TRANSLATION INDUSTRY UPDATES August 2025

Learning a language through music

In this month’s translation industry updates we’ll be looking at the power of music to help with language-learning. We’ll first be discussing some of the benefits of listening to songs in other languages and then sharing some tips on how to use music as part of your language-learning strategy.

Music has existed in all time periods and across all cultures. Most people like and appreciate music, and listening to music has been linked to a variety of social and psychological benefits, from increased social cohesion to stress reduction and improved cognitive performance, according to Verywell Mind. The Duolingo blog tells us that music is processed in a lot of the same areas of the brain as language, even though the brain uses those areas differently, and anecdotal evidence suggests that people who are musically talented tend to have an advantage in picking up other languages too.

Since music is something that most of us enjoy anyway, it seems natural to use it as part of our language-learning toolkit. Here are some of the main reasons why:

First of all, listening to music is immersive in ways that other art forms aren’t, and it tends to simultaneously hit us on a lot of different levels. Another key difference between music and other art forms is that you can still enjoy the experience of listening to music regardless of language, which can make music a more immediately accessible choice for language immersion than other art forms like literature and theatre.

The nature of music also itself lends it well to language-learning. Most songs are only several minutes long and tend to contain a lot of repetitive content which can help with learning vocabulary, while many songs also tend to deal with fairly universal themes, particularly love, which can help with providing some context against which to understand the lyrics.

Over and above this, streaming and video-sharing platforms have brought music in a wide variety of languages to much wider audiences and the ubiquity of lyric videos means that it’s easier than ever to pick up the lyrics to songs in any language, without requiring a huge financial or time investment.

Thinking in more conceptual terms, music is also important in that it provides something of a window into the soul of a country or culture, which is an essential element of learning a language given how closely language and culture are tied, while listening to music from other time periods can give a glimpse into a general atmosphere from the past.

Lastly, music provides some important auditory exposure to other languages, which is important particularly if you don’t live in a country where your target language is spoken. Listening to music is also a good way of motivating yourself to study a language in a more structured manner, since it’s infinitely less daunting to put on a song than it is to open a textbook.

As with any language-learning technique, listening to music has limitations. These include the fact that in some cases song lyrics can be somewhat poetic or oblique, which can make it harder to get at the intended meaning, while in other cases songs may contain inappropriate words or expressions which might not immediately come across as being offensive to a learner of that language, which means that as always when learning a language, context is key.

Finally, it’s worth pointing out that the best language-learning approach is likely to combine a variety of different methods which means that music is a complement rather than a complete technique in itself, although everyone is different. But with the above limitations in mind, here are some tips on using music as language practice.

Tip number 1: Choose songs that you like

Although it might sound obvious, try to choose songs that naturally resonate with you since you’re likely to be more receptive to them. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should only choose the genres of music that you listen to in your own language(s). On the contrary, it’s great to expose yourself to other genres, particularly if your target culture has music forms that aren’t common in yours, but in any case choose something that will stick in your head and you’ll want to keep coming back to.

Tip number 2: Adapt your strategy to your level of competence in that language

One top tip found on Reddit is to try to listen for the title of a song in the lyrics if you have a limited understanding of that language, since this action is a good way of training your ear even when hearing a language that you’re totally unfamiliar with. If you have an intermediate level of a language then you can try reading lyric videos, whereas if you have an advanced command then you might even be able to pick up word plays or other more subtle elements of songs. In any case, as always with learning a language, try to pace things so you’re challenged enough to stay interested but not totally overwhelmed.

Tip number 3: Try to learn something about the wider context of songs

If a particular song or artist captures you then it’s always worth trying to find more information about them in your home or target language, such as the geographical area and time period they come from, and what the music is trying to express. If you have some understanding of the language already, try to read any kind of web or social media content about artists in their language, while joining online discussion forums in that language can help you engage with the wider context too. YouTube and other platforms now have countless video interviews with artists and watching these can help you learn more about the music while also exposing you to the language in a spoken as well as sung form. Following your favourite artists on social media or through news outlets published in your target language will help with language acquisition too.

Tip number 4: Don’t be afraid to sing along, and try to make music a part of your routine

Wherever possible, try to reproduce what you hear so that you practise active as well as passive language skills. If you can find a lyric video, try to sing or rap along with your favourite songs, even if it makes you feel ridiculous, since this will help train your mouth as well as your ear and help the words settle in your mind. Listening to music often will maximise your chances of picking up some of the language through building up repeat exposure, so try to look for any opportunity where you can easily and safely listen to music, such as on public transport or at the gym.

Tip number 5: Always look for recommendations

You can find a lot of amazing music just through running searches in your own or your target language but it’s always worth asking for tips from other people such as language teachers or native speaker friends, since they might tell you about artists that you wouldn’t have encountered otherwise, particularly if those artists aren’t well-known internationally. Most people like and enjoy listening to and talking about music so they’ll likely be glad to help you, and it’s a nice conversation topic when meeting new people too.

Tip number 6: Try to pick up songs from other places

If you travel anywhere then you’re likely to be exposed to songs that you wouldn’t have encountered at home so it’s always worth trying to get the name of the song or the artist, either by asking people or by using services like Shazam. When we travel we tend to be naturally more receptive to influences around us and the unique relationship between music and memory means that we tend to associate songs with positive memories of particular places too.

That rounds off our suggestions on learning a language through song, but since there’s an important social element to music we’d also like to ask if any of you have recommendations of songs that you particularly love in your or any other language, so that we can all learn new songs from one another.

Don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts in the comments, and see you again for next month’s translation industry updates!