Want a fun way to learn a new language – how about Earworms?

Yes, that’s right, Earworms….but before you go all eeewwwww and stop reading, it’s actually a cool idea. Basically, if you’ve ever noticed how easily you pick up words and phrases from the songs you listen to, then you’ll get how earworms work. They are literally the songs that get stuck in your head. The Earworms Musical Brain Trainers build on that idea, and are a series of audiobooks for language learning that are set to catchy little tunes, which feature a voice giving the English phrases and another voice for the language you’re working on.

We tried the demos for several languages, including Spanish, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese and, while they’re obviously for beginning level, everybody in the lab was following along to the tunes and repeating the phrases in no time!

The course are available from the Earworms website in CD format, from Audible UK as a download, or even from iTunes. They aren’t free, obviously, but the prices are in the range of other audio language products, with courses on iTunes at $16.95.