Do you think that translating songs to english is a good way to learn vocabulary? I have a lot of songs in japanese (1000+) and I know a lot of them by heart, but hardly know the meaning.
I'll be going to Tokyo in May and will be there for 3 months, so I'm trying to study really hard so I'm not too much like a fish out of water.
Any tips?
Grammer too? I remember reading that sometimes in songs grammer is kinda abstract.
And I think I will give it a shot, I wanted to be sure its something that would help and not a pointless confusing endevour. I think I'll start with 宇多田ヒカル-Show Me Love (Not a dream). Do you know that song?
I used to do this when I first started learning Japanese. I'd listen to a song and try to write down what I heard, then checked that against the actual lyrics before trying to translate. There are some good transaltions out there that you can use to check your own translations.
Depending on your level, maybe use something like this to check your listening skills: http://www.sweetslyrics.com/838119.Utada%20Hikaru%20-%20Show%20Me%20Love%20%20(Not%20A%20Dream).html (Romaji)
http://forums.boajjang.com/index.php?showtopic=126620 (kanji)
And as for the grammar in songs being abstract - sure, but it's still grammatical. Because of the abstract images you might want to check a few different translations to give yourself a better idea of what the signer is trying to convey:
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/show-me-love-(not-a-dream)
http://verduistering.livejournal.com/66724.html
http://forums.boajjang.com/index.php?showtopic=126620 (scroll down for transaltion)
I think this is a great way to learn as you already know the lyrics and thus the words. It will be easier to remember the meaning of them when you have a context for them as well.
I use songs to teach all the time (ok, currently I'm doing it in reverse because I'm an English teacher, but...) there are always grammar patterns in songs - otherwise it's not language, just a bunch of random words strung together! You can always find little things to study in songs. Even stuff like AKB48 has value (会いたかった。。。 you've got past tense of たい right there!). Just as they say, seek and you will find ;)
