I think it’s rather you that have to explain what you think you’ll accomplish by memorizing texts of any length from a pedagogical perspective on language learning, because I’ve never heard of it other than as stuff my parents were forced to do in Sunday school (around 60 years ago, and that was obviously not for learning languages, but the aim was to learn parts of the Bible by heart). 
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As I see from your location it is Sweden**. As I understand such method wasn’t applied in your school nor in your university (if you are of age to be in university ofc)?
edit:
I can barely answer this question. This is one of the reasons I’ve created this thread to find out what people know about that.
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I think that depends on the text. If the text contains enough phrases that use key grammatical structures - then it can be very helpful. For example, you don’t know which tense to use and forgot the rule. If you still remember that text and there is a similar phrase there - you’d be able to use the same tense.
I didn’t exactly learn texts by heart, but I’ve listened to the Harry Potter audiobooks so many times, that I do know some parts by heart. It really helped me with learning English.
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You’re right about them never being applied in my schooling. Analysis of texts, to look at aspects of grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure, are all ways to understand a language deeper. But, memorizing isn’t really about those things. That’s a separate activity. That’s why I asked, But you really don’t have to do some research for me. I’ll just have to do some digging on my own then! 
As for my age. I’m way past the age to still study at the university, though you can always do that later in your life. But, essentially my education is over and done with.
I think school here is pretty progressive overall. But, there were certainly also more oldschool things we did (like proper repetition/exercises to get knowledge to stick). But never memorization exercises. I still can’t imagine what the point would be, as that puts more focus on the content, not on the language aspects, of a text.
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As an extra: there is certainly no harm in learning lyrics in Japanese, but I don’t see how that helps me understand Japanese, since lyrics are a special case of expression so that’s not how people talk or express themselves (the same goes for lyrics in any language).
The same goes for poetry. It’s interesting, but doesn’t really help in the first stages of learning a language.
Short stories are better, I guess. They are still literary expressions of some kind, and should be understood as that, but at least short stories gives you a more proper sense of how you might wanna express yourself in a language: like the range of expressiveness in fictional text.
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I analysed bits of a song earlier in this thread, and based on such experiences, I think that songs are a good way to learn how people express themselves, even if the words used can be a little exaggerated. However, I agree that reading stories is a better way to go about it. Stories provide more context and are often a bit more natural.
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Sorry it took so long.
I was shocked at first, because I actually wasn’t mentioning you with the japanese, but someone else, I think whoever it was that created the post.
Yes, I am German. Berliner 
If I do commit to french, it’s probably going to be months from now. Don’t think, I’d be comfortable taking on two language projects (especially with both at early stages) at the same time, thanks already though!
The case with während is correct, yes.
No, no. Unterhalten is a less formal phrase for ~having a dialogue, although it could also be used in something like „Ich unterhalte [diesen und jenen] Lebensstandard“. To have a talk, even though I feel like that has a negative meaning in english and implies a scolding could also be a viable translation. It’s hard…
German is THE language for compound words lol
No problem at all! Sorry it took so long
Ah yes… silly me. I didn’t notice that the OP mentioned German in the original post. I was surprised too, actually, but I just figured that someone might have been curious since I’ve definitely mentioned other languages on these forums a few times. It’s true that you weren’t responding to my post though. Guess I shouldn’t have been so self-absorbed. Sorry. 
Though now you mention it, I’m curious too: @Kateikyoshi also, wie gut ist dein Deutsch? 
Has it been a long time since you picked it up? The question was meant for you, I believe, and I shouldn’t have cut in. My bad.
Ah yes… like sich unterhalten? French has “s’entretenir”, which is quite similar: “entretenir” can mean ‘to maintain’ or ‘to upkeep’, but when you add “se” (which is like “sich”), it becomes “s’entretenir”, which means to discuss. It’s usually used for multiple people, like in ‘they had a discussion’, though it can be used for an individual talking to someone else. “S’entretenir” sounds quite formal though.
How would you say ‘to maintain my German level’ anyway? I’m curious and don’t know enough words to come up with something good.
Hahaha. Yup. 
It’s OK! Don’t worry about it.
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Actually somehow I thought that question about german wasn’t adressed to me. Don’t mind my german, it is around A2 level and I don’t use that language for now because japanese is extremely time consuming to say the least. But if I were to return to german, it would be much easier learning it with all these techniques acquired while learning japanese.
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