It’s a well-known fact that music can be an effective tool for learning a foreign language. Like original-version films, song lyrics are a good source of vocabulary and expressions that you can memorize—and have fun doing so. Furthermore, listening to or humming foreign songs helps you improve your pronunciation。

众所周知，音乐是学习外语一种有效的工具。就如同原版电影一样，歌词里的丰富词汇和表达供你记忆，——并且能让你乐在其中。不仅如此，听或者哼唱外语歌曲能够改善你的发音。

This article will give you some ideas to help you learn a language with music. Personally, I really enjoy this method of learning and hope that, after you’ve tried it, you feel the same。

本文将会向你提供一些帮助你通过音乐来学习一门语言的方法。就我而言，我真的非常享受这个学习方法并且希望你在试过之后也能这么觉得。

Learning a language while listening to music: How to get better results?

在听音乐的同时学习一门语言：如何能够得得到更好的结果呢？

When listening to a foreign-language song, we too often don’t pay enough attention to the lyrics (passive listening). Consequently, this doesn’t help us improve our level of language。

当我们在听一首外语歌曲的时候，我们对于歌词常常不会太注意(被动倾听)。所以这样的听歌方式并不能提升我们的语言水平。

A passion for music can become the key to improving your language skills (whether you’re learning English, French, Spanish, German, Arabic, etc。). I have lots of friends who learned English while strumming a guitar and humming at the same time!

对于音乐的热爱能够成为提升你的语言技能的关键(无论你正在学习英语、法语、西班牙语、德语、还是阿拉伯语等等)。我有许多学习朋友一边弹着吉他、哼着小曲，一边学习英语！

Here are 5 steps to optimizing your learning with music and enjoying yourself at the same time:

以下是能够让你在享受音乐的同时优化外语学习的五个步骤：

1. Choose a song that you like

选一首你喜欢的歌曲

You don’t have to go out of your way to find music to listen to. Instead, you should start with songs that you already listen to. Then, look up the lyrics to the songs you like。

你不必花费额外的精力去寻找音乐来听，而是应该从你已经听过的歌曲开始，然后开始查阅你所喜欢的歌曲歌词。

You could listen to your favourite foreign-language song dozens of times per day without actually paying attention to the content or the meaning of the lyrics. I think by now you’re aware that repetition is one of the most important factors to learning a foreign language。

你可以每天把你最喜爱的外语歌曲在毫不注意歌词内容和意思的情况下听上几十次。写道这里，我觉得你应该已经意识到了重复做工是学习一门外语最重要的因素之一。

2. Try to sing or hum the song without looking

尽量不看歌词听歌哼曲

If you want to improve your pronunciation, you should sing the song—trying your best to pronounce the words properly—without reading the lyrics. In fact, as soon as you try to sing the song by reading the lyrics, you’ll pick back up your bad pronunciation habits. It’s O.K. if you don’t understand the meaning of what you’re singing: The point of this step is to pronounce the words well。

如果你想要完善你的发音，你应该唱出这首歌曲——竭尽所能去正确地发出每个单词的读音，而不是读歌词。实际上，一旦你念着歌词唱歌，就等于在重拾你那糟糕的发音习惯。即使你不明白你所唱的歌词内容也无所谓：这一步骤的关键是正确的发音。

A user pointed out to me in a comment that an extra step could be to try to write down the lyrics while you’re listening to the song. This is a great exercise and should fit into this process as Step 2B! (However, this step likely requires you to have reached an intermediate level of language。)

一个用过这种方法的人在评论里告诉我，必须要再加一个步骤——那就是在你听歌的同时写下歌词。这的确是一种很棒的练习方法，可以作为步骤2.5！(然而，这个步骤可能需要你的语言水平已达到中等。)

3. Look up the lyrics

查阅歌词

Next, you can look up the lyrics on the Internet. To do this, google “lyrics Name of Song” (or letras = “lyrics” in Spanish, or paroles in French). If you need a translation, search “translation lyrics Name of Song” to find what you’re looking for in just a few clicks。

接下来你就可以在网上查阅歌词了。用谷歌中搜索“lyrics(歌词) 曲名”(西班牙语的歌词输“letras”，法语歌词输“paroles”)。如果需要歌词的译文，可以搜索“translation lyrics(歌词翻译) 曲名”，这样轻点鼠标，即得所需。

Personally, I prefer sites that show the original song lyrics and the translation on the same page. I often use http://www.paroles-musique.com/eng/, which has over 8,728 artists, 112,935 lyrics, and 20,000 translations into French (but there are also lots of others). Its repertoire also includes music in a number of different languages。

就我个人而言，我更喜欢那些在同一个页面上显示歌词原文和翻译的网站。我经常使用 http://www.paroles-musique.com/eng/，在这个网站上有超过8728位艺术家，11万2935首歌词以及2万篇法语歌词的翻译(也有很多其他语言的)。不仅如此，这个网站目录上还有很多其他语种的音乐。

If you use iTunes, you should install a software program that scans your music library and automatically adds the lyrics to your MP3 files. If you have a PC, I recommend the software program called LyricsFetcher; if you have a Mac, I recommend Get Lyrical. These programs make it possible for you to see the song lyrics directly on your phone or iPod as you’re listening to the music。

你若使用iTunes，则应安装一款程序，能够浏览你的音乐库，然后自动将歌词添加到你的MP3文件中。若你用个人电脑，那么我建议你安装LyricsFetcher程序；如果是Mac，我建议Get Lyrical。这些软件能让你在手机或者iPod上听音乐的时候直接看到歌词。

This way, even when you’re out and about, you can listen to your favourite music and read the lyrics at the same time!

