Why is it so Hard to Find Pop Music in Other Languages?

I remember learning hundreds of new words as I was listening to my favourite bands, reading the CD liner notes to understand the lyrics. Music is an amazing language learning tool. It gets your pronunciation into gear, it motivates you to open your mouth and sing, and of course it's fun so you'll be engaging again and again!

Listen to Lindsay Williams and me in Creative Language Learning Podcast episode 57 to discover:

• Why does pop music matter for language learning?
• What influence does the industry have for which music gets made and which doesn't?
• Why is English such a convenient language for pop music?
• How should you incorporate pop music into your language learning routine...or should you?
• Where can language learners find music in their own target language?
• Who are our favourite artists in other languages?

Links from this Podcast Episode

• How to Use Spotify for Language Learning
• Quora: Why do non-English speaking countries listen primarily to English-sung songs instead of producing modern/pop songs in their own languages?
• Guardian: Behind the music: What it costs European acts to sing in their own languages

  In dance music it's generally more important how lyrics sound than what they actually mean. Artists with English as a second language can be less judgmental about what's deemed a cliche.

• 10 Great Songs That Topped US Charts But Weren’t Performed In English
• Foreign language songs that got to Number 1 in the UK
• The Hottest German Lesson in Town: Deutschland 83 and Major Tom (PLUS Free Lyric & Vocab Sheet
• How I Built This, an NPR Podcast
• Honest Reggaeton (not 100% SFW)

The Biggest Pop Genres That Succeed in Other Languages

Latino pop

Notable collaborations include Despacito with Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee, Justin Bieber, and Bailando with Enrique Iglesias, Sean Paul et al.

• Alt.Latino Podcast
• Residente by Residente), an album exploring the artist's international heritage

K-Pop

• New York Times Popcast
• KCON Music Festival)

European Music and Eurovision

Check out Stromae, KRO, Prince Pi, Indochine, Robyn (in English).

• Our European Day of Music Live Episode
• Lindsay's #songsaturday Playlist

And I am delighted to sign off with one of the amazing "Moskau" performance by Dschinghis Khan:

Motivated by Vladimir Putin's Russian (with Kris Broholm)

In episode 55, friend of the show Kris Broholm from Actual Fluency joined me to discuss mindset and accountability in language learning that come from a place of reality and gentle confidence.

Tune in to hear us chat and share:

• Great advice for English speakers who want to have early success in a new language
• Language learning is such a complicated jigsaw puzzle, so how can we really track what we have actually learnt?
• Is it presumptuous, are you lacking humility if you set yourself a big, impressive goal?
• How the reason you are learning a language is DIRECTLY connnected to the success that you are going to have a week, 3 months, and perhaps 12 months down the line
• The one thing you MUST have in order to get language learning motivated - a sense of "this is who I am"

Four Tendencies in Language Learning

We revisit perspectives on the 4 tendencies framework Lindsay and I discussed in episode 32. Kris is on record as an Obliger, saying:

"It would be Embarrassing to tell people that I gave up."

You can take a test to determine your own tendency here.

Links From This Episode

• Vladimiar Putin interviewed by Oliver Stone (sadly, no bear or horse)
• The Language Habit Toolkit
• Gretchen Rubin
• Kris's Course Language Routine Mastery
• Clear the List on Kris's Actual Fluency blog
• The James Altucher Podcast

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Learning Languages at Intermediate Level: My Language Goals, Routine, and Progress in Detail

Unlike some learners who love to schedule a set routine, my study approach is a little more flexible. I have a variety of resources on the go and work with them all on a regular basis, but my routine currently doesn't contain large daily sessions or check-ins at a specific time.

In today’s article, I am going to show you how I make progress in my target language even without committing to daily routines. You’ll learn about my goals for April 2017, and how I fit in learning 2 languages at the same time.

I use the Language Habit Toolkit, a study system I created for learners like me who are self-guided and want to track flexibly.

