Singing helps tune into foreign languages

Here's a brief post I couldn't wait to pass along!

The University of Edinburgh

Singing in a foreign language can significantly improve learning how to speak it, 

according to a new study.

Adults who listened to short Hungarian phrases and then sang them back 

performed better than those who spoke the phrases, researchers found.

People who sang the phrases back also fared better 

than those who repeated the phrases by speaking them rhythmically.

 

Best performers

Three randomly assigned groups of twenty adults took part in a series of five tests as part of a study conducted by researchers at the University of Edinburgh’s Reid School of Music.  The singing group performed the best in four of the five tests.  In one test, participants who learned through singing performed twice as well as participants who learned by speaking the phrases.  Those who learned by singing were also able to recall the Hungarian phrases with greater accuracy in the longer term.

Why Hungarian?

Hungarian was chosen because it is unfamiliar to most English speakers and a difficult language to master, with a completely different structure and sound system to the Germanic or Romance languages, such as Spanish and French.

The research was carried out by Dr Karen M. Ludke, Prof. Fernanda Ferreira and Dr Katie Overy.

This study provides the first experimental evidence that a listen-and-repeat singing method can support foreign language learning, and opens the door for future research in this area. One question is whether melody could provide an extra cue to jog people’s memory, helping them recall foreign words and phrases more easily.

Dr Karen M. Ludke

Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh’s Institute for Music in Human and Social Development

Leipzig 4. Sept 1989: Nikolaikirche!

This is the Daily News broadcast in WEST Germany from Channel 1, ARD, from 25 years ago. 

These peace demonstrations took place every Monday afternoon after a service which included a kind of free exchange of complaints in Leipzig's Nikolai-Church. 


During the scuffle, the protesters chanted:
"Stasi raus!"   (Away with the Staatssicherheit = secret police; reportedly 1 in every 6 citizens!)
"Mauer weg!"  (Down with the wall!)

Diese DDR Bürger wollten einfach Freiheit. (These East German citizens simply wanted freedom.)
Die Volkspolizei (in Uniform) und Stasi sind auch dabei...

After the gathering in the church, these 2 homemade banners were unfurled -- and held aloft for a mere 6-7 seconds; long enough for cameras to capture the sentiment, and then sent the broadcast around the world. 

"Für ein offenes Land mit freien Menschen" [For an open country of free citizens]
"Reise Freiheit statt Massenflucht"  [No limits to travel instead of mass exodus]  

Were the Volkspolizei or those serving in the Staatsicherheit less committed to the socialist government in Leipzig than elsewhere?  Why didn't they clamp down on these protests before they grew to be unmanageable? 

Western sources confirm that during the last 4 Mondays leading up to the 9th of November, the Montagsdemonstrationen, or Monday Demonstrations at the Nikolaikirche drew between 300,000 and 500,000 people.  With so many protesters willing to fight against travel limitations and other governmental limitations, such as study and career opportunities, control was lost. 


The follow-up story on the newsreel also focuses on the unrest in the DDR (East Germany).  

Hundreds of DDR citizens responded to an offer in Hungary to open its borders for a day.  Officials in Budapest were discussing arrangements, thus many of the refugees had been waiting for over 2 weeks.  Meanwhile, ever more DDR citizens walked away from their lives and joined the campers in hopes of emigrating to West Germany.

This from CAFÉ BABEL from September 14, 2009  By Ádám Terjék Translated by Judit Révész

The picture of the opening of the Hungarian-Austrian border in 1989 is living vividly in my memory: in the television news of 10 September 1989 a group of East German tourists exult and rejoice at the announcement of Gyula Horn, Hungarian foreign minister saying all DDR citizens staying in Hungary could leave to the “west” with their passport.  Surpassing all expectations this act of Hungary played a crucial role in the soon destruction of the Berlin Wall, the reunion of Germany and of Europe. 

