Today I’m sharing an interview I had with Susanna Zaraysky. Susanna is not only an accomplished polyglot who has studied 11 languages (and speaks 8-9 of them), she is also a world traveler (having been to over 50 countries), author, filmmaker, guest speaker at universities, YouTuber, and active member of the online polyglot community.
In today’s interview, I asked Susanna to give us pieces of advice on how to learn a language through music. Indeed, Susanna, being the author of a book entitled “Language is Music,” is a proponent of learning languages and pronunciation through music. In fact, what Susanna has been preaching for years has recently been confirmed by scientific studies. According to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Edinburgh’s Reid School of Music, singing in a foreign language can significantly improve learning how to speak it, for example. But how can you go about doing it? Should you just listen to music and forget about grammar? What about textbooks? And where can you find interesting music to listen to in the first place?
These are exactly the questions that Susanna answers in depth in today’s interview. Along the way, she gives some amazing resources to help us find music and radio stations from anywhere around the world – see down below for the hyperlinks.
Finally, Susanna shares with us some additional tips on how to get a better pronunciation when speaking a foreign language, and she tells us what she believes is the most important thing that is required to successfully learn a language. From someone who was told by a teacher in school that she had “no talent for learning languages,” Susanna sure has some skills to show!
You can find Susanna on her website, YouTube channel, Facebook page, or Twitter.
Links to Find Music and Radio Stations From Around the World
Directory of Radio Stations by Regions of the World:
http://radiostationworld.com/
Directory of Radio Stations by Language/Ethnic Group:
www.worldtvradio.com/php/radio_channel_language_lineup.php
Directory of Radio Stations by Country:
www.worldtvradio.com/php/radio_channel_country_lineup.php
Pandora:
Free, personalized radio and automated music recommendation service. (Currently only available to residents of the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand).
http://www.pandora.com/
Sites for Language Exchanges/Tutoring:
Italki
LiveMocha
Edufire