Can you Learn Greek by Listening to Music?

“Από τραγούδια λαϊκά έμαθα τα ελληνικά” 

This quote means “I learned Greek from folk and popular songs,” and is from lyricist Sotia Tsotou. The quote was popularized by Stelios Kazantzidis in his song ‘Εγώ είμαι πρόσφυγα παιδί’. But is that really possible to learn Greek by listening to music?

Yes, listening to music can help learn languages because melody and repetition in music makes it easier for language learners to remember foreign words and phrases. A student who listens to Greek songs in order to learn Modern Greek is not just absorbing Greek pronunciation, but also speech rhythm, idioms, and cultural references. Many learners can recall phrases, verb forms, or expressions much better if they heard them in a melodic format as opposed to if they read or hear them in regular speech. 

This is due to a process referred to as melodic encoding by second-language acquisition  researchers. When a language learner listens to lyrics of a song, the brain stores the language information from the lyrics not as passive sound but as a multisensory event with melody, language, emotion, and repetition. That’s why a student who struggles to remember the future simple form of φεύγω can still sing «Θα φύγω ένα πρωί» without hesitation.

The repetitive nature of music is an important key to why things we learn from music stick in our memory so well; few students would be willing to repeat the same grammar exercise fifty times, but most will happily play the same song fifty times. Each repetition reinforces vocabulary, grammar structures, and pronunciation through pleasure, not effort. Music releases dopamine, the neurotransmitter tied to motivation, which means the learner is not only memorizing, they are forming positive associations with these phrases. 

In addition to the memory boosting aspects of hearing a language through music, the phrases that are sung in songs are often useful colloquial phrases that are how people really speak, so they are more likely to be useful for most language learners, especially those learning in order to be able to converse. 

However, Songs Alone Cannot Replace Structured Learning.

There is a limit to how much language one can learn from music. Lyrics can be poetic, metaphorical, and fragmented. They rarely follow the systematic progression needed for foundational learning: articles, declensions, spelling rules, syntax, verb conjugations, and so on. Someone who learns Greek only from songs would be able to learn some fixed phrases, but a structured grammar class and speaking practice with back and forth conversation with a fluent speaker is necessary to get a more holistic understanding of a language.

Listening to Greek music is not a complete method for learning Greek, but it is a powerful tool to help learn idiomatic expressions quicker.  Specifically, listening to Laïká Songs can help shape Greek pronunciation, transfer cultural memory, and build Greek vocabulary. But Kazantzidis, Theodorakis, and Hadjidakis, cannot substitute for Greek grammar tables, reading comprehension, or structured writing, which are all necessary components to fluency in Modern Greek.

We recommend combining listening to Greek music together with formal Modern Greek group classes with experienced teachers who use songs not as background noise but as active Greek language learning material for lyric analysis, fill-in-the-blank listening comprehension exercises.