Everyone has their own favorite ways to learn a language. The thing that works for me a lot is music! It works amazing and it is a lot of fun:)

One of the first steps to learning a language is figuring out where one word ends and the next one begins. Since fluent speakers don’t generally pause between words, it can be a daunting task.

Image by Christiana Care on Flickr.com

Certain syllables are likely to follow each other within individual words, but unlikely to follow each other between words. Take the phrase “between words.” In English, within a single word we’re much more likely to hear bet followed by ween than ween followed by wor.

Researchers have found that if you make up nonsense words like gimysi and mimosi and play a constant stream of these words to listeners, the listeners will eventually figure out the boundaries of the words based solely on the statistical properties of the words.

Music plays an important role in language. Similar areas of the brain are activated when listening to or playing music and speaking or processing language. Language and music are both associated with emotions.

Have you ever heard a song on the radio that you haven’t heard in a decade and you surprise yourself by singing all the lyrics?

Music and catchy jingles can stick in our minds for years while names of people, places, and memorized data disappear. Music engages more areas of the brain than language does.

Don’t focus your language learning on vocabulary lists and grammar charts. Get the beat on and add some music, TV, radio and movies. I’ve met people who have learned almost perfect American English accents by watching TV shows from the US. They didn’t get their accents from their English teachers in school. They were having fun being entertained and learned American pronunciation in the process. I’ve also met people who have learned Spanish and Portuguese from Latin American telenovelas. All of these people had never lived in the Americas. They learned through the media. So can you!

Let us know what helps you the most with learning languages? Is it music, pictures, books, conversations, travel?

What is you key to learn a language?