My admiration for Dr. Oliver Sacks is no secret. He was just on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night talking about the effects of music on the brain. I am thrilled that he was discussing this on mainstream TV as more people watch The Daily Show than have read his excellent book, Musicophilia. He discussed that even after a stroke, people will still remember music even if they forget language. I wonder what would happen to someone who had learned another language through music. Would he/she have a better chance of retaining their language skills after a stroke?
Watch this clip from The Daily Show:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=231589&title=oliver-sacks
This man is a wonderful gift to humanity.
___
Susanna Zaraysky was inspired by Dr. Oliver Sacks' book, Musicophilia. She realized that she learned foreign languages like music. She's written a book, Language is Music, with tips on how to learn foreign languages using music and the media. She speak seven with almost perfect accents thanks to music!
June 30, 2009
June 23, 2009
Back in Sarajevo: Music jolts memory and language learning
Music must be one of the most powerful forces of nostalgia!
Yesterday, I had a lot of fun dancing to the gypsy music of Goran Bregović, a Sarajevo-born musician and composer. He has collaborated with Iggy Pop and Cesaria Evora and created the soundtracks for Emir Kusturica’s films (Time of the Gypsies, Arizona Dream, Underground).
While listening to the concert, I felt like I was back in Sarajevo in my small cottage learning the local language (Bosnian, Serbo-Croatian-Bosnian) from my dear Bosnian friend, Damir Imamović. He taught me to sing popular songs from the former Yugoslavia. We would sit by my small table with its plastic red table cloth trying to keep warm in the cold Balkan winter listening to songs on my small cassette player. Often, our “language lessons” turned into English language gossip sessions. I was supposed to teach him English poetry in exchange for Bosnian language lessons through music. Not only did I learn the language through music thanks to Damir, but we developed a profoundly deep friendship. He is the brother I never had.
Now, Damir has his own Bosnian music band, the Damir Imamovic Trio, and can help other people learn the language through his sevdalinke and traditional Bosnian music.
Music activates a part of our brains that not only ignites nostalgia, but also language memory. At the concert, the thoughts in my head were in Bosnian. That’s surprising since Bosnian is the language I speak the least. Because of Bregović’s music, I felt as though I had never left Bosnia and hadn’t forgotten any of the language.
Damir taught me to sing the sad Balkan love song, Ruzica. Unfortunately, Bregović didn’t perform this dear song last night. But I was singing it my head, just like I sang it on many a snowy night sitting on my lone heater by my window watching the snow fall on the well in my courtyard.
Music moves the soul and brings us back to the past.
—-Susanna Zaraysky blogs for about language learning and music. She has just published a book, Language is Music, about how to learn foreign languages using music, TV, film, radio and other low-cost resources.
Yesterday, I had a lot of fun dancing to the gypsy music of Goran Bregović, a Sarajevo-born musician and composer. He has collaborated with Iggy Pop and Cesaria Evora and created the soundtracks for Emir Kusturica’s films (Time of the Gypsies, Arizona Dream, Underground).
While listening to the concert, I felt like I was back in Sarajevo in my small cottage learning the local language (Bosnian, Serbo-Croatian-Bosnian) from my dear Bosnian friend, Damir Imamović. He taught me to sing popular songs from the former Yugoslavia. We would sit by my small table with its plastic red table cloth trying to keep warm in the cold Balkan winter listening to songs on my small cassette player. Often, our “language lessons” turned into English language gossip sessions. I was supposed to teach him English poetry in exchange for Bosnian language lessons through music. Not only did I learn the language through music thanks to Damir, but we developed a profoundly deep friendship. He is the brother I never had.
Now, Damir has his own Bosnian music band, the Damir Imamovic Trio, and can help other people learn the language through his sevdalinke and traditional Bosnian music.
Music activates a part of our brains that not only ignites nostalgia, but also language memory. At the concert, the thoughts in my head were in Bosnian. That’s surprising since Bosnian is the language I speak the least. Because of Bregović’s music, I felt as though I had never left Bosnia and hadn’t forgotten any of the language.
Damir taught me to sing the sad Balkan love song, Ruzica. Unfortunately, Bregović didn’t perform this dear song last night. But I was singing it my head, just like I sang it on many a snowy night sitting on my lone heater by my window watching the snow fall on the well in my courtyard.
Music moves the soul and brings us back to the past.
—-Susanna Zaraysky blogs for about language learning and music. She has just published a book, Language is Music, about how to learn foreign languages using music, TV, film, radio and other low-cost resources.
June 12, 2009
999,998... 999,999... 1 Million?