Planning My Goals (But Not My Schedule)

I'm not the best with schedules and don't stick to them unless I must. This flexibility is a part of my habits personality, so it really shows up in almost anything I do. For example, I struggle take medicines at a set time each day and often forget the time once I am immersed in a task. Don’t get me wrong…I do schedule things a lot. I just don’t always keep my own appointments.

But even so, I don't want that to stop me from finding focus and progress in language learning. In the Toolkit, my focus is on the content of what I'm learning rather than how regular I am or how many sessions I complete each week.

If I know what I want to get done, I find that I automatically start finding the time to work on it. So rather than thinking "I will complete 4 hours of study this week", I focus on my goals and set myself many very small goals that I want to get done throughout the month.

The daily check-ins in the Language Habit Toolkit are very small. I have seen some learners create their own tracking systems like colour codes and legends, but personally I keep to noting "big session" or "small session. Since I started using the Language Habit Toolkit myself, I definitely have been better about checking in with languages every day and I've finally managed to organise myself enough to learn two languages: Welsh and French.

Example: My Welsh Learning Goals for April 2017

In my routine, I use the Language Habit Toolkit worksheet for setting path goals and getting a quick overview of what I want to achieve in the next month. Here’s what I wrote at the start of April:

“Right Now, I’m Working On…”

• Finishing Level 1 of Say Something in Welsh
• Regular language exchanges on Skype with Gareth from How to Get Fluent, which are increasing the length of time I feel comfortable holding a Welsh conversation
• Getting better at using pronouns and speaking/writing in the past tense

In 30 Days, I want to…

• Be done with Say Something in Welsh Level 1 (I actually wrote challenge 26 - turns out there are only 25! Bonus!)
• Be able to watch 5-10 minutes of TV in Welsh without subtitles
• Grow my vocabulary
• Understand how the one word past tense works

My theme for the month was to become more comfortable listening to Welsh even when I don’t understand everything. These were my larger goals, which I broke down into the four core skills.

My Language Learning Goals and Progress in Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing

Since we’re already through the month of April, I’ll tell you what the goals were and how it went:

Listening

• Listen to the Pigion podcast when it comes out (I’d been avoiding this one because it is still a little difficult for me, and as of April 30th I’ve listened to 3 out of 5)
• Watch 4 shows on S4C (I was procrastinating on this until my moment of joy…the show Ffasiwn Mecanic is back and I love it and today I’ll watch 3 and 4)

I even switched the subtitles off on Ffasiwn Mecanic and set a timer for 5 minutes, and I was able to understand 40% of what was said.

Reading

• Do a reading prep session from BBC Bitesize (this was a red herring - there aren’t any!)
• Review the hand-written vocabulary in my notebook and add more words (done! I did this in 2 sessions and added 20-30 new words for my vocabulary routine)

I actually read more outside of these goals, mostly Lingo Newydd magazine and news articles on the BBC Wales website, so for next month’s goals I can be more ambitious here.

Speaking

• Have 3 meetings with language exchange partners (not. a. single. one…we were both very busy, but next month we’re back to it)
• Record myself reading a poem (done)

Even though I didn’t meet any exchange partners, I started sending more voice messages in Tandem so I wasn’t entirely quiet.

Writing

• Put up a larger piece of writing on Reddit or Lang-8 (Reddit has writing prompts every week, and still I didn’t reply to them. Time to kick into gear.)
• Email my tutor and ask her to give me writing feedback (again, I neglected this over the month)

I did actually write in Welsh in April through text messages in Tandem, but I’ve been shy about sharing longer pieces. Another way to write more was to transcribe Say Something in Welsh’s levels, which really helps!

In terms of grammar, I did look up those confusing past tenses and found explanations that really helped in Wikibooks.

My Secondary Language: French

In French, my level is a passive B2/C1 and my main aim is to reactivate all those tired brain cells and speak French with less hesitation. I didn’t set myself any specific goals but scheduled in every Thursday as jour français. I read the French edition of Flow magazine, chatted to a new colleague in French, and followed Glossika Fluency 123 French. While I love the Glossika, I find its level a little low so I’m looking forward to more challenging Glossika content in the future.

