The neurological links between language and music are vast but the basic thing to remember is that music activates more parts of the brain than language does, on both the right and left sides of the brain.
So if you remember something to a tune, you are more likely to recall the information than if you just read it or heard it spoken. Have you ever heard a song on the radio that you haven’t heard in a decade and you surprise yourself by singing all the lyrics? Learning the lyrics of a song helps you expand your vocabulary and teach you some slang/typical phrases.
Music and catchy jingles can stick in our minds for years while names of people, places, verb conjugation charts and memorized data can disappear.
There are different ways to incorporate songs in the process of learning a foreign language, but here is our recommendation to begin with:
1. Find songs in your target language that you REALLY like. Also make sure to find a song where the singer articulates well and it’s not too fast.
2. Write the lyrics. Yes, YOU write / transcribe the lyrics. After listening to the song(s) several times to get used to its sounds and melody, write the lyrics of the song while listening. You will have to pause the music and go back or repeat many times to get the words down. Some words will be hard to write because they may be idioms or slang that you haven’t learned yet, but just write as much as you can understand.
3. Compare the lyrics you wrote down with the original song lyrics and see how well you were able to understand the song. To find the lyrics go to this website
4. And now sing OUT LOUD. Sing a song enough times and you’ll find the new words and phrases will stick in your head, becoming almost impossible to forget (for better or worse…). Do this several times with different songs and your vocabulary will quickly increase.
5. … if you are learning SPANISH… you can take it yet to another level and join us at the next Salsa & Bachata DANCING night, as ALL songs are in Spanish you will have plenty of practice: September 12, starts at 10.30 pm. Free, open to public, at Muvico, 2nd floor, City Place, West Palm Beach.
Quite often we use sonsg in our language classes, to find more information about our (English as a second language) classes, click
Here some suggestions, if you need more ideas, please let us know at nk@multilingualsociety.org and we will be happy to send you more details / songs ideas.
Italian Andrea Bocelli "I live for you"
French Alain Souchon “Caterpillar”
Spanish Enrique Iglesias & Marco Antonio Solis "The Loser"
Romeos Santos “La Diable” for Bachata dancing
German Johanes Mayall "Einfach nur Away"