How many words are there in the English language? According to the Global Language Monitor, a website that has developed a mathematical formula for determining the rate of creation of new English words recently featured in an article on CNN.com, the count has just reached 1,000,000 this Wednesday. But are the building blocks of sentence formation really enumerable?
The Oxford English Dictionary contains 600,000 words. Most agree that the English language contains many words that haven't yet made it into the dictionary, particularly those which can be classified as jargon or slang. But how many more words exist beyond the clearly defined and universally accepted 600,000?
To even begin to conceptualize the answer to this question, one would have to clearly define what constitutes a word. The website's only prerequisite is that the word is understood in 60% of the English-speaking world. However, there are many adulterations of the English language that are widely understood while not quite reaching word status. Say "funnest" or "stupidest" anywhere English is spoken and rest assured you'll be understood, regardless of the fact that neither of the aforementioned utterences are considered words. And what if a word has many meanings in different contexts? The word "sketchy" can be used to convey the uncertainty of details or the discomfort of a situation. Would it be counted as one word or two?
While it is certainly an interesting idea, attempting to count the number of words in the English language is like attempting to count to infinity. Language is not a quantatative entity. What is important is not how many words exist, but what you can do with them.
-Nicole Gulotta
The Oxford English Dictionary contains 600,000 words. Most agree that the English language contains many words that haven't yet made it into the dictionary, particularly those which can be classified as jargon or slang. But how many more words exist beyond the clearly defined and universally accepted 600,000?
To even begin to conceptualize the answer to this question, one would have to clearly define what constitutes a word. The website's only prerequisite is that the word is understood in 60% of the English-speaking world. However, there are many adulterations of the English language that are widely understood while not quite reaching word status. Say "funnest" or "stupidest" anywhere English is spoken and rest assured you'll be understood, regardless of the fact that neither of the aforementioned utterences are considered words. And what if a word has many meanings in different contexts? The word "sketchy" can be used to convey the uncertainty of details or the discomfort of a situation. Would it be counted as one word or two?
While it is certainly an interesting idea, attempting to count the number of words in the English language is like attempting to count to infinity. Language is not a quantatative entity. What is important is not how many words exist, but what you can do with them.
-Nicole Gulotta
June 5, 2009
From Merengue to Borscht: learning Russian with Soviet Army music
There’s proof that music leads to learning!
Last week, I was helping my friend David Mathison at his booth at Book Expo America. David was selling his book, Be the Media, a guidebook for authors, musicians, film makers, radio hosts and other creative people to create their own media companies. David’s aim is for people to bypass the major music studios and publishing houses and distribute their own content using the Internet and social media marketing.
A man wearing a T-shirt with the word “BEAR” was admiring the stand. I asked him if he had any questions. Miguel Vargas-Caba, the Latin American man, was marveling at the book because he had self-published his own book, BEAR: Flight to Liberty, and had to learn about social media marketing all on his own. He was happy that David had written a book to help other authors use the Internet and technology to maximize their exposure. He reached into his bag and pulled out some papers describing his book about Soviet airline pilot defectors in the 1970s.
A Latin American man writing about Soviet defectors?
He has got to be Cuban, I thought.
Who else in Latin America could comprehend the mentality of Communist defectors but the cubanos, many of whom will risk their lives in makeshift rafts to escape the land of Castro?
I read in his papers that he began learning Russian by listening to Soviet Army music in the Dominican Republic.
“Do you speak Russian?” I asked him in Russian.
Perfectly formed Russian sentences flowed from Miguel’s mouth. His accent was excellent. I was shocked. (I am a native Russian speaker.)
How did a Dominican learn to speak such good Russian?
Music.
He’s never been anywhere in the former Soviet Union.
In addition to Soviet army music, he taught himself the language by using textbooks written for English speakers to learn Russian when he lived in the Dominican Republic. He lives in New York now.
I was beyond impressed. Russian is a very difficult language to learn and it’s rare to find people who learn to speak so fluently and gracefully without having ever stepped foot in the land of Peter the Great or in any former Soviet republics.
Miguel was more proof that yes, one can really learn to speak with a good accent by listening to music in one’s target language.
He also told me that listening to the army music aided him in understanding the Soviet mentality. Being able to “feel” the spirit of the army, helped Miguel craft the characters for his book about Soviet airplane pilot defectors whose plane crashed on the way to Canada. Music is not only an entry into the sound of a language, but also the soul and culture of the people who speak the tongue.
I am truly impressed with Miguel’s ability to learn Russian and patience for Russian melancholic music. I doubt I could listen to as much somber Russian music as he does! I teased him that he went from living in the sounds of happy merengue to borscht!
