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Questions about Spain?
Write to David at:
dbolton99b@yahoo.es
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The musician's
language learning advantage:
More than just
"good hearing" |
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I have often been struck by the
many parallels there are between learning music and learning languages. They
say that musicians have a special talent for picking up new languages, and I
do believe that in general, this is true. I could name many famous classical
musicians who speak several languages with relative ease. Normally, we
attribute this ability to the musician's superior listening skills, and this
is no doubt part of it: the more we train ourselves to listen carefully, the
better we will be able to pronounce foreign words, for example.
But I think there are other reasons for this as well, apart from
more acute listening skills, that have to do with the way musicians practice
the music they will later play in public. I myself am a musician (a
harpsichordist), and I have often thought about exacly what steps I go
through to learn a piece. (Even if you do not play an instrument, don't
hesitate to read on: I promise not to burden you with any technical terms!)
When I decide to learn a piece of music, I first look it over, and
read (play) through it, in order to get a general idea of how I want to go
about practicing it. This is similar to when we first listen somewhat more
closely to a foreign language we would like to learn, and perhaps have a
look at some text in that language, too.
Upon starting with the "work" phase, I usually break the music down
into smaller parts, "phrases", or somewhat larger sections. Then, I begin
playing that section quite slowly, doing my best to make every note sound as
it should, since I want them to be clearly distinguishable, and also to fit
naturally into the phrase. If, after playing this section through the first
time, I hear that some things just don't "sound right", I begin to ask
myself why. Could it be that I am not shaping the phrase correctly? Perhaps
I'm placing accents where they don't belong? Or have I chosen to play
certain notes with the "wrong" fingers (that is, maybe it would sound more
natural if I played those notes with another fingering). At times, several
problems occur in one small section. Occasionally, what sounds like a big
problem can be smoothed out by making one seemingly minor change in how I'm
playing it. If I'm lucky, there aren't any problems at all: in this case,
I'll repeat the section a few times to get it "in the fingers" (another way
of saying "in my tactile memory"), and I then move on to the next section.
When I go about studying a language, I basically take the same
steps: I first look over the material I want to learn that day, then start
with a small section of it. I pronounce the new words. If I hear that they
somehow don't sound right, I analyze why this may be. Could it be that I'm
not forming my lips or mouth in the right way? Is the tongue positoned as it
should be to enunciate the sound well? When I've identified the problem, I
make corrections, and keep trying till I get it right. When I do, I'll go
over that section a few more times, then move on. Should a section be easy,
I don't spend much time on it, but continue with the next part.
In music, once you've worked through the entire piece section by
section, you naturally want to play it in its entirety. On a good day, it
will soon be sounding rather good. But on occasion, even though you've
practised every section carefully, the piece sounds somehow "funny" when you
play it through to the end. Maybe the tempo (speed) isn't right; you might
try to play it faster, or slower. Or worse: it could be that you suddenly
realize that your playing is devoid of all emotion! If so, it's best to take
a break and continue later, since it's hard to force yourself to "feel".
Something similar can happen with a language, and this phenomenon
never ceases to amuse me. Once, I had my French teacher go over a single
sentence with me. I insisted that she not be satisfied until I say every
single word exactly the way a Frenchman would. After some time, I was
able to say each word perfectly; she assured me that each word I uttered
sounded just like a Frenchman would say it. However, when I then said the
entire sentence, I had an accent: though each word was enunciated perfectly,
I didn't make the sentence "flow" the way a Frenchman would. It took a while
longer for her to teach me that, too. After a few more minutes of
"training", I got it right. I could say that sentence perfectly in every
way. But as soon as I read the next sentence, my non-French accent was once
again perfectly obvious!
Just as it's important to have the "feel" of a piece of music in
order to play it well, you must also learn the "feel" of a language. I think
that far too many people put off this phase of their foreign language
training for too long. If, from the beginning, you learn how to pronounce
not only the single words, but also entire sentences - getting the "feel"
for the proper "flow" of each phrase - you will have a huge head start as
far as true mastery of the language is concerned. Following the example
musician's give us will doubtlessly be of great use to you here:
- First, look over the material to be studied
- Listen carefully to how it should sound (with the help of a
teacher,
or CDs)
- Start with a small part, then, ask yourself if you're getting it
right
- If not, ask yourself why not, find out the reason(s), make
corrections and try again and again till it's as close to perfect
as
possible.
- Do the following sections the same way
- When you've finished the material you want to cover for that day,
go over it from beginning to end, to make sure you remember
it
well. Read everything aloud at a somewhat more rapid pace, making
sure that your pronunciation doesn't suffer while doing so.
And just as a musician will usually come back to the pieces he/she
learned during previous days or months in order to "freshen up" the music in
his/her mind, it will help you if, after working though a number of chapters
of your language book, you then go back to the beginning and start reviewing
the basics.
You may, or may not, have superior listening ability. No matter: if
you follow these steps in each and every one of your language learning
sessions, your speaking skills will no doubt improve. You'll see that you
don't have to be a musician to master your favorite foreign language!
Next article:
19)
Should we learn a
foreign language as children do?
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