Greek Earworms!!!

Earworms! They burrow into your head , won’t let go and there’s no known cure !! Sounds like a particularly nasty tropical infestation of the auditory canal, doesn’t it?  It’s not. In fact it is an incredibly simple way to learn a new language .

Stephen and I have been travelling to Greece for many years and have always struggled to manage anything more the very basics..hello, good morning, please, thankyou etc. This, despite the fact that he had  studied Ancient Greek, Latin  & French at school and I had done Latin, French and German. I had also picked up Spanish with my son when he took it at school.

We had tried different ways of learning Greek starting with cassettes (remember those) & leaflets, through to a variety of “teach yourself” books, but inevitably seemed to forget what little we had learned as soon as we came home.   A couple of years ago I did some research and discovered Ear Worms Musical Brain Trainer, Rapid Greek.

This is what I used

Imagine that intensely irritating song that you absolutely hate but know all the words to. Did you make a conscious effort to learn it? Of course not. Then why is it embedded in your brain? Answer –  earworms. Simply by listening to rhythmic repetitions the sound patterns are indelibly burned into your brain. Ear Worms MBT apparently worked on the same principle, so I decided to give it a goI sent for Vol1 , loaded it onto my ipod and put the cd in the car. Within days I was amazed at how easy it was and just how much I had learned. Mind you I did get some very funny looks from other motorists….crazy woman babbling away to herself (window open) . Well it made a change from yelling at them about their appalling driving.  Yes, I do admit to being just a teeny tiny bit impatient and intolerant of poor drivers. Stephen often came home to find me wandering round dusting reciting the days of the week in Greek or ordering wine and beer while doing the ironing !!.

Thing is IT WORKS. That was two years ago and I still remember everything I learned then. I went on to Vol2 with the same amount of success. The company are planning to produce 5 volumes for each language they cover, so I have lots more to learn.

Having just returned from our annual “odyssey” to the Greek islands , I was really pleased with how much I was able to understand and felt  more confident with my own attempts to speak to the locals. They complimented  me on my progress with the language since our last visit so that is proof I must be improving.

Earworms will not enable you to have deep philosophical debates but it does mean you should be able to have a chat with the people you meet on your travels in Greece.

Just wanted to share this in case anyone out there is searching for an easy way to learn a new language. I’m the proof that it works. Earworms offers about 9 different languages (I think) so it’s not just Greek. Check them out at  http://www.earwormslearning.com

Love to hear from anyone else who is learning Greek or has used Earworms.   🙂 Val