Singing in a foreign language

Living in Hong Kong, working here and in China, is a fascinating experience.  

Young singers here are very talented, but as with young singers anywhere in the world, working in foreign languages requires a learning process.

I often here many singers sing phonetically rather than looking at the music and knowing what each individual word is. 

Translating and reading a western language is hard for a Chinese person, just as it is virtually impossible for a Westerner to quickly grasp and work in the Chinese language quickly and correctly.
 

I often hear young singers make mistakes with such Italian words as: mia, tua, sua, via.

 

Everyone knows when speaking Italian we say, ‘MI-a, or TU-a, SU-a, VI-a.  But when singing I hear many singers sing:  mi-AH, or tu-AH, su-AH, vi-AH, with the emphasis on the last syllable, which is wrong.

I also hear young singers take a world like, beato (pronounced bay-AH-toh) and sing “be-ah-TOO.  They look at it phonetically and not as an entire word with the stress on the correct syllable. 

Another thing I hear because of lack of understanding of languages is a breath in the middle of a word.  I tease Chinese singers and explain it thus:  Tomorrow I will go to Bei (breath) jing. 

Well, you can’t separate the syllables of “Bei” and “jing” with a breath: you must say, “Beijing”. 

It is the same in other languages; you cannot split syllables with a word or it sounds so wrong.  That is why so much understanding of foreign languages is necessary.