这样的话，即使当你在外到处走动，你也可以在听你最爱的音乐同时阅读歌词啦！

4. Listen to the song while reading the lyrics

边听歌边看歌词

When you actually listen to the music with the lyrics, you’ll be surprised at how many words and phrases you already knew, but just hadn’t realized until now. (It’s not always easy to understand the lyrics of a foreign-language song on your own。)

当你看着歌词听音乐的时候，你会惊讶地发现你已经知道那么多单词和词组，只是你还没有意识到罢了。(靠自己来理解一首歌的歌词往往并不容易。)

Focus on the phrases that you find most interesting, or perhaps just the refrain. Even if you only know the refrains of your favourite songs, that’s enough for you to learn hundreds of foreign-language words and phrases. Here are some examples:

把注意力放在你认为最有趣的词组上，或者仅仅是副歌部分也可以。即使你只知道你最爱的那些歌曲的副歌部分，那也足够让你学到上百个外语单词和词组了。以下是一些例子：

For French:

法语为例：

The title and refrain of Edith Piaf’s “Non, je ne regrette rien” teaches the French negative pronouns “ne…rien”， meaning “nothing/not…anything” in English。

伊迪斯·琵雅芙的这首《不，我一点都不后悔》的标题和副歌部分教会了人们法语中的否定形式“ne…rien”也就是在英语中“nothing/not…anything”的意思。

From listening to Carla Bruni singing “Quelqu’un m’a dit que tu m’aimais encore”， you will learn, almost effortlessly, a complete sentence: “Someone told me that you still loved me” (Sometimes, songs lose their beauty when they are translated ;-))

在听卡拉·布鲁尼唱着“Quelqu’un m’a dit que tu m’aimais encore”的时候，你就能毫不费力地学会了一句完整的句子“有人告诉我你还爱我”。(有时候歌词翻过来会失去美感，哈哈)

For Spanish:

西班牙语为例：

“No, No es amor / Lo que tu sientes / se llama Obsession” (No, this is not love / that you are feeling / it is called obsession) sung by Aventura。

“不，这不是爱/ 你所感受到的/ 那叫迷恋”(No, No es amor / Lo que tu sientes / se llama Obsession)，由Aventura乐队所演唱。

Even the beautiful Shakira teaches us the adjective “Loca” when she sings the refrain of her song with the same name。

甚至美丽的夏奇拉在演唱《疯狂的》的副歌部分时教会了大家“Loca”(疯狂的)这个形容词。

For Italian:

意大利语为例：

There is a lovely song by Charles Aznavour called “La Mamma“. In fact, Aznavour also interprets this song marvelously in Italian。

查尔·阿兹纳弗这首可爱的歌曲叫做《妈妈》。事实上，不可思议的是，阿兹纳弗还演绎了这首歌曲的意大利语版本。

Anyways, everyone has their own tastes—the point is to choose songs you like!

不管怎样，每个人都有自己独特的品味——关键是选择自己喜欢的歌曲！

5. Listen to the song again and sing along

反复听歌并跟唱

Now that you know the words and have grasped the general meaning of the song, you can continue to listen to the song while singing along. Once you’re fixed on your favourite song, you’ll certainly want to sing it while driving or taking a shower, for example. (Personally, these are the only places where I do my catastrophic performances :-)) Before you know it, you’ll have memorized the song!

既然现在你已经认识了这些单词，且能把握这首歌曲的大意，你可以继续听且跟着唱了。一旦你专注于你最爱的那首歌时，你肯定会不由自主地在开车、洗澡或者其他时候唱出来。(就我个人而言，这也是我开始自己“毁灭性表演”的场所)在你还没意识到的时候，自己已经牢牢记住了这首歌哦！

Repetition is one of the fundamental pillars of memorization. If you follow these 5 steps, I can guarantee that you’ll significantly improve. Learning a language with music is fun and takes minimal effort. It’s a nice complement to MosaLingua’s spaced repetition system。

重复是记忆的基本支柱之一。如果你遵循这五个步骤，我可以向你保证你将会有显著的进步。跟着音乐学习语言不仅是一件趣事也是一件易事。这也是对于MosaLingua间歇重复记忆法很好的补充。

One tip I have for language learners is to alternate between “serious learning” (e.g. the MosaLingua application or grammar lessons) and fun activities (music, films, etc。). This will help you continue practising without losing your attention or concentration or getting tired. You may be really surprised at your results!

我对于语言学习者有一个建议，即“正经学习”(如：MosaLingua应用或者语法课程)和“娱乐活动”(如：电影，音乐等等)交替进行。将有助你持续练习却不至注意力不集中、感到疲惫。你会为你的成效感到惊讶哦！