The new musical language learning company, Earworms says that if parents and their offspring listen to their CDs for an average journey time of twenty minutes a day, in just two weeks they could all gain enough language to get by in a foreign country. Ever wondered why you just can’t get that song out of your head? The earworms learning method uses this same brain function to boost the retention of words and phrases when learning a language. It's a well-known fact that we use only a fraction of our brainpower and traditional book learning is now recognised as not suiting every learner. “Advertisers and broadcasters have used jingles and theme tunes for years to get us to associate certain messages with music, the Earworms concept works in the same way and it is a natural way to absorb language.” Comments co-founder Andrew Lodge.  “We teach our toddlers to speak English through songs and nursery rhymes and European youngsters gain a head start by listening to pop songs – and they don’t even know they are learning. We’ve taken this idea and composed cool songs with the specific purpose of anchoring foreign words and phrases into the deeper recesses of kids (and adults) minds, and the good new is: they love it”. Learning together on the school run has a lot going for it. Not least having a bit of fun and breaking down the inhibitions that many people have towards foreign languages. It’s great for parents to witness how quickly their kids can learn – and kids and parents can make a game out of testing each other, say, at the dinner table, seeing who can remember the most and who can pronounce with the best accent. 

Earworms embeds the language at a deeper level than rote learning, explains Lodge “The benefit of the Earworms approach is that it develops a lexicon of language rather than knowledge of specific phrases, this helps you to understand words when used in different contexts.  The right words also surface when you need them.  I expect parents will spend the day humming foreign phrases but that must be better than the Crazy Frog!”

 

 Since its launch in 2004, Earworms has seen incredible success in terms of sales and customer satisfaction. In fact, the audio-book download versions have routinely ranked #1 for in the U.S., U.K. and Australia often outselling popular titles such as "The Da Vinci Code," and was named an iTunes Top 5 Non-Fiction Best-Seller in 2007, alongside "The Secret," "Stephen Colbert" and NPR's "This American Life."
 French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, German, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese and even Mandarin are among the languages covered by Earworms Learning (mbt) Musical Brain Trainer. Available in all major bookstores, or online at: www.earwormslearning.com    - ENDS -