Language and Music

It has pretty much been proven through scientific study that people who learn music tend to do better at math and acquire foreign language skills more easily. For instance, my last teacher, Dr. Stefan Bardas, was fluent in four languages. He grew up in Germany, studied in Italy, came to the United States and eventually settled in El Paso where he picked up his fourth language, Spanish.

Now I have the ability in math and critical thinking but for some reason I have not been very successful with languages. I have been working on Spanish for years now and still do not feel confident enough to add "I speak Spanish" to my resume. I have used several workbooks, an app on my phone, private lessons, and watched a lot of novellas on television and although I know a lot of vocabulary and grammar, I am pathetic at speaking the language and often at a loss when spoken to in Spanish. Not to appear totally worthless after so much effort, I can read pretty well.

Many European schoolchildren learn English in school and are remarkably fluent. I believe that every child should be exposed to music and I also believe that it is important to acquire another language. Since this is something that I do pass on to my students, I would at least like to set an example myself. My duolingo app is helpful but I will probably not use many of the phrases I've learned such as "I drink juice" and "The duck eats bread" but when trying to speak, my mouth has a lot of difficulty forming the words and I'm sure my accent is atrocious. One native speaker asked me if I was from Germany when I did finally get up the nerve to say something in Spanish.

Another skill acquired from learning music, however is discipline and a life-long quest for knowledge. I have every intention of becoming a proficient Spanish speaker at some point. Then who knows-maybe French, Italian and Croation. (Places I want to visit someday). In the meantime, it has become a useful tool for my teaching. My students see that I practice and work hard at learning just like they do and that study is on-going no matter what your age. Soon I hope to blog bilingually! I'll keep you posted on my progress and please comment if you have your own story, successful or otherwise.