Archives: May 21, 2015

Oliver Antosch
May 21, 2015

5 Ways to Make Music a Part of Your Language Learning

Today’s guest post is from Shannon Kennedy. She is the blogger/language lover/adventurer behind Eurolinguiste. She is a musician first, but an avid language learner at heart. She speaks French and English fluently and is currently working towards fluency in Mandarin and Croatian. You can learn more about her and her language learning strategies of at Eurolinguiste.

“Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty.” – Sir Thomas Beechem

Why is it that we can recall almost every word to a song when it pops up on the radio as we’re driving, even when it’s been years since we’ve heard it? What is it about music that enables us to remember moments, events, and words that are only evoked when hearing a song? But more importantly as language learners, how can we harness that power and apply it to our studies?

Since its invention, music has been used as a way to teach, to keep records, to communicate and to entertain. It has long played its role in boosting memorization. So why not use this excellent memorization tool to help you with the vocabulary and grammar of the language that you’re learning?

Here are a few ways to utilize music to improve your language study:

1. Learn the lyrics to foreign language songs.

Take a moment to peruse YouTube or TuneIn to find music that you like in your desired language. The desire to learn to sing along is a must! Using music as a language learning tool is more effective if you’re enjoying yourself. A quick way to find music in your target language is to search one of the big record labels for their branch in the country that speaks the language you’re learning (i.e. Universal France, Universal Taiwan) or even Vevo France, Vevo Japan, or Vevo Russia.

I’ve also started to collect songs in the languages I’m learning on Youtube, so if you’re learning French, Croatian, Mandarin, Japanese, or Italian, you might find something that you like there.

Once you’ve found a song or two that you enjoy here are the next steps:

First, learn the words in the foreign language. Look them up online by searching for the lyrics of the song. To help get you started, here are the words for lyrics in several different languages:

  • French – les paroles
  • Spanish – letras de una canción
  • Italian – testo/parole della canzone
  • German – liedtext
  • Mandarin – ge1 ci2 － 歌词
  • Russian – slova dlya pesni

This is one of my favorite sites for transcriptions AND translations of foreign language songs.

Second, translate them into your native language. You can just paste them into Google Translate if you like, but you definitely get bonus points if you make an effort to translate what you can on your own first!

Third, memorize them and sing along! It helps with pronunciation. You’ll also pick up expressions and words that you won’t find in a textbook!

2. Set the vocabulary and sentences you’re trying to learn to the melody of one of your favorite songs.

This is a really great and proven way to help you memorize different words or phrases that you’re trying to learn. When I think of this method, I am often reminded of the episode of “How I Met Your Mother” where one of the characters forgets something important:

Traditions such as oral storytelling were maintained by performing stories in poetic and musical forms to aid the passing down of histories and stories. These stories were often performed in their poetic and musical forms because the rhythmic and melodic patterns helped those telling the stories remember them.

Music can really stick with you – that’s why you can remember the lyrics to songs years after you’ve heard them last. Applying this to language can definitely help you improve your ability to recall words.

One of the best ways to get the most out of this method is to create songs using groups of related words – colors, modes of transportation, directions, numbers, and so on. Using a random list of unrelated words may be harder to remember, even as a song, so it’s best to use several different melodies to memorize multiple lists of words.

But they don’t have to be difficult songs! They can be melodies from your childhood or the chorus of your favorite song. You can definitely get creative.

3. Listen to a set playlist while you’re studying a language.

Scientifically, music helps break information down into patterns and cues that allow us to better remember. But it isn’t just words that music allows us to remember – it’s also events. So turn your study sessions into memorable events by using a set playlist.

Using a specific music playlist as a background to our study can actually help trigger memories that surround previous study sessions, which in turn, help make your current study session more productive.

4. Use songs to practice dictation.

Songs are relatively short – usually about three to four minutes long. They often have repetitive passages too, which makes them great practice for transcription. Choose a song and get your pen and paper ready. As you listen, write down the words.

