Recently I’ve begun studying Spanish. This has been a long-standing desire, and my goal is to eventually achieve decent proficiency. A few nights ago, I made a late-night iTunes buy that has proved alternately amusing and effective.
First, let me explain: I’m a musical person and find that using music has always been an effective way for me to retain anything. I sang in choirs from a young age, and it was there I was introduced to foreign languages — whether via Rachmaninoff’s Chichester Psalms, Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Dutch lullabies or Ghanian wedding songs. Throughout high school and college, I performed in such choirs, as well as musicals. Later, I would sing jazz and Chinese pop music at the Swissotel in Dalian. And when I first undertook my study of Chinese I would make songs for useful phrases such as, “到站请告诉我下车好吗？” (Please tell me when it’s my stop, ok?) Imagine it as a string of half and quarter notes with stress on the first beat in an oddly patriotic chord progression de capo.
Ok, so to make a short story short, I bought the Spanish edition of Earworms Learning, which pairs language to electronic music in a coordinated way. Although, when considering there were no supplementary visual materials thrown in, the thing was overpriced — c’mon $19!– I’ve found that while flooded with tunes I could never more than ironically dance to at a club, I’m learning to ask whether there’s a pharmacy nearby. And there’s no plunky “dong, dong, dong, dong” chime in between lessons, as seems to be the case with most any language tape that I’ve ever encountered, thus not making it especially pleasant to listen to at night before settling in. Additionally, sometimes it’s just downright hilarious, though seemingly unintentionally so.
It’s a shameless plug, but I think I’m contractually required to mention SpanishPod.com. :)
I’m thinking about picking up a little French (we’re launching FrenchPod on Monday). Is there an Earworms French?
John B
May 10th, 2008