It helps me to know that French is currently my “secondary” language, so I don’t scold myself for allocating less time to it. Perhaps in half a year, the languages I focus on are going to change as my Welsh skills become more solid, and I still have a lot of time for focusing on other languages in the future.

Overall, How am I Feeling After 18 Months of Welsh?

I’ve not really checked in in detail with my Welsh language skills for 6 months, but overall it’s feeling pretty great. I’m nearly starting Level 2 of Say Something in Welsh, and my conversation skills are improving a lot! Being at this more advanced level seems to mean that the structured resources are becoming more scarce.

Funnily, I worked so hard on creating the Language Habit Toolkit’s Review worksheet that I had not actually been able to use it myself yet! I’m really looking forward to working through all review questions and getting the next set of goals onto the road.

I’m looking forward to the next awesome events that are coming up, all of which are great chances to speak more in Welsh and French at the Polyglot Gathering in Bratislava, at Langfest in Montréal, and of course at the National Eisteddfod in Wales this year!

How Was Your Language Month?

What about you? What were your language goals in April? Are you tracking with the Language Habit Toolkit, or with your own systems? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

What Gets Easier When You Study More Languages?

When you are learning your first foreign language, everything feels bizarre. Somewhere in your mind, it seems nuts that you might know that language confidently one day.

You start to look around at multilingual people, you watch a few YouTube videos, read a few blog articles. There's clearly people out there who are learning languages. They seem to know more than just one or two - some people know more than 10 languages!

Like most polyglots, people often ask me how many languages I speak. But recently, I was asked one question that made me think more deeply about why and how learning more languages works for me:

Does it get easier when you are learning more languages?

The short answer is "yes". It definitely does.

Here are the things that are helpful, relevant, and different when you are learning your 7th language.

1) You Know What Language Learning Strategy Works For You

When I first started learning languages, there was one source of information that told me how to learn languages: my teacher. No one told me about the Goldlist method and Anki and even the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Sounds like I had all the chances to mess up, right? But my language isolation bubble had a silver lining: I had the freedom to develop a learning strategy that works for me. I simply discarded the things that waste my time, and perfected those that I need. I amused my mum with vocab sheets taped to the bathroom mirror. I tried, tested, and grew my own masterplan, learning to trust my instincts.

If you follow language learning blogs, you know that there are many methods out there. Bloggers like Benny Lewis advocate speaking very early in the process, others like Gabe Wyner talk about pronunciation above all things. What you discover over the course of many language learning years is that you are always doing it right. The doubt of whether you are using "the best method" simply goes away.

The big secret to learning any language is this: Just don't stop.

2) You Become Confident About Your Language Learning Skill

When people learn a language in school, they often experience languages in a box. They're are on the curriculum, so they're taught inside a classroom and rarely used outside of one. The idea that there are whole communities in the world actually living their lives in different words seems kinda nice...but what's it got to do with you?

Even at exam times, you're tested on theory and abstract skill. The exam papers are about correct grammar and vocabulary. That's undoubtedly important, but it misses out on the greatest part of learning a language: realizing that you can make an amazing connection, right now.

When you start out with your first language or even your first 2 or 3, there is that lurking question inside:

"Am I really able to do this?"

But as you stick with the process, here is what changes: It stops being a classroom exercise. No one who is learning a 5th or 6th has got there without finding a spark that brings their language out of the box. The spark is different for all of us, but once you've got it you know that "good performance" isn't the point. It's all about connection and trusting the process.

I no longer ask myself if I can do this. I know that, given time and dedication, I can learn any language to a very high level. And the reason I know this is because I know that it doesn't matter - I will always be doing this for myself, too. That's what the spark did for me.

3) You Realize There Are Always More Languages to Learn

No matter if you have learnt one language, or seven, or 20: There will always be more languages to learn. Being a prolific language learner is a lifetime commitment, a little like a lifestyle change. I have now realised that I am never going to learn all the languages that are on my list, because that list is forever going to grow.

