*CLICHE ALERT*



I know, I know, "music is the way to people's hearts" and it's "a universal language". You've probably heard this a million times. But today I write this blog to show you a bit of how music helps your foreign language acquisition and makes your life just much more fun! Music, like any art form, is a gateway into a culture, and it says a lot about the context it was composed in.



Music also helps you keep motivation up when you're just done with declension tables and adjective endings (WHY DOES GERMAN HAVE SO MANY DEFINITE ARTICLES?!).



There are both active and passive ways in which you can employ music to learn languages, but first, you need to learn what kind of music you like in the other languages. Down below I'll share a couple of playlists I built as a sort of introduction to the music of diverse languages.



How does music help me learn a language?



Bella domanda! If you are willing to put in the work while listening to music in your target language, there's a number of ways you can use this to your advantage:

Create flashcards with the new vocab you run into: If you're listening to a song and there's a word you haven't heard before, make a flashcard out of it, physical flashcards are great, but I'm a mess so I use Anki or Quizlet. This is a good idea when encountering new words under any context. Another tip I can give you; is going to Google Images and google the new word before translating it, that way your brain will associate the word with an image, instead of having to translate in your head every time.



with the new vocab you run into: If you're listening to a song and there's a word you haven't heard before, make a flashcard out of it, physical flashcards are great, but I'm a mess so I use Anki or Quizlet. This is a good idea when encountering new words under any context. is going to Google Images and google the new word before translating it, that way your brain will associate the word with an image, instead of having to translate in your head every time. Sing along : Be it in the shower, your car on your way to work, or in bed on a lazy Sunday morning, sing along! Not only you'll impress your peers by singing in a foreign language, but from singing along with the music you're listening to, you'll eventually start getting a feel for the rhythm of the language, and the sounds employed in it. I confess that the first German song I learned was the infamous "Atemlos Durch die Nacht" by Helene Fischer (think of Shake it Off by Taylor Swift, but with more Apfelstrudel), and while that might be a bit embarrassing, it really helped me get used to the sounds used in German and practice pronunciation.



: Be it in the shower, your car on your way to work, or in bed on a lazy Sunday morning, sing along! Not only you'll impress your peers by singing in a foreign language, but from singing along with the music you're listening to, you'll eventually start getting a feel for the rhythm of the language, and the sounds employed in it. I confess that the first German song I learned was the infamous "Atemlos Durch die Nacht" by Helene Fischer (think of Shake it Off by Taylor Swift, but with more Apfelstrudel), and while that might be a bit embarrassing, it really helped me get used to the sounds used in German and practice pronunciation. Slang!: The sort of language you encounter in music might not always be the sort of language you'll find in textbooks. This is something that works especially for newer music (unless you want to sound like a Sicilian factory worker from last century, or a painter from La Belle Epoque. Which if it's your thing, then that's rad man, groovy)





The sort of language you encounter in music might not always be the sort of language you'll find in textbooks. This is something that works especially for newer music (unless you want to sound like a Sicilian factory worker from last century, or a painter from La Belle Epoque. Which if it's your thing, then that's rad man, groovy) Translate songs as fast as you can!: This one is kind of nerdy, but I am a nerd, and if you've made it this far, then you probably are one as well. While I was learning German and Italian, I'd pick a hit song, play it with my guitar and sing it in the target language. Ask anyone about my legendary renditions of "Sehr sehr langsam" be Henrik Kirchen (Despacito - Enrique Iglesias) or Der Wissenchaftler by Kaltspiel (The Scientist - Coldplay). It is as ridiculous as it sounds, but trying to translate the song as I sang it without falling behind really got my brain working. If you can't play an instrument, who cares? Get yourself the Karaoke track and sing the night away!

I've built a couple short playlists for some popular languages right now, with some of my favourite songs in each of the languages. If you like a song, explore similar music and let me know what you find! As a classical musician, I've snuck in a couple of Arias and Art Songs, which I hope you will also enjoy.