During my teenage years, the first time I got in touch with English was through music. I used to spend hours and hours listening to different kinds of music in my room. This phase introduced me to Evanescence, System of a Down, Avril Lavigne, Linkin Park and all of that typical adolescent pseudo-gothic style from the 2000s. Back then, I was always trying to have more free time so I could watch MTV programs, cry with Amy Lee lying on some random place, or pretend I was singing on my own stage (even if that stage was in my shower). And I was happy with that.

Currently, people have increased access to social media and good-quality internet, which was not the case at the time I mentioned. If you have access to this setting, you can be closer to the songs you like, artists, their accounts on Instagram, TikTok, YoutTube, etc. It doesn’t matter whether you live in Brazil, Japan or Argentina, music can connect you to the English language.

I know that for most non-native students the idea that learning a language has to be boring was introduced since their school years – or whenever their first contact with English was. It has to involve many books and conventional classes, as well as reading a lot of the same stuff and not enjoying the process at all. But is that really true? If you are a student and, as I am, passionate about English songs and singers, a great way to practice the language and have fun at the same time is to follow these artists on social media, watch their stories and check out their posts.

Listening to their songs and watching their lives can be great to improve your listening skills. Reading their posts, and of course, looking for news and articles about them are amazing ways to work on your reading skills. Oh, you can also watch interviews or fan-made videos and after that record yourself talking about what you understood from the content. Besides being really fun, it helps you expand your vocabulary and lets you analyse your speaking during (and after) the activity. So, you don’t have to look at English as your mortal enemy once you begin taking
advantage of the things that you love and adding them to your routine. Shall we try it?