Be patient using this method! Don’t be afraid to rewind the track as many times as you need. Try to jot down the lyrics as accurately as possible, then look them up online to see how close you are.

5. Find songs you already know in your native language that have been translated into your target language (or translate them yourself).

Children’s songs like “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” and the theme from Sesame Street, or even holiday songs like “Frosty the Snowman”,  already exist in many languages and are a great starting point. They’re often quite short and simple and so learning them is an easy task. Plus you’ll very likely pick up new vocabulary!

How do you use music to improve your language study? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

Further Reading:

Do Musicians Make Better Language Learners? on The Guardian

Music is Linguist’s Best Friend on Eurolinguiste

You can find Shannon Kennedy on: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

2 Comments on 5 Ways to Make Music a Part of Your Language Learning InGuest Post Language Learning
Oliver Antosch
March 6, 2015

Language Learning tips from polyglot Michael McCavish

A few weeks ago I talked to one of our users (Michael McCavish) about language learning. When I heard he speaks 7 languages, I asked whether he would be interested to write a guest post for us and he delivered! Here is Michael’s take on language learning:
 
I have never really thought of my ability to speak 7 languages as in any way extraordinary. I know there are many polyglots who can speak many more. I am the founder of Michael’s English School in Osaka, Japan. Many of my students ask me the secret of learning foreign languages and this has helped to formulate my ideas on the subject. I am happy to share my thoughts on language learning and hope that they may be helpful to others who might be considering learning another language or two.
 
Nature versus Nurture
 
“You are lucky you are just good at languages.” “I am no good at languages.” “My memory sucks!” These are the sort of comments that I hear day in, day out.
 
If you think you are bad at languages, let me put your mind at ease: you aren’t! The first thing that you need to do is change your internal dialogue. Get rid of that nasty little voice in your head that tells you that you are bad at something. It quite simply isn’t true. The first thing to do is make yourself aware that you have an astounding piece of equipment, namely your brain. Remind yourself that your brain contains between 100 and 500 trillion synaptic connections, that it is dealing with possibly millions of pieces of information every second, and that YOUR brain differs very little from Einstein’s brain or the brain of Sir John Bowring, once Governor of Hong Kong, a polyglot who could speak 100 languages and was said to “know” 200!!!
 
So now that you are in a positive state of mind about your equipment, you can now do what I do when I decide to tackle a new language.
 
The first question I ask myself is, “Why do I want to learn this language?” One of the most important things about learning anything is desire. As a young boy at school, I had no interest in French. I distinctly remember getting 8% in a French exam. It was not until my parents bought a place in the South of France, where there were a lot of very beautiful French women, that my interest in French rocketed… along with my abilities!
 
Sure, if you have children, start them young, but you can learn a language at any age
 
Now, I would say that it is true that a stimulating early childhood, possibly one in which your parents are of different nationalities, will cause neurological pathways to form which help you to learn languages. In my case my father was British and my mother Dutch, so by the age of four, I was already bilingual. I believe firmly, however, that these neurological pathways can also easily be formed in later life simply through application.
 
Many polyglots are the result of circumstance. As educators will tell you, circumstance usually leads to a need and a desire to learn how to equip yourself to deal with whatever environment you find yourself in.
 
In my case, my parents spoke English and Dutch, we had a house in France, I had some very close German friends, I worked for some years in Portugal before moving to Japan, and my wife is Belarussian. Voila! Simple!
 
During the course of learning these languages and teaching languages, I have developed tricks, which help me. Yes, I use mnemonics, yes, I use loci, or a memory palace. Mine has 104 rooms with two wings, equivalent to two decks of playing cards. But these are just useful for vocab building. In brief, just as described by Anthony Metivier, I basically take a new word that I want to learn. I convert it into something that it may sound like or make a note that it is similar to a word that I know in another language, frequently making a ridiculous connection, and then I place it in a room in my mental memory palace. There is so much info out there on mnemonics and memory palaces that I will not go into it.
 
