LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE IS AS EASY AS DO-RE-MI
http://www.sptimes.ru/story/40035
Russian-American polyglot Susanna Zarayskaya believes that music is the secret to becoming multilingual
Learning a new language is difficult. It requires dedication, time and, most importantly, lots and lots of practice. Although English has become the lingua franca of the modern world, there are still many who cannot speak any more than several rudimentary phrases, but it is always well appreciated by the locals when visitors make any attempt to speak their language.
But is there anything that can make learning a foreign language easier? Susanna Zarayskaya, a Russian-American linguist who has been featured on the American news channel CNN as well as MTV, the BBC, MSNBC and Mexican television station Univision, and is also the author of the book “Language is Music,” believes that the secret to becoming a polyglot is more melodic than academic.
Zarayskaya, who was born in St. Petersburg but now lives in the United States, has studied 11 different languages and speaks eight fluently, including French, Spanish, Arabic and Hebrew, to name a few. She has given presentations to employees of the United States Department of Defense and has spoken at universities around the world.
She is also the co-producer of the documentary “Saved by Language,” which focuses on Moris Albahari, a Sephardic Bosnia who was only a boy during the Holocaust but was able to protect himself by speaking in a rare Judeo-Spanish language.
“Language is Music,” which has been recently translated into Russian, focuses on how music can be used to stimulate the brain in order to make remembering the more difficult aspects of a language easier. “Music activates more parts of the brain than language does,” she said. “When you hear a song in your target language, you are more likely to recall the lyrics than if you had just read the words in a book.”
“If the tune of a song is easy to remember, we are more likely to remember the lyrics and pronunciation. If a student is struggling with a certain grammatical rule and doesn’t understand how it is used, the best thing to do is to look for that grammatical pattern in song lyrics.”
Such an approach makes learning a language possible anywhere at any time, she made sure to mention. Television too can be an affective way to improve one’s understanding and ability to speak a language. “When we watch television, we see how people naturally move their mouths when they speak and we can learn to copy their mouth movements and gestures.”
It is not uncommon to hear people dismiss their own ability to learn a language, claiming they don’t have the ear for it. However, Zarayskaya believes this is false, although she did admit that some people have certain advantages over others when it comes to becoming fluent.
“I have a German friend who is deaf and she speaks English. So the excuse of ‘Oh, I don’t have an ear for languages and that’s why I am not good at languages’ is just an excuse not to try to learn a language.
“People with a musical background or who have grown up in bilingual or multilingual environments tend to have an advantage over non-music or monolingual people when it comes to learning a new language because they are used to listening for differences in sounds. However, not all bilingual people have an easy time learning a foreign language.”
While background is not the most important factor, one’s environment certainly plays an important part but such difficulties can be overcome with a bit of effort. “I became fluent in Italian without living in Italy,” Zarayskaya said. “Just by living in another country, one is not guaranteed to pick up the language by osmosis or just by daily interactions. Whether you live in the country where the language is spoken or whether you are studying at home or in a language class, you have to focus and surround yourself with the language as much as possible.
“Even passive listening to the radio in the background while you are washing your dishes helps your brain get used to the sounds of the language.”
Zarayskaya dismisses excuses when people say that one language is easier than another. The most important things in learning any language are motivation and a strong, honest desire to become fluent. “Pick the language that you want to learn and that interests you,” she said.
“When you learn a new language, you are teaching your brain to think in a different way so you need to make sure that you actually are motivated to learn the language, whether it’s for business, pleasure, love or some other reason. If you only focus on learning an ‘easy’ language that may not be of any importance to you, the language won’t be easy. What makes something ‘easier’ is one’s passion.”
“Language is Music,” by Susanna Zarayskaya. Mann, Ivanov and Ferber Publishing House, 2014