We all listen to music for a number of reasons. Classical tracks can soothe the soul after a particularly stressful day at work. Love songs provide a soundtrack to the great romances of our lives (and even the breakups that sometimes follow). Upbeat dance music helps us to get into the mood for a big night out with friends. Meanwhile, a pounding rock anthem can spur us on as we hit the gym the next day and try to work off those beer calories.

 

喜欢听音乐，我们都能说出很多理由。古典天籁能为饱受负薪之忧的灵魂带来片刻抚慰。传世情歌更是世间美妙爱情的最佳伴奏，纵使人有离合，但情歌不渝。动感舞曲让我们在夜晚情绪高涨携友尽欢，狂欢夜之后，它还能让你在健身房燃起斗志，将前夜的酒精卡路里挥洒殆尽。

 

However, can music inspire learning? And, more importantly, can it aid you as a language learner? To celebrate World Music Day on Tuesday, June 21, we’re going to look at why you should absolutely be using music to become a more proficient language user. This article will help you to understand the benefits of incorporating songs as an integral part of your learning routine. Despite the obvious benefits of picking up new vocabulary, improving your pronunciation skills and learning useful idiomatic language, we’re also going to focus on how music can act as the inspiration to begin a language learning journey in the first place.

 

不过，在学习中音乐是否还能如此鼓舞人心？更甚者，它是否让学习者也同样受益？为了庆祝即将来到的世界音乐日（6月21日星期二），让我们一起来了解为什么应该借助音乐的魔法，让自己进化成语言学习老鸟。阅读这篇文章，会帮助你了解在你学习进程中加入点“伴奏”，会让你尝到什么“甜头”。掌握新词汇，提高发音技巧，学会实用的习语，这些凡眼能看到的好处当然无需多说。文章的焦点在于：当站在语言旅程的起点，如何借助音乐的东风冲出你的第一步。

 

The Alphabet Song

 

字母歌

 

Anyone remember The Alphabet Song? The memorable melody that accompanies learning the alphabet is a firm fixture of early childhood education simply for the fact that it turns a fundamental building block of language learning into a fun and easy sing-along song. It’s no coincidence that teachers of dozens of world languages utilise this catchy tune to help children take their first steps towards becoming literate. Here it is in French, German and Chinese, for instance.

 

有谁还记得字母歌？朗朗上口的旋律，结合语言中最基础的元素，浓缩进一首有趣易学的歌曲中，是早教中的必修课。所以，包括法国，德国，中国在内的全世界的老师们都不约而同的用这首传唱度极高的歌曲来帮助孩子们学习字母，迈出学习语言的第一步。

 

Perhaps you’re also familiar with the nursery rhyme This Old Man. This time, it’s not the alphabet we’re surreptitiously teaching children through the power of song, but how to count from one to ten. Each verse rhymes a number with an object (one and thumb, two and shoe, etc.) to turn number learning into a catchy rhyme, all while incorporating strong visual imagery.

 

或许你还听过另一首童谣，《This Old Man》。在这首歌里，音乐的魔法不是让孩子学会字母，而是教他们从1数到10。歌曲中的每一个小节都将数字与物品押韵成联。（比如一和拇指，二和鞋子等），用朗朗上口的韵律和生动的画面来学习数字。

 

So, why are funny little songs such a mainstay of infant language learning around the world? Well, the answer to that has its roots in how the brain processes music.

 

不过，为何这些有趣的儿歌成了世界各地婴儿们的语言启蒙的基石？归根结底，在于我们的大脑处理音乐的方式。

 

Music engages multiple brain functions that deal with emotion, memory, learning and plasticity (the ability of your brain to physically alter in response to stimuli). By the simple addition of a catchy melody or rhyming couplets, we can learn long strings of information (in this case the letters of the alphabet or the first ten numbers) much more easily than we could by simply attempting to memorise them unaided.

 

音乐能激发大脑的多重功能，包括感知力，记忆力，学习力和应变力（大脑对刺激做出的物理改变的能力）。与单纯的死记硬背相比，只需简单的增加一个朗朗上口的旋律或者对偶句，我们就能轻松学会一长串的信息（比如字母歌和一到十）。

 

In other words, we’re “tricking” the brain into remembering things that it would otherwise struggle to retain.

