Connecting the Dots - Learning a Language
The January / February 2017 issue of “Scientific American Mind” had an article “How to Learn a New Language”. Here is an important aspect of learning a new language not mentioned in the article. It is all about the connecting dots. I left the US at the age of 22 speaking only English. Through the years I lived in seven countries. As all the experts tell us it is much greater challenge to learn languages as an adult. This is what I found. It can be very boring to practice phrases in a new language over and over. Then it is recommended that one compare one’s pronunciation with a recording of native speaker. Here is my successful approach that anyone can do. Learn five to ten different songs in the language. Several things occur. When you sing along with the artist you are comparing, contrasting and matching, in real time, the pronunciation, tonality, timing, color, flow and speed of the artist. Vocabulary and sentence structure comes along with the process. They are in every-day human language, feelings and thoughts. This is much more enjoyable that monotonously repeating phrases without guidance.
The singing method, when you think about it, is similar to how we learn languages as children. We mimic those around us as well as learn children’s songs. We did so well that we learned a language. Nobody taught us. Additionally, we heard our mother’s singing to us though out infancy. There are further connections. In the English-speaking countries how did we, as children, learn the alphabet? We sang it. We never forget the melody (or the letter and order of the alphabet). Next is an even more substantial observation. Individuals with Alzheimer progressively loose most of their memory. They eventually forget the names of their children and spouse. it is well documented they rarely forget the lyrics to songs. I mentioned this to a woman visiting Houston from England. She happened to work in an Alzheimer’s facility and she has an Alzheimer’s choir. Who knew? I later mentioned this to a women who was originally form Nigeria. She was in her early forties and had lived in the United States for twenty-five years. She could relate to this phenomenon. She said that her language ability in her native language had faded but she could remember all the lyrics of Nigerian folk songs she had learned before she left Nigeria. We apparently embed and retain language through singing. Connecting the dots leads to the question, why isn’t language introduced in Pre-K, K-12, colleges and universities in this manner? “The aspects of things that are most important to us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity." Ludwig Wittgenstein
