I'm learning to sing in German with Nena.

I especially like the way she rhymes "Captain Kirk" with "Feuerwerk".

https://genius.com/Nena-99-luftballons-lyrics

In other news, Director Gabbard and Secretaries Noem, Hegseth, and Kennedy met with Secretary Leavitt for her big Gender Reveal Party in El Paso...

She does that 'Captain Kirk' rhyme in the English version too though.

The real treat for German listeners is the first verse: ich, mich, dich, and neun-und-neunZIG (zig is pronounced like ich in the main German dialect).

With all of the 'neunundneunzig' (aka 99) repeated throughout the song, the ich/dich/mich/vielleicht rhymes is really a superior start over the English version.

It's a rhyming scheme that cannot be replicated in English at all.

Live performance (2018!) in German with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIO5lfJ9dhs

(I can mostly understand spoken German. Have heard this song in German many times before. Never got the message. It's tricky!)

For me, singing the words myself forces me to understand them.

So just sing along. Every word, and understand as much as you can.

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Once you know all the words, then the next step is to learn the grammar and learn how the words work together. If you give it a few months, full understanding will come!