Yesterday’s guest post, Language, music, and me, by Elisa Bonora, was about listening to music while you work. It sparked quite a discussion on Twitter, between those, like Elisa, who find music an inspiration and those, like me, who (sadly) find it a distraction.
What about you? Take our poll and let us know. And if you’ve got time, let us know your favourite “music while you work” tracks in the comments. Thanks!
[polldaddy poll=3210224]
Other posts you might like:
Singing in Occitan. Beautifully.
For a clear New Year: a musical style guide from the EU Commission. (A great example of how to combine music and writing!)
By Marian Dougan
2 Responses
I find background music distracting while I am working because I want to focus on it and this takes away from the 100% focus (hopefully) that I am giving to my work. However, in regular tea breaks, I like to turn on a French radio channel (France Inter/Culture) to keep my brain accustomed to my source language. Also, this keeps me up-to-date with goings-on in France. It also requires 100% focus, so forget about savouring the tea in your hand: that’s simply an energy boost!
Thanks James. Ah, what would we do without tea? I find it keeps me going better than coffee (apart from breakfast time, when coffee – and lots of it – is a must). There’s a radio discussion programme (Shereen Nanjiani on Radio Scotland) that I love to listen to on Saturday mornings. I need to focus on it 100% – not that it’s difficult to follow, it’s just the way my brain works: I find to hard to focus on words while doing something else. So if I’m reading in bed, I can’t have the radio on, and if I’m listening to the radio, I can’t read at the same time.
Renate Fitzroy, a German translator based in Scotland, sent me a link to Radio Swiss Classic the other day – available in German, French and Italian (though I don’t think there’s much talk). I really should follow your example and listen to Italian radio.