As Helmut Kohl, former chancellor of West Germany summarised in a short sentence: It was the Hungarians drawing the first brick out of the wall.

24828.jpg, _Sep 2009      

Image: Gyula Horn cutting the barbed wire at the Austrian-Hungarian border in 1989; Soucre: MTI, www.mult-kor.hu

 
There is no doubt that it was a historic event for both the Germans and the Hungarians. It is also interesting to see that following the sudden weakening of the Soviet Union it was Poland and Hungary that tried to seek their way to independence at first. These two nations proved so many times in their history how much they love freedom and how many things they are ready to do for it.

... In the second half of the 80s a small group of people recognized that the days of communism are numbered, but for average Hungarian and for the outside world it didn’t seem obvious at all. Unfortunately today there are some, who attempt to make those daring acts unimportant, saying that the collapse of the communist regime had always been a matter of time; so taking the decision of the opening the frontier and making steps towards bringing the communist autocracy to an end didn’t need much courage. 

They are not right at all! It did need much courage. 

The fact that Hungarian government of that time managed to make itself independent from the omnipotent communist party and were brave and resolute enough to take the decision about opening borders the proves about much of courage. We shouldn’t forget that the soviet troops were still stationed in Hungary at that time, and it was a real possibility that the Soviet Union intervenes again even by force, like it did in 1956 "our first revolution, which at the time, the Soviets tried to label as a counter-revolution.  We now know that was only desperate propaganda."

Finally we may put the question to ourselves: who deserves the glory? As Miklós Németh, former prime minister said: letting the East German to cross the frontier was a joint, collective achievement of the people of Hungary.

25 Years Since the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Border patrol guards had lost permission to shoot at will at border crossings in the spring of 1989.  This inspired East-Germans to abandon their apartments and risk everything to live elsewhere.  For better or worse, these people felt a need to leave the guided life available to them under Russian influence, and instead, wanted to be in charge of their own futures. 

25 years later, there are plenty of people who miss the security they had under communism.  The term for this is "Nostalgie,"  or nostalgia for the East (Ost).

Differences between the two styles of government are becoming even more clear now, with

• the border disputes between Russia and the Ukraine;
• attacks by radical islamic organizations against capitalist democracies;
• Edward Snowden finding shelter in Russia after his revelations;

25 years ago the threat of losing everything were clear.

Here is a 2 minute news clip, which follows the emotions on both sides of this historical event from the perspective of the Soebel family.  They were on a camping trip in Hungary 25 years ago, read about the offer to pass through a gap in the wall that afternoon on a flier posted to a tree in their campground, and took up the offer!  Guards did not fire upon the picnickers in Hungary, who on the afternoon of August 19, 1989, slipped through a momentarily-opened border with Austria.  Rather than just freeing a handful of citizens, hundreds slipped through that brief gap, setting the tone for what was soon to follow.

http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/beitrag/video/2220970/25-Jahre-Paneuropaeisc
hes-Picknick#/beitrag/video/2220970/25-Jahre-Paneuropaeisches-Picknick

BERLIN IN PHOTOS TODAY 

20 second video:  Berlin today:


Pilpop filmt Berlin (in Miniatur?)  "Little Big Berlin"


"I dedicate this film to Berlin where I have been living for 19 years now. While the architecture of Berlin is stunningly beautiful, only its inhabitants make Berlin the unique city that it is. In every corner there is something new to discover. And the best thing to do is to film it.
Filmed with my beloved Sony HC9. Edited with Sony Vegas Pro 9.The miniature effect is called tilt-shift, which originates from a particular lens that was used to photograph architecture. The miniature effect is a by-product of that. It can also be achieved by digital postprocessing.
Music: "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" by Franz Lisz "
-- Does life in Berlin seem that much different than our own?  Different in which ways?


All sorts of press infos regarding the Fall of the Berlin Wall can be found here: 
HIER GIBT ES ALLERLEI PRESSEMATERIAL ZUM MAUERFALL