Language Through Sound: Using Music to Launch Your Language-Learning Journey

What You Will Learn?

• Do you like music? Do you want to learn a new language? If you answered yes twice, this class is for you!.
• This class teaches beginners how to apply active listening to music to develop (1) a deep auditory relationship with their target language and (2) direction in their language-learning journey..
• Why should I take this class?.
• 1. Formal & traditional language-learning approaches haven’t worked for me. .
• We didn’t learn our mother tongue by sitting down and memorizing vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, so why should we do that with another language right from the beginning? The first thing we did as babies was listen, so we’re going do that again, but this time, with some crutches to guide our learning process :).
• 2. I want to learn a new language but don’t know how to start..
• The cool thing about learning through music is that you don’t need to have any direction…you just need to start listening! The more you listen, you will start to see how your language-learning journey will gradually start to take its direction..
• 3. I like to arrive at conclusions on my own, not be spoon-fed answers..
• Learning through music requires you to connect some dots using context. This holds so much more weight than memorizing something. When you make your own discoveries, it is hard to forget what you have learned!.
• 4. I just want to get good at my target language, and I don't care how I get there..
• Learning through music is non-linear; it doesn’t necessarily follow a basic-to-advanced progression. You might be exposed to advanced topics as you listen but be unable to understand them. That’s ok. The moments you don’t understand something are the perfect indicators for what you need to explore later in your journey..
• Also, learning through music allows you to see the subtleties of language in action (i.e., accents, how the end of one word interacts with the beginning of the next word, etc.)..
• Is this class for me?.
• Yes, if you can answer ‘yes’ to this logistical question: Am I familiar with the script of the language I want to learn?.
• This class simply requires that you know what sound most of the letters make in the target language. You do not need to know how to read. If the language you want to learn has a script that is completely new to you, take some time to learn the script, then come back :) .
• Who should not take this class?.
• What skills will I have learned/developed by the end of the class?.
• Materials & Resources.
• Access to Spotify is helpful because it will facilitate your ability to search for songs you enjoy. BUT, if you do not have access, YouTube will work just fine :).