-- Susanna Zaraysky is a guest blogger on Leximo. She will publish her book, Language is Music, in June 2009. The book has over 70 tips on how to learn foreign languages easily using music, TV, radio, film and other free and low cost resources. She speaks seven languages (Russian, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, and English.) Her mission is for people to become confident communicators in foreign languages.
Last week, I was helping my friend David Mathison at his booth at Book Expo America. David was selling his book, Be the Media, a guidebook for authors, musicians, film makers, radio hosts and other creative people to create their own media companies. David’s aim is for people to bypass the major music studios and publishing houses and distribute their own content using the Internet and social media marketing.
A man wearing a T-shirt with the word “BEAR” was admiring the stand. I asked him if he had any questions. Miguel Vargas-Caba, the Latin American man, was marveling at the book because he had self-published his own book, BEAR: Flight to Liberty, and had to learn about social media marketing all on his own. He was happy that David had written a book to help other authors use the Internet and technology to maximize their exposure. He reached into his bag and pulled out some papers describing his book about Soviet airline pilot defectors in the 1970s.
A Latin American man writing about Soviet defectors?
He has got to be Cuban, I thought.
Who else in Latin America could comprehend the mentality of Communist defectors but the cubanos, many of whom will risk their lives in makeshift rafts to escape the land of Castro?
I read in his papers that he began learning Russian by listening to Soviet Army music in the Dominican Republic.
“Do you speak Russian?” I asked him in Russian.
Perfectly formed Russian sentences flowed from Miguel’s mouth. His accent was excellent. I was shocked. (I am a native Russian speaker.)
How did a Dominican learn to speak such good Russian?
Music.
He’s never been anywhere in the former Soviet Union.
In addition to Soviet army music, he taught himself the language by using textbooks written for English speakers to learn Russian when he lived in the Dominican Republic. He lives in New York now.
I was beyond impressed. Russian is a very difficult language to learn and it’s rare to find people who learn to speak so fluently and gracefully without having ever stepped foot in the land of Peter the Great or in any former Soviet republics.
Miguel was more proof that yes, one can really learn to speak with a good accent by listening to music in one’s target language.
He also told me that listening to the army music aided him in understanding the Soviet mentality. Being able to “feel” the spirit of the army, helped Miguel craft the characters for his book about Soviet airplane pilot defectors whose plane crashed on the way to Canada. Music is not only an entry into the sound of a language, but also the soul and culture of the people who speak the tongue.
I am truly impressed with Miguel’s ability to learn Russian and patience for Russian melancholic music. I doubt I could listen to as much somber Russian music as he does! I teased him that he went from living in the sounds of happy merengue to borscht!
-- Susanna Zaraysky is a guest blogger on Leximo. She will publish her book, Language is Music, in June 2009. The book has over 70 tips on how to learn foreign languages easily using music, TV, radio, film and other free and low cost resources. She speaks seven languages (Russian, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, and English.) Her mission is for people to become confident communicators in foreign languages.
June 3, 2009
Writers Wanted (No experience required )
Note: No experience required.
Do you love learning new languages? Whether you do it just to learn a bad word...or because you need it for a job; maybe you're just interested in learning new things. We all learn new languages for our own reasons. I have a question for you?
Are you a self proclaimed world traveler, or do you wish you were? Do you recollect about the different cultures you've immersed yourself in? Can you envision meeting people from all over the world and sharing your unique experiences with other people as passionate as you?
Its time for your experiences to grow out of your head; let those seeds blossom and share those experiences with the rest of the world.
We are pleased to announce that we are looking for passionate writers (no experience necessary) who enjoy learning new languages and sharing their experiences around the world. If you fit the bill and don't mind writing and the exposure that comes with it, then contact info [at] leximo [dot] org with your name and why you would love to write about this topic.
Do you love learning new languages? Whether you do it just to learn a bad word...or because you need it for a job; maybe you're just interested in learning new things. We all learn new languages for our own reasons. I have a question for you?
Are you a self proclaimed world traveler, or do you wish you were? Do you recollect about the different cultures you've immersed yourself in? Can you envision meeting people from all over the world and sharing your unique experiences with other people as passionate as you?
Its time for your experiences to grow out of your head; let those seeds blossom and share those experiences with the rest of the world.
We are pleased to announce that we are looking for passionate writers (no experience necessary) who enjoy learning new languages and sharing their experiences around the world. If you fit the bill and don't mind writing and the exposure that comes with it, then contact info [at] leximo [dot] org with your name and why you would love to write about this topic.
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