One way to increase your rate of learning spanish is to make deeper connections to new spanish vocabulary.
If you can create a strong new memory every time you discover a new word in Spanish your rate of learning would increase.
How then can you make stronger connections to new vocabulary?
It’s starts with a quick look at how we evolved. In this week’s mindset podcast, I talk about how evolution has given us one tool for making deep and longer lasting memories.
This episode was inspired by an old post. In that post I talked about how our emotions can be useful when it comes to making new memories.
Can you remember what you did last friday? How about what you were doing 3 tuesdays ago?
What you may find is that if the day wasn’t associated with a particularly strong emotion you will forget what happened. If, in contrast, you think back to an emotional day like a holiday, a wedding or a birthday you will be able to remember that day more clearly.
You can then take this idea and apply it to the language learning process. What you have to do is find a good way to link new spanish vocabulary to your emotions.
There are a number of ways to do this. But one way, that most students would find easy, is listening to music. If you can find a Spanish song that moves you, then you can learn the lyrics to the song and combine the emotion of the song with the new vocabulary.
I have provided 6 songs that have moved me in some way. Some songs make me sad, some happy, some are just really fun.
Have a listen to these songs to start. Then if you find the method effective and enjoyable look for other songs to practice with.
Shakira – “Rabiosa”
You can follow along here: Lyrics.
Cienfue – “Medio Alcohólico Melancólico”
You can follow along here: Lyrics.
El Guincho – “Bombay”
You can follow along here: Lyrics.
Marisol – “Corazón Contento”
You can follow along here: Lyrics.
http://youtu.be/9MSav8_POlo
Vetusta Morla – “Valiente”
You can follow along here: Lyrics.
Calle 13 – “Latinoamérica”
You can follow along here: Lyrics.
Quote from the episode:
“Music may be the activity that prepared our pre-human ancestors for speech communication and for the very cognitive, representational flexibility necessary to become humans.” ― Daniel J. Levitin
What other Spanish music do you like? What other ways can you strengthen the memory of new spanish vocabulary?
Podcast: Play in new window
Great episode, Andrew!
I just had an aha moment! I was following you: “the most vivid autobiographical memories tend to be of emotional events, which are likely to be recalled more often and with more clarity and detail than neutral events”, and telling to myself “Yes, I know that, I have experienced it myself”. And I knew we can remember language items such as vocabulary or grammar rules easier when they are linked to an emotional event. It happens to me with German, which I mostly learned while living in Berlin. In some cases I can recall the exact situation in which I learned a concrete word or expression: when, where, with whom I was, what we were doing…
But I was going to ask you: “How are you going to intentionally provoque that process?” Because you can’t totally predict if an event is going to have a strong impact on you.
And then you come with the idea of working with songs. That’s brilliant! I mean, I have learned languages with songs, and recommended some of my students to learn Spanish with songs, but just because song lyrics are catchy, so they are easier to remember than a written article, for example, and then we just have to add the meaning to the words we already have in our heads. I wasn’t thinking about the emotional part. And it’s easy to say if a song touches you or not.
¡Gracias!
Thanks Jorge. I’m glad to hear that you had an aha moment. This technique has helped me a lot so it’s great to hear that it works for you.
Yes, I agree you can easily pick up Spanish words from songs, particularly the words in the choruses because they are usually the clearest and easiest to sing along with. I like to listen to Los Cafres, Orishas, J. Alverez and Calle 13 as well. It is really cool when you start to find music you really enjoy that is in Spanish. I also found it took me a little bit of time for my ears to accept the musical styles of latin america. Salsa for example, is a new style of music that is completely different that what I have heard most of my life, so it took time for me to develop a taste for it.
Nice Amy, thanks for the suggestions. It’s true the music of the spanish world can be a little different to what we are used to. But, as you mentioned, it is possible to develop an ear for it.