the migliiaiadi dead Americans and Viet Cong …..).
It ‘was a moment for me and for others not so young beautiful and intense, so much so that I suffered as some voices (I have not had the courage) to accompany with your own voice to Bob Dylan.
Daniel says
Thanks for your contribution, Giulio.
Music from the ’60s is some of my favourite, and the first albums I bought were by Dylan. That was back in the 80’s though, I studied the history, rather than living it, as you did.
Punk was more my protest movement….
Hope to hear from you again soon!
Daniel
ionela says
hi daniel ! i must say that listening to this song i understood nothing , a bit better with lirics .
the song it’s about a rich and proud woman becoming poor and her incapacity to rise or survive whorthy after falling down in poverty . although educated in good schools she ‘s complete unprepared in dealing with this situation. life is changeable and hard and so it is this song for me .
please, please ,please correct me . ionela
Daniel says
Hello Ionela,
My experience with songs in English is that they lyrics are often less important than the music, and so not always clear or easy to understand as with Italian music… So don’t worry!
Corrections IN CAPITALS:
But you tried, and that’s good. Maybe the next one will be easier!
ionela says
Hi Daniel ! Thanks a lot for your encouragements . That ‘worthy’ was bad typed , I meant ‘ worthily’ – dignitosamente . Is this not correct ?
Thank you very much indeed !
Daniel says
If you’re not sure how (or IF) to use a word, try typing it into google.com and reading the results…. There are lots of definitions of “worthily”, but few examples of use. The two I found were both in religious contexts, for example:
Use the same technique to see if you like “with dignity” better….
ionela says
Hi Daniel,
Of course ‘ with dignity’ I like better but simply this expression didn’t come to my mind .
Thanks again!
gerry says
hello! I heard “LIke a Rolling stone.”this a beautiful song, but it is not esay to understand.It talk about a woman, who in her youth had everything, beauty, money, power and indifference to others.
Now, she has lost everything, she is not young, no rich and she test how hard is life.Ciao
Daniel says
Ciao Gerry,
Welcome back.
Your analysis of the song seems correct to me.
Do you think Dylan (formerly poor, unknown young song-writer) could have been writing about a woman who had been a famous singer, but whose success passed and so fell upon hard times?
Maybe someone in the same genre?
There are some interesting “facts” here: http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2737
Daniel
Diego says
Hello Daniel,
I think this song tells about a girl who used to be part of the rich society.
Unfortunately this situation is now different as she fell into disgrace; so now she sees life from a different point of view, the same she used to disapprove.
Diego
p.s. please correct me 😉
Daniel says
Hello Diego,
Thanks for contributing! It’s your first time, and you’re very welcome.
Corrections IN CAPITALS:
Nicely put…
Until the next time!
Daniel
Fabrizio says
Hi Daniel,
I’ve read this beautifiul song and the meaning is not so easy for me. The author want to describe a girl that became poor and sad. I love this songwriter but not all words are so clear to understand.
Thanks for you support.
Please Daniel, can you correct my mistakes?
Fabrizio
Daniel says
Welcome Fabrizio. No, it’s not an easy song, you’re right. But life’s not easy, is it?
Your mistakes corrected IN CAPITALS:
You’re welcome.
Daniela says
Hi there,
I’m Daniela, a new student 🙂 I’m so glad you choosen this song, it’s one of my favourites!!
“Like a Rolling Stone” talk about a rich girl who become poor after her boyfriend had cheated. She have flaunted her prestigious life, have laughed poor people. How does it feel to be on the other side?
To struggle everyday to survive?
Like a rolling stone is a metaphor: If you have nothing, you can’t lose anything.
Please Daniel, correct all my mistakes 🙂
Bye 🙂
Daniel says
Hi Daniela,
Welcome, and thanks for your contribution. I’ve corrected your mistakes IN CAPITALS:
stefania says
please, can u correct my mistakes?
thanks
Gaetana says
This song tells about a woman who was rich And beautiful, who studied in good schools but now her life has changed and she’s not prepared to face all her problems. Her beauty and her good education aren’t useful and there is nothing She could do for avoiding the sorrow.
Daniel if there are mistakes please correct them!
Thanks
stefania says
ciao Daniel, bentornato!
“Life can change in a click!. Everything is a question of points of view.
Are you Cinderella or a Princess?
Anyhow….it’d be better not to forget that the events of the life can change the playing card on the table.
Are you ready for that?
No schools, no teachers can teach you how to survive.
In front of poverty and sorrow we are all the same: princess, clowns and bums.
From stars to stalls or just…..from an ephemeral life to the real one!
Who knows?
Daniel says
“the life” (no THE)
playing cardS
Otherwise, very good! Thanks for your contribution.
Daniel
stefania says
hi Daniel,
thanks for your corrections?
I don’t understand: ‘the life’ (no THE)…..
I wait to hear from you
Daniel says
It’s a classic. Abstract nouns in italiano take “the”, in English not.
“La vita è bella” = “Life is beautiful”.
Your sentence:
gerry says
I have raed and heard the song of Bob Dylan “Blowin in the wind”It is a song to denounce the situation of many people.It speaks about of indifference towards other, the war…
The hope is in the wind
Daniel says
It’s a different song, Gerry. But good anyway.
Have a nice day,
Daniel
Silvia says
Hello Daniel! Thank you again for this new, interesting course!
This song is about a woman who used to be rich and was completely robbed by a man who wasn’t who he had told her. So, Bob makes a comparison between her arrogance before and her despair after. She used to laugh at poor people in pride, now she’s selling herself to get some money. It’s a sad song about how life can change your perspective if you’re not wise and responsible (“You shouldn’t let other people get your kicks for you”).
I’m not sure I’ll make it through the whole course, but once in a while you’ll see me popping around! Thank you again and… yes, please, correct me! 🙂
Daniel says
Hi Silvia,
Can’t find any mistakes to correct! Well done to you. Hope you enjoyed the song.
Daniel