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Turn up your radio!
Music is a language nearly everyone can understand, and you'd be surprised how great it can be for language learning. Find an online radio station, or scan the dial. (You have it made if you're studying Spanish in the United States: there's a Spanish language radio station to be found in nearly every part of the country.) Browse your local music store for CDs by artists native in the language you're learning. Find a song you like and put it on repeat. Many CDs have liner notes with printed lyrics, and if they don't appear in the liner notes, chances are someone has posted the lyrics online. Seek out popular modern music. Folk songs are great, but the language might be dated. And while it might be easy to decipher the words in rap music, the slang is sometimes beyond even native speakers' comprehension. Look for songs you already know, or artists who sing in a very straightforward version of the language. Jacques Brel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas" for French; Nena's "99 Luftbalons" for German; "Youm Wara Youm" by Samira Said and Cheb Mami (whom you might already know from "Desert Rose," his duet with Sting) for Arabic. You might surprise yourself by singing along before you've learned a single word!
Tags: language, newsletter, radio
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