Language vs. Music

Which is easier?

  • New instrument

    Votes: 3 75.0%

  • New language

    Votes: 1 25.0%

  • Equivalent

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    4
K

Kipler

Registered Member
Okay, I've heard this said numerous times, that learning how to play an
instrument is just as hard as learning how to learn a new language. To master
an instrument takes a while as does mastering the use of a new Language. I
being a band director at high school think learning how to play instruments is
much easier for me. But there are some people who it just isn't easy for.
 
They are but it takes about the same time frame to learn to do eather, and both require
practice.
 
Some people have the facility for languages, some for music, others for other things.
 
depends if you are left or right brain type of individual ....... whatever that means (artsy or matsy)
 
Hmmm, so why do so many mathematicians talk about music?
Why is music done to regular (mathematically proven) intervals and scales?
 
The problem is that EVERYONE can practice most instruments at home whenever they want BUT we cannot practice our Hindi sitting in our lounge chairs very easily. True you could try and practice but how can you ever become a conversationalist in any language unless you are actually talking with others that use it.:)
 
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I've been both a musician and a linguist since I was a child, and I say languages are harder. There are many instruments that you can learn to play well enough in a year (starting during adolescence) to entertain yourself, accompany singers, or form a garage band. Unless you're a Czech learning Slovak or a Finn learning Estonian, one year's study of a foreign language won't make you more than "that clever foreigner who has learned so many of our words."

On the other hand the similarity between the two pursuits is imperfect. Four years of truly enthusiastic study in adolescence could make an average person comfortable living and working in a foreign country. But it won't turn the average person into a professional musician. We all have a preprogrammed ability to learn language if we start young enough. Not so with music. Language is a survival skill that we come well equpped to master. Music is not.
 
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