Language Learning & Music

The Telegraph article, Foreign languages are 'elitist' subjects, came out earlier this year in the UK showing that state jobs require foreign language knowledge while fewer school offer language classes. This means that more people...

New Haven schools get $1.3M for language studies; Chinese, Arabic to be expanded By the New Haven Register In Connecticut, the school systems is expanding its Chinese and Arabic language classes and including parents in the learning...

USA Today and Higher Ed report in the article, Colleges strive to make foreign languages relevant, that one college is finally getting it right and making foreign language education be more than just grammar and...

Having just read this article written by Nikita Khrushchev's great grand-daughter about how one of the Russian spies couldn't hide his Russian accent makes me both laugh and wonder why the Russian government spent...

For parents whose childrens' schools have cut foreign language education, it's imperative to use foreign language music, movies, TV and radio at home to keep their kids learning. A software program WON'T be enough. See...

Is America Experiencing a Creativity Bust? This is a great article from Newsweek about how too much standardization and rote memorization in school is bringing down our ability to think creatively. Foreign languages classes are often...

This Daily Show clip is hilarious! There is controversy at Hacienda Middle School in California. Some adults are afraid that having kids learn Mandarin will indoctrinate them into being Communists. It's sad to see that people are actually scared about this. McCarthyism all over again? Thanks Aasif Mandvi of the Daily Show for pointing out their idiocy.

However, when we are learning our second language, we rely more on declarative memory to learn grammar rules and structure rather than only by procedural memory. (In my words, we are like parrots than copy when we hear native speakers say.) This doesn’t mean that we can learn a language well without learning grammar and structure, but it shows that listening and repeating serve a real purpose in how we can learn the syntax and structure of a language. Listening to and repeating song lyrics CAN help us learn grammar!

Article: New study may revolutionize language learning The teaching of languages could be revolutionised following ground-breaking research by Victoria University, New Zealand, PhD graduate Paul Sulzberger. Dr Sulzberger has found that the best way to...

In his book, Healthy Aging, Dr. Andrew Weil recommends learning a foreign language as a way to prevent Alzheimers. From the ABC News story, "Learning a Foreign Language Can Help You Live Longer": "Weil believes that...