Tuesday, August 11, 2020 by Bonnie Synhorst | Uncategorized

I love to learn new things!  As some days our world outlook as looked very bleak recently, I turned a bit unsociable (I know it's probably hard to believe that I actually COULD keep more to myself) and retreated to my own pastimes.  Instead of my old standby of learning and practicing music, over the pandemic I turned to language learning and in doing so, I got to experience many of the things students experience as they embark on their journey to learn to play an instrument. Because of that realization, I know I'm far overdue in sharing my experiences and revelations and want to both do that now as well as track my thoughts for future reference.

For me, deciding to dive into language study wasn't so much out of boredom, but instead out of a need to build something and grow for something that I won't reap the benefits of until probably far into the future.  I know one day, we will be able to travel again and there are so many places I want to see in person!  I know that being able to speak fluently with the locals isn't a requirement, but I also know it will make the experience much more fulfilling.  But what language to choose?  Over the course of my schooling, I've had the privilege to learn a bit of Spanish, German, and French already so I really wanted to try something new and different.  Inspired by one of my students and hoping studying a common language that he speaks can help connect more to him, I chose Chinese.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into nor was I aware of the added benefits I would find from choosing this language.

As I jumped in, with any new venture, I was excited and progressed quickly through the beginning levels of the language apps I chose: Duolingo, Busuu, and Rosetta Stone.  One of my early observations, that learning to recognize each character along with the sounds of the words really was not unlike learning to recognize notes on a page or repeat a pattern of sounds.  My reading and understanding skills were increasing while my brain was getting a memory workout!  As the days and weeks progressed, I found the pressure of the increasing difficulty and would shy away from my practice rather than get excited for it as I once did.  I thought of my young students for whom it is just starting to get a bit challenging to either physically play the level of music they are coming to or even understanding the notes and the rhythms on the page.  

I've always said that it's a benefit that I learned some of my instruments as an older beginner because the struggle is memorable to me, but this challenge of language learning is now fresh in my mind and I am thankful to now be able to relate even better to my students.  Even though I am an adult and able to choose whether to practice my skills and/or work on improving them, I could readily see how the apps that provided incentives and reminders were the ones that I gravitated to in my learning.  I especially am still drawn to the one where I earn points and have been able to move up the leaderboard.  

Some takeaways from this process of language learning strongly parallel those young musicians encounter:

1.  Practice is of paramount importance:  If I skip a few days, I feel like a take a few steps back in my ability to recall words or recognize characters.  Daily practice is not always about progress, but about reinforcement of known material and progress can't be made without this reinforcement.

2.  Tracking is key to constancy:  I enjoy seeing my days of consistent practice and if I wasn't keeping track, I likely would be more apt to skip days.  Out of sight, out of mind really is true, and if we don't see what we haven't done, how do we know we haven't done it?  I provide a subscription to Tonara for this purpose and strongly encourage ALL students to use it and if that's not feasible, be sure to track practice AND progress via some other means.  This holds you accountable!

3. Don't forget to set goals:  I can see the milestones in each app and some of little incentives and new items that open up when you hit them.  I also like seeing my progress percentages and want to increase those numbers.  As I release studio events and incentives, please encourage and help the students to participate.  These little projects are preparing them for their future when they have big long term school or work projects.  

谢谢  Thank-you for reading my post and I hope some of you will join me in embarking on new personal goals and adventures!  Maybe those will even be musical goals, in which case I'm always happy to help!

Bonnie