Modern Tools and Antosch and Lin’s website
 
As a teacher and a learner I am always looking to upgrade my techniques. In a modern age, we may use modern techniques. Books are good but they do not help with pronunciation. As I said before, we have an incredible piece of equipment in the brain. It is very important to bombard the brain with thousands of spoken sentences. The brain will automatically scramble everything up and later be able to use a bit from this sentence and a bit from that sentence, as it requires. Repetition is very important. I break down what I want to learn into chunks. It is very important to take a rest from studying approximately every 25 minutes. I believe this helps the brain to really absorb the material.
 
I was incredibly happy when I found the Antosch and Lin site. It was exactly what I was looking for. I use the pronunciation function. I record chunks on my iPhone and then replay those chunks frequently. Sometimes I choose chunks from the site that are theme-related. Sometimes I chose chunks that are level-related. I also use the site these days to refresh languages that I already know.
 
I think it was Nietzche who said something along the lines that “Life is about creating good habits and avoiding bad habits.” I wholeheartedly agree!
 
The walk from my house in Japan to the dojo where I practice Aikido takes about 25 minutes. So every day, I listen to 25 minutes of pre recorded sentences from the Antosch and Lin website. This has really helped me to tackle Russian. THEN I try to recall it. Far better to recall a small chunk of info than to wade through a lot of information, which you cannot recall 20 minutes later!!!
 
Further to the idea of forming good habits with regard to language learning:
  1. Personally, I do not smoke or drink alcohol. I sincerely believe that both damage the brain. It is akin to keeping your amazing equipment in good working order.
  2. Exercise is very important. A good walk outside is sufficient. Oxygen is vital.
  3. Declutter your life and set clear goals. I am fond of Zen and I always liked the idea that Einstein had several sets of the same clothing so as not to clutter his mind with what he felt were trivialities. You will not find me dressed in anything other than blues and whites. (I have to admit though that trivia can be fun. I also find that music after learning helps memory somehow!)
 Parents should help their children to form good habits
 
I am thankful for my parents. My father was an educator. He taught me that learning was fun. He introduced me to various ideas; he often told me, “we are what we eat”, “a healthy body is a healthy mind”, “by night a man, by day a man”, etc. It was he who first gave me the desire to learn, who first introduced me to the power of the brain and who taught me simple mnemonics to remember school tasks. To this day, I still remember him teaching me, “Three old Angels, Sitting On High, Chatting About Heaven” as a way of remembering tangent is opposite over adjacent, sine is opposite over hypotenuse, cosine is adjacent over hypotenuse. With these foundations, it was easy to start to use mnemonics for language learning.
 
My mother was Dutch. Not only was she keen that I should know her language but she was also a linguistic role model for me as she was also fluent in English, German and French.
 
Summary
  1. Yes, forming early neurological pathways helps but we can form them at any time.
  2. Be positive. Believe you can learn.
  3. Find out how many total immersion hours are suggested to become fluent in your chosen language and just get on with it!
  4. Foster a desire to learn.
  5. Use mnemonics and any other memory aiding techniques that you can find out about.
  6. Repetition is good along with periods of rest every 25 minutes. Use music to relax. Recall is vital.
  7. Use modern technology like the Antosch and Lin website to do repetitive pronunciation practice. This gives your brain vital speech patterns to mimic.
In conclusion I always tell my students: Watch movies, listen to songs, speak, read and ENJOY!
3 Comments on Language Learning tips from polyglot Michael McCavish InGuest Post Language Learning
Oliver Antosch
February 24, 2015

Don’t talk to me in English

Olly Richards from IWillTeachYouALanguage.com wrote an interesting blog post about the problem of people answering back in English instead of the language you are learning.

So you want to practise a language but they answer back in English. What do you do?

Here is a short summary:

Strategy 1: Pretend you don’t speak English or pretend you speak it poorly.

Strategy 2: Explain to the person that you want to practise their language and ask them not to speak English.

Strategy 3: Go to a place where they don’t speak English, such as in rural areas.

Click here to read the complete post from Olly Richards.

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