 

简单的说，我们通过一些辅助手段“诱使”大脑记住一些原本很难记住的信息。

 

A simple experiment

 

一个简单的实验

 

Try out this experiment: think about your favourite song and your favourite movie. Now write down all of the song lyrics that you can remember. I bet it’s quite a few. In fact, how many of the lyrics can you remember from other songs by the same artist? Certainly the choruses, and probably many of the verses as well.

 

试试这个实验：想一首你最喜欢的歌或者一部最喜欢的电影。现在，写下所有你能记住的歌词，我敢打赌，你肯定能记住不少。事实上，这个歌手的其他歌曲的歌词你能记住多少呢？副歌部分肯定没问题，可能还能记住不少其他的歌词。

 

As a comparison, how much dialogue do you recall accurately from your favourite film? I’m sure you know the plot pretty well, but the actual lines spoken by the characters? Certainly for me it’s no more than an exchange or two and only includes a few words, despite the fact that I’ve watched my favourite film probably dozens of times.

 

现在让我们来比较下，你最喜欢的那部电影里的台词你又能准确的回忆出几句？我相信对于剧情发展你肯定了如指掌，但是演员们说的台词呢？至少就我个人而言，尽管那部电影我看了数十次，但是只能记住的台词也就那么几句，或者就几个单词。

 

Imagine now being able to apply that power of vocabulary retention to your target language. By engaging with foreign language music, you’re taking a shortcut to learning whole heaps of new language. Naturally, vocabulary is a very large part of this. Yet, it’s not the only benefit. We learn pronunciation, how to emote with words, sentence stress and much more by engaging with songs in our target language. The benefits of music do not end there, however.

 

想象一下，现在，我们可以把这个词汇记忆的能力用于目标语言的学习。通过外语歌曲这一捷径，来整体学习新语言。自然而然，词汇在语言学习中占了很大的比重，可是借助音乐来帮助学习外语的好处不仅仅只在于词汇，通过聆听目标语言的歌曲，我们学会发音，如何表达感情，句子重音及其他更多的东西。并且，音乐的益处还远不止这些。

 

The power of music to inspire

 

音乐的激励力量

 

Music often has a unique place in people’s hearts for its visceral ability to evoke strong emotions. This is a major strength when it comes to finding the motivation to learn a language. A friend from Peru once told me that, essentially, his English abilities came from a childhood obsession with The Beatles and that he would fastidiously copy down their lyrics before he even knew what they meant.

 

音乐往往在人们心中占有一席之地，因为它本身具有的能唤起人们情感共鸣的神奇的能力。这无疑是激励人们学习一门新的语言的一个很重要的动机。我的一个秘鲁朋友曾经告诉我，从本质上来说，他的英语能力来自于幼时对披头士的痴迷，尽管他不知道歌词的具体含义，但他会仍工工整整的把披头士的歌词抄写下来。

 

Over time, he began to pick up more and more vocabulary until he could incorporate it into his existing speaking skills. Even after years of learning the language, you could still hear the remnants of his early obsession when he’d begin a sentence with a phrase picked up from a Beatles’ song. His language learning was never inspired by a strong desire to master English, it was inspired by a love for a band and an enthusiasm for understanding what these strange Liverpudlians were singing about.

 

随着时间的推移，他学会的单词越来越多，直到他能将这些词语融汇到他现有的说话技巧中去。 即使经过了多年的学习，可当你听到他引用披头士的歌词来开始他的讲话的时候，你仍能感受到早期对披头士的迷恋对他的影响。他学习英文的动力从来不是那股强烈的想要掌握英语的欲望，而是对这支乐队的热爱，以及那股想要知道这群奇怪的利物浦人到底在唱些什么的热情。

 

My own language learning took a similar direction when I was introduced to the music of Luis Alberto Spinetta, an Argentinian singer and guitarist who blended melodic rock with jazz influences. Although I was keen to learn Spanish, studying was always a chore until I discovered songs such as Cantata de Puentes Amarillos and Todas Las Hojas Son del Viento. All of a sudden, my language acquisition went into overdrive as I searched for translations of his lyrics and began to pick up vocabulary from singing along.

