Music

Of all the reasons why I learn languages, music is probably the biggest driving force. Music was the first thing that introduced me to Japanese and currently my Japanese music collection is probably as big as my English one. Finding a great song I love really encourages me to learn the language so I can understand what they're saying. If I go through a period of 'burn-out' with a language where I'm finding it hard to motivate myself, I usually turn to music as a way to inspire me to continue. A couple of nights ago, when I was really starting to lose motivation to study Portuguese due to the boring FSI course and lack of materials to learn the language, I tuned into my bossa nova collection. It's great when you don't listen to a song in a while but when you listen to it again, you realise you can pick out words that you hadn't noticed before. It's an indication that you've made a bit of progress. It's probably down to music that my listening skills in Japanese are far better than any of my other skills. Bur, it may well be that this is the reason why my Spanish isn't good. I haven't yet found any Spanish songs that I like enough to motivate me to study. So, I'm going to go off on a hunt for some songs on youtube.