Can music help me learn other languages? 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇮🇹
- Rubén Toledo
- Mar 15
- 1 min read
Updated: Mar 16
Have you ever found yourself singing a song in Spanish and suddenly understanding every word? According to an article in AE Idiomas, music is like a secret teacher who teaches you languages while you have fun. Think of it as a shortcut with linguistic benefits. Repetitive lyrics and catchy rhythms engrave vocabulary and pronunciations in your brain without you even realizing it, while melodies make phrases stick as if you were taking a screenshot. A study from the University of Edinburgh found that listening to songs in another language improves auditory memory and phonetics by up to 30%. So, if La Vie en Rose has you saying "je t'aime" like a native, it's music working its bilingual magic.

But it doesn't stop at just singing; music also connects you to the culture and even loosens your tongue. AE Idiomas emphasizes that exploring genres like rumba for Spanish or K-pop for Korean helps you absorb authentic expressions and accents that books don't provide. Imagine learning German with Rammstein or Italian with Bocelli: you not only understand the grammar, but you also feel the essence of the language. Researchers like Ludke (2014) found that students who use songs learn structures faster than with traditional methods. It's as if each chorus were a crash course: play, repeat, and soon you'll be chatting in another language as if you were born with it. Music ON, borders OFF!
References:
AE Idiomas. (n.d.). Art and Music in Education: Their Impact and Relationship with Language Learning. https://www.aeidiomas.com/blog/el-arte-y-la-musica-en-la-educacion-su-impacto-y-relacion-con-el-aprendizaje-de-idiomas
Ludke, K. M., Ferreira, F., & Overy, K. (2014). Singing can facilitate foreign language learning. Memory & Cognition, 42(1), 41-52. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-013-0342-5
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