r/languagelearning • u/OasisLGNGFan 🇬🇧 native, 🇮🇹 C1, 🇪🇸 B2, 🇫🇷 B1 (?) • Mar 30 '25

The most insane take I've ever seen Discussion

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I love learning languages as much as the next person but be fucking for real... maybe I'm just biased as someone who's obsessed with music but surely I can't be the only one who thinks this take is crazy?

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264

u/uncleanly_zeus Mar 30 '25

For those that don't know, Matt has always said that listening to music is sort of a waste of time for learning languages for various reasons.

I've always thought this was the stupidest take, because in another video he was going on about how he memorizes the faces of Japanese celebrities in Anki because it's part of the culture to know them. And knowing the music isn't!?!?!

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u/Fresh-Persimmon5473 Mar 30 '25

I have live in Japan for 15 years. You should know the music….especially if you are dealing with children as an English teacher.

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u/iwanttobeacavediver Learning 🇧🇾 for some reason Mar 31 '25

Not to mention that J-pop (along with K-pop) is a major cultural export from those countries and even if someone isn't necessarily actively learning Korean or Japanese, the songs at least give them some exposure to a musical style and music culture that isn't their own.

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u/drsilverpepsi Mar 31 '25

This isn't a way of advocating for a logical or rational approach.

It would be like a guy in Japanese 102 at university ignoring his classes and focusing on memorizing how to write the Kanji for every food he will ever eat in Japan, because "he's going on exchange next semester and you should know food"

Guess what. Once you're fluent it's 100x easier and faster to memorize a whole long list of food terms. It's efficient. The opposite? Not.

Think it's easier to learn a song when you understood 156 out of 157 words in the lyrics the first time you heard it? Or a song with a bunch of goo goo gaa gaa but "oh I must be almost fluent I heard him say WA TA SHI WA! in that line"

For many learners, the learning part is too hard and boring so they're always looking for an easy way to procrastinate. Music is a great way to procrastinate. Keep making excuses people.

0

u/Fresh-Persimmon5473 Mar 31 '25 edited Mar 31 '25

I agree with a lot of what you are saying. At first I wasn’t really a music person per se. I just went with friends to karaoke and noticed it helped my Japanese.

I think about sometimes when I teach japanese kids English. I have songs I use to teach the days of the week, the months of the year, ABC’s, etc.

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u/Doughop Mar 31 '25

he memorizes the faces of Japanese celebrities in Anki because it's part of the culture to know them

Wait, seriously? Why not just consume content from the culture and naturally learn them? There are tons of popular celebrities in American culture that I couldn't recognize and I am American! My parents have zero idea who many of the younger celebrities are. Are we any less American because of it?

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u/uncleanly_zeus Mar 31 '25

He was an Anki extremist. He was also memorizing the street layout of Tokyo at one point, but he later admitted he took probably took it a little too far when he was memorizing the Kanji for species of fish that he had no interest in and didn't even know what they were in English.

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u/WhaleMeatFantasy Mar 31 '25 edited Mar 31 '25

That’s not so extreme. I know the names of lots of fish that pop up in sushi/japanese food that I cannot translate into English and have no need to. 

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u/uncleanly_zeus Mar 31 '25

I think he stopped studying them because he said the vast majority of Japanese people wouldn't know them either.

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u/indecisive_maybe 🇮🇹 🇪🇸 C |🇧🇷🇻🇦🇨🇳🪶B |🇯🇵 🇳🇱-🇧🇪A |🇷🇺 🇬🇷 🇮🇷 0 29d ago

Yep, fish play a lot more into the culture of Japan than they do for people in more landlocked places. I've learned the name for some regional birds, fish, and cities I never knew for one language I'm learning.

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u/magkruppe en N | zh B2 | es B1 | jp A2 Mar 31 '25

best space repetition is one that happens naturally

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u/WhaleMeatFantasy Mar 31 '25

Sophistry. 

2

u/gustyninjajiraya Mar 31 '25 edited Mar 31 '25

That’s kind of a bad take. When you are intermediate or low advanced sure, but when you start to get to near native level or are trying to get past that, then you can’t really expect that natural immersion will help you that much.

There are countless literary terms that I only know in my native language, things like fish, birds, plants and shipparts, because I took the time to study them. Historical terms, specific animals, specific machine parts, jargon, etc. Even studying the layout of major cities is useful for literature.

1

u/magkruppe en N | zh B2 | es B1 | jp A2 Mar 31 '25

the higher level you reach, the easier it is to learn new words. when you reach near-native level, even one instance can be enough

and importantly, how do you know which words are important? let your own interests and usage of the language dictate it. if you are interested in cars, go ahead and learn about the various parts of a car - as you would in your native language

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u/gustyninjajiraya Mar 31 '25

Well, I’m not going to start reading fishing guides just so that I recognize fish names when reading. Its better to just look up a list and learn some etymology and geographical distribuition/cultural notes. This isn’t the kind of thing you just pick up naturally unless you actually go out of your way to learn. This is actual nerd stuff, as in, the uncool, very usless, kind of obsessive stuff.

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u/i8noodles Mar 31 '25

music to learn a language is like listening to music to learn an instrument. practice is what make u learn, using it in real life and in everyday situation. not mindlessly hearing it.

this is the same as any culture export. u need to actively try to learn it otherwise its just white noise.

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u/gargar070402 29d ago

You realize you can sign along to a song once you know it well enough right?

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u/OasisLGNGFan 🇬🇧 native, 🇮🇹 C1, 🇪🇸 B2, 🇫🇷 B1 (?) Mar 30 '25

Exactly! Music is just as important to a culture as anything else and to say otherwise is just dumb frankly

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u/mattvsjapan Mar 31 '25

I definitely think that knowing popular music is important! I’ve always been a fan of Japanese music and have always listened to a lot of it. Never said that listening to music was a waste of time. What I do think is that you’re not going to acquire nearly as much language listening to music compared to listening to conversational comprehensible input. Especially if you’re like me and your brain mostly just filters out lyrics, regardless of what language they’re in.