Our planet and the human race are so wonderfully diverse. We are blessed with thousands of languages, communication systems and scripts. Once you dive into learning one or two of those languages, you enter this amazing world of human communication. And by language number 7, you'll have caught the communication bug.

Even the most multilingual people in the world know fewer than 100 languages. They're certainly not done. I stilll have to work hard to learn a new language, and I still feel like I know nothing. Achieve fluency in many languages - it will open your mind to what you don't know!

4) You Know Being a Polyglot Ain't Special

Learning foreign languages is an unusual hobby, and in monolingual cultures like most of the UK, it's even more of a rarity. At the same time, most people have touched a bit of a foreign language - enough to know that it can make your brain hurt. So the conclusion people draw becomes that it takes a special language gift (perhaps a different brain?).

I believe that learning many foreign languages is a wonderful and incredible achievement. The work, commitment, focus, and dedication of prolific language learners are incredible.

But know that there is no language gene, or polyglot brain. Someone who knows many languages is just as capable as you are. When you are on language number 5 or number 10, you're more efficient, knowing more about your own favourite methods. But it's still hard work.

So here's my bottom line: You should learn a language because it will show you incredible things about your own capabilities. There's nothing to it, really. Nothing you've not got already, anyway.

Which Good Lessons Can You Add?

I'd love to hear your stories in the comments below. And of course, stay encouraged and keep going. You can totally do this.

For more information about coaching and access to lots of free toolkits and worksheets, check out my book The Vocab Cookbook and hop onto the Fluent Language Newsletter today - can't wait to say hello to you on there!

The Secret Languages of Great Britain (with Simon Ager from Omniglot)

Episode 37 is brought to you by italki, where you can find a language partner for any language. We tested it with rare languages like Icelandic, and it totally delivered. Get an awesome free lesson deal at italki.

Today's Topic: Multilingual Britain

Britain is not monolingual at all, but in fact it is teeming with languages. In this episode, we present you the real landscape of languages spoken in the British Isles.

Can you guess how many languages are indigenous to this country?

We discovered some amazing things, not lastly you'll NEVER guess what Irish and Spanish bears have in common!

You'll be surprised to find that more than 2 million people in the UK speak British languages other than English. Here is a quick summary of the bigger groups of languages spoken in the UK - not just British languages, but also the immigrant languages most popular in the UK today, for example Polish, Gujarati and Urdu.

Listen to our podcast episode to get a wonderful tour of the British languages, including:

• What does it take to keep a minority language alive?
• Did you know there was a Scots dictionary - and how it's influenced the English language?
• Our pondering of the true official languages of Great Britain
• Turns out children really are the future when it comes to reviving languages that don't have native speakers anymore, for example Cornish

Lindsay does some amazing demonstrations of the Scottish language and accent. And Kerstin says her first "goodbye" in Welsh!

Links and Tips from This Episode

• Don't Neglect the UK's Indigenous Languages in the UK Guardian
• Blood of the Irish documentary series
• Speak Irish To Me, a podcast episode of "The World in Words"
• Irish PM refuses to speak English in parliament
• Language Death by David Crystal, a book covering endangerment and death of many minority languages across the world
• Ffasiwn Bildar "Fashion Builder", Welsh Language reality tv
• Omniglot, Simon Ager's absolutely amazing language encyclopedia on the internet - for example check out the Cornish language
• The British Term "chav"
• Why There Are Two Ways To Pronounce "Celtic"
• Hugo Scottish Gaelic in 3 Months - this is a link to Lindsay's old version
• Collins Gem Scots Dictionary

Which British Languages Did You Know?

You can get in touch with us and tell us what you thought by

1) leaving us an iTunes review by visiting our itunes page and clicking "Ratings and Reviews"

2) using hashtag #cllp on Twitter (I am @kerstinhammes and Lindsay is @ldlanguages.

And once again, thanks so much to our sponsors Italki - please support our show by visiting that link today.