I skipped two levels of high school German doing this — 6 of 31

Or “Thanks for the advice, Gloria Estefan.”

I was totally into it as a kid.

I’m a patron of Ninja Writers and this is day six of the May Medium Post-a-Day Challenge of blogging for 30 consecutive days.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

My Mom was totally into some Gloria Estefan back in the day. My family took a lot of long road trips when I was a kid. She and Carly Simon were staples. Sister Wives of the Cassette Deck.

TURN THE BEAT AAAAAROUND. LOVE TO. HEAR. PER-CUSSIOOOOON!

Oh yeah. I used to sing it in the car, too. My parents thought it was funny. My siblings thought I was annoying as hell.

“Okay, Kyle. Gloria Estefan speaks Spanish. What does she have to do with learning German?”

I think my fondness for her music made me pay more attention when a commercial aired in the mid-90s with her in it. I can’t remember the exact message (I think it was the importance of music in helping children learn?)

But one line, in particular, stood out.

“Music will help you learn a new language.”

She might have meant it figuratively since you literally have to learn a language (sheet music) to play most instruments.

But, I took it literally in high school. And when the time came to pick a language, I didn’t pick Spanish. I know, that would have been some sweet ass synchronicity. I chose German because everybody complained at my school about how difficult the teacher was, I was a huge nerd and I wanted the challenge of taking on a difficult class to see if I could master it.

As I studied the language, I listened to music in German. Pop, rock, hip hop, metal (oh yeah, Rammstein, for sure). Whatever I could get my hands on (which, kids, was way harder back then since we didn’t have YouTube/Spotify for instant access to…well, almost anything).

I didn’t understand 90% of it most of the time. My friends thought I was weird. But, I know now that what it did was make me more familiar with certain words, phrases, and pronunciation. It was like being a baby; a baby doesn’t “get it” when you talk to it like an adult. They get it because it eventually becomes familiar. The meaning comes later.

German level one became so easy I did half the level two course in the next semester. I took an exam and skipped German level three for the next year and enrolled in level four.

I still listen to German music to this day. I actually have a playlist of music on my Spotify in a host of other languages.

It checks several boxes for me:

1. Doing challenging/weird stuff most people wouldn’t.
2. Getting familiar with languages that, who knows, I might need one day.
3. Broadening my musical horizons.

So, even if none of it makes sense (the explanations and/or the music), I’d recommend listening to music when trying to learn a language.

Viel Spaß!

Connect with me on LinkedIn even though what trends there makes zero sense to me, so feel free to connect on Twitter.

If you are looking for language partners to improve your foreign language skills you can find it on swaplanguage.com.