Saturday, March 22, 2014

Of Language and Music

I've been learning German as fast as possible for the trip Jim and I are planning this summer, and I can tell you it's given me a whole new perspective on the world, myself and every beginning piano student I ever taught.

Review is the key to learning something new, and until now I thought of review as, well, kind of a bore. But after taking up a new adventure like Deutsch, I've come to realize that review can be like the warm fuzzy slippers you come home to at the end of a very long day! When every new thing feels so very foreign then anything that you even vaguely remember feels like an old friend. 

I'm not going to tell you how many times I've repeated listening and saying my new German words and phrases, but I will say that I have, in response to my own learning experience offered a lot more review to my piano students. I'll say, "Let's travel back in time and hear a song you learned a long time ago", or,"Pick out one of your favorite songs and play it for me". Usually they are delighted to play something easy, but if not, then we know exactly where to reinforce older concepts! Brilliantly simple.

By the way, I'd like to offer a plug for the two programs I've been using for my German studies (besides a very patient German friend). These are the Coffee Break German lessons by Radio Lingua on the soundcloud app and the wie geht's app. Both have been extremely easy to use and totally free. When I get a little more advanced, I may have to pay a small amount, but it'll be a while.

It is so exciting to learn something new, and even more exhilarating to share it!

Ausgezeichnet! It's a perfect German word to describe how I feel!
Gute Nacht, und bis spater! 

The letters below were spotted on a trip to a local dairy, and are a logo for the company that made the steel milking machines. Of course I had to take a picture.