 

我自己的语言学习经历也与此类似。虽然我渴望学好西班牙语，但是学习于我而言一直是个苦差事，直到我听到了Luis Alberto Spinetta 的《Cantata de Puentes Amarillos》和《Todas Las Hojas Son del Viento》。来自阿根廷的Luis是一名歌手，也是一名吉他手，他的音乐混合了受爵士影响的旋律摇滚。我开始搜索他的歌词，并通过跟着他的歌哼唱学会了不少新单词，这就仿佛突然之间我的学习进入了开挂的模式。

 

This perfectly demonstrates the power music has to inspire learning. All of the “sensible” reasons for learning (future employment opportunities, the ability to live in a foreign country, etc.) were nowhere near as effective at motivating my language learning as wanting to sing along to my new favourite songs.

 

这些例子充分说明了音乐对学习的巨大动力。无论是未来的就业机会，还是能在异乡生活的能力等，所有的这些“明智的”学习动力，它们的激励作用都不及想要跟着我最新的最喜欢的歌曲唱来的有效。

 

Any learning technique that works

 

不管黑猫还是白猫，能抓老鼠的就是好猫

 

What’s the most effective method of studying? Academics would argue that it depends greatly on the type of learner you are. Are you a kinesthetic learner (meaning hands on, physical activities get your brain engaged) or an auditory learner (meaning listening tasks really work wonders)? Perhaps you’re a visual learner who reacts positively to images and graphics? Or a reading-writing learner who (you’ve guessed it) finds text to be the trigger for learning effectively. These types of learners all respond slightly differently to different types of activities and study routines. Nevertheless, I would argue that the most effective method of studying is the one that you return to time and again, whatever that happens to be.

 

什么才是最有效的学习方式？ 专家们总是说的头头是道，这取决于你是怎样的学习者，是触觉学习者（亲身实践，亲自动手的学习方式能更好的调动你的大脑积极性）还是听觉学习者（通过听力练习，你能创造学习的奇迹）？或者你属于对图像和图形反应积极的视觉学习者？又或者是阅读 — 写作型学习者， 学习课本会更有效率。所有的这些不同类型的学习者，对于不同的学习活动和方式的反应都略有不同。但是，在我看来，不管是什么样的方法，亲测可行的才是最好的。

 

Music is simply pleasurable. And when your brain associates something with pleasure, it’s more likely to trigger the enthusiasm to engage with it. Whether you’re learning Arabic or Afrikaans, Cantonese or Catalan, you’ll be able to find a rich musical history existing within that language’s culture. Who knows, you may just find your new favourite artist or a song that hits an emotional chord like no other.

 

音乐的快感很纯粹。当你的大脑将某物和快感相联系的时候，这更能引发你的热情以投入其中。无论你学习的是阿拉伯语还是南非荷兰语，粤语还是加泰罗尼亚语，都能在其文化中找到丰富的音乐历史。或许你能找到一个新的最喜爱的艺术家，又或者是一首歌曲，它点开你内心深处那个从未被碰触的地方，这一切又有谁能预料呢？

 

So, how are you going to discover this new world of musical delights? Well, italki is the perfect place to start. By providing the opportunity to connect with native speakers from around the world, italki gives you an incredible resource for making musical connections. Why not introduce yourself to someone learning your mother tongue by sending them a list of your favourite songs? Or get in touch with a native speaker of your target language and find out what they’re listening to at the moment? Sharing musical recommendations is a great way of building rapport with people from all over the world.

 

那么，你该如何去探索音乐的乐趣给你带来的新世界呢？italki无疑是个理想的起点。在italki你能找到来自世界各地的母语用户，意味着你会拥有无限以乐会友的资源。为什么不通过发送你喜欢的歌单来和正在学习你的母语的用户做朋友呢？又或者是和那些说你正在学习的目标语的用户聊聊，看看他们此刻正在听着哪些音乐？分享音乐是和世界各国人民融洽相处的最好的方式之一。

 

Maybe you’ve been dying to introduce people to a little known favourite singer or band. Feel free to recommend them in the comments below. Remember to include a song you particularly like and which language the artist sings in.

 

也许你一直渴望向人们介绍那些你非常喜欢却鲜为人知的歌手或乐队。请在文章下方的评论区里畅所欲言，请记住，推荐一首你特别喜欢的歌，并介绍一下歌手是用哪国语言唱的。

 

Image Sources

 

Hero Image by Ralph Schulze (CC BY 2.0)