In Other Words, It's Catchy

by Anne Metz (RSS feed)
Jun 28th 2006 at 3:34PM

For the last month, I've had The Price Is Right theme song stuck in my head. Needless to say, it's driving me crazy.

However, Earworms Musical Brain Teasers see the song that sticks in your head as a useful didactic tool. Earworms' 75-minute downloadable lessons take common foreign language phrases and layer them over top of pleasant instrumental music. So, the more times you listen to the tracks, the more the songs get in your head. And the more the songs get in your head, the better you will learn your language. Earworms are available in German, Greek, Italian, Spanish, and French.

Their motto? "Earworms take the hard work out of learning."

Hey, I get that. Learning is hard, especially languages. But in my own defense, learning Arabic must be easier than living with The Price is Right theme song stuck in your head.

Tags: downloads, earworms, languages, price is right, PriceIsRight

Filed under: Gadgets

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Andrew Lodge Jun 29th 2006 4:59AM

How inspiring indeed, it seems that we have not only touched the minds of many since the launch of our new concept, but a few hearts too.

A bit of background for any interested readers...

Our team of linguists, musicians and educationalists are bound by a common goal ...that is to make a little difference to the way people learn, chalk and talk teaching is not the only or best way and ...hey! why can't learning be fun too.

The earworms (mbt) method is a little different to other methods, in that it’s brain-based, i.e. it not only provides the words, phrases and grammar that you need to acquire a foreign-language in an easily structured way, but it also actively anchors them into your long term memory!

There is a general misconception that learning has to be hard to be good - on the contrary, learning should be made easy and more brain-friendly in order to get the most out of it. This has been confirmed by the latest neuropsychological studies, the brain actually wants to learn and gets a buzz in the form of a dose of dopamine (the happiness inducing hormone) when it experiences success.

But it's often held back, like driving with the brakes on. The truth is that the ideal state for learning is not highly concentrated; it is more relaxed and calm. In fact even sleep is an important factor in the learning process, sleep gives the neurons and the synapses in the brain a chance to realign themselves.

With earworms you don't have to concentrate too hard, in fact you shouldn't try to actively concentrate, just sit back, relax and listen and let your brain do the learning.

As well as being a bit of fun, the music has a two-fold function in this process. Firstly, putting your mind in the ideal, relaxed receptive state for learning (the so-called alpha state) and secondly, it enhances the memory processes dramatically, that is to say it allows the sounds of the words to plant themselves deep into your auditory cortex, ready for instant recall.

The earworms songs are learner oriented. Many years of teaching experience and hundreds of hours of trials and tests have produced a learning programme that is easy to use, enjoyable and highly effective.

Ideal for young and old alike, when time permits do read the short story on our site....written about the experience with my daughter learning French the earworms way (mon petit earworms - in extra's).

I look forward to any feed-back or anecdotal stories about your experiences.

Best Regards

Andrew Lodge
Managing Director