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  • A musician's perspective on language learning

    A musician's perspective on language learning
    2025/03/13
    When I first began to work with computing technology—I needed a database to manage a combination of bibliographical and encoded musical information—I became acquainted with two consultants at my employer’s computing centre, one of whom was a musician. It was in this context that I first heard the assertion that “musicians make good programmers,” and indeed I came to understand over the years that this was something of a stereotype, at least in the years before ca. 2000.Being a musician myself I was intrigued by the concept, and in fact became somewhat immersed in development of the technical infrastructure that my project required. At a certain point I began to articulate an explanation of why musicians might take naturally to computer programming:Musicians, by practicing, are accustomed to working alone, relentlessly performing repetitive tasks, seeking to create coherence and meaning across non-verbal micro- and macro-structures, striving for perfection.In other words, we acquire technical mastery by breaking things down musically into their smallest logical components, repeating and refining these until they become fluent, then joining them with what precedes or follows to shape meaningful phrases, ultimately to build tension, expectation, resolution, and a sense of overall meaning and wholeness.One of the values I see to musical training is that one learns, through practicing techniques and skills, an approach that transposes well to learning and understanding things in both quantitative and verbal arts, such as mathematics and language. It also simply develops the ability to sustain attention for long periods of time. Language learning seems to me to have a particular kinship with music insofar as it requires listening to build understanding, as well as to enable the ability to create or recreate sounds; it requires sensitivity to the nuances of the temporal flow of sound—rhythm and meter—to shape comprehensible phrases and sentences; and it strives for the ability to detect and mimic the melodic shape of spoken language—the rise and fall of pitch in spoken language that lends it intellectual or emotional expression.Indeed I have always been fascinated with language acquisition and actively transpose approaches from musical learning and practice to language learning. How does this work?In effect, I’ve adopted an approach to learning languages—currently focusing on improving my fluency in French—that looks very much like how a musician approaches mastery of their instrument or a piece of music. A key part of this is a daily practice routine. I spend a part of almost every day in language study—sometimes no more than ten minutes if circumstances demand, but often an hour or more. While I might begin a musical practice session with exercises to limber up the muscles used while playing—scales, arpeggios, other études—I often start my language learning simply by reading aloud from the French newspapers I subscribe to. There might be new vocabulary, or a turn of phrase I have to linger on to fully discern its meaning, and these can interrupt the flow—if I am not understanding something’s meaning, I cannot read aloud in a meaningful way either. So I’ll pause, acquire understanding, then repeat so that the spoken language feels natural. I might also then make notes about vocabulary or word usage for future study.Frequently these days the newspaper offers audio versions of its articles, sometimes read by the author. There will be times when I listen to these as well. And on other days I will also record myself reading these same pieces aloud, then listen and compare (I’ve a basic recording setup I use to create voiceovers for my Substack essays). Again, this feels much like the experience of learning to perform a piece of music, recording it, then reviewing the recording—you always hear things differently during playback, and frequently things just don’t sound the way you thought. Sometimes it is quite painful, sometimes rewarding. I think of this as my cobbled-together “language lab” experience.Some language teachers frown on the old tradition of studying vocabulary lists, but it’s still part of my practice routine. Over the course of time my lists consist less of individual words than idioms, expressions and common phrases, which I find more challenging to master. It’s in this context that I find the old music practice techniques kick in. Let’s say, for example, I’m trying to master an idiom, like “être au ras des pâquerettes” (literally, “to be at the level of the daisies,” i.e., to be at a low intellectual level). I’d first take “être au ras de” (which might be used by itself in some other context), then join it up with “des pâquerettes” to build the idiom—and then someday I’ll be able to reel it off spontaneously, to everyone’s astonishment (“Il reste toujours au ras des pâquerettes!”). Or let’s take a phrase like ...
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    7 分
  • An approach to adapting linguistically in France

    An approach to adapting linguistically in France
    2025/02/26
    If you’re a relative newcomer to France, have a basic knowledge of French and want to gain fluency in informal daily conversation, there are many possibilities that do not involve a computer or mobile phone screen. Some of these opportunities are sponsored by associations.Although I already had a good foundational knowledge of French when moving to Nice, Côte d’Azur at the end of 2021, our first months comprised a coming to consciousness of the French I had never learned, that is, the things that aren’t taught in your average American French classes. Some examples: the language used in official documents required to transfer our citizen’s rights from Ireland to France; the processes for exchanging drivers licences; all the fine print when opening bank accounts and insurance policies; understanding lease agreements; registering with the national healthcare system; and all the other démarches administratives (administrative procedures).As these administrative processes fell into place, however, another linguistic weakness made itself known that was partially based in language knowledge, and partially in culture and attitude: ordinary everyday conversation and small talk.It’s easy enough to gain fluency in the kinds of transactions that are part of everyday life—interactions with staff at the market, bakery, or at the till in a supermarket; buying necessities at the hardware store; making an appointment on the telephone. I say these are easy because they are repetitive and involve a limited vocabulary—every transaction becomes a brief language drill. (Just make sure you can tell the time of day and know numbers well enough to easily recognise them!) But find yourself in a conversation with someone unexpectedly—a friendly person at a bus stop or discussing the weather with a neighbour—and the arbitrary excursion into small-talk can become tricky quickly.I had had a strategy for upgrading my abilities in French well before taking up residence in France—radio, television, newspaper subscriptions, youtube videos (a nice feature is being able to slow the tempo down and repeat when needed), language apps, even Alliance Française classes online. But none of these is a substitute for actually conversing with French people. We were new in town, and had no local friends or personal contacts. What to do ?France, like other European countries, has many associations, ranging from informal groups of people with common interests to large entities with legal obligations. I happened upon the Maison des Associations at Place Garibaldi, Nice, whose exterior bulletin board has notices advertising many local associations—several of which focused on language learning. I followed up with one of them and learned that, by becoming a paid member (€30 annually) , I would be eligible to participate in a range of activities sponsored by the group, including a weekly informal gathering at a café to exchange French and English language conversations, as well as a weekly atelier or “advanced French workshop” that has a more literary inclination.Once I’d become a member of the association I joined the conversation group at one of its Tuesday morning gatherings at a café. The timing of the meeting should have tipped me off to this being a group of seniors and retirees, and so it was, and it is a friendly and welcoming group at that. There were no formal introductions, I simply introduced myself to those seated closest to me. It became apparent quickly that I was one of a small handful of native English speakers present.Formally the “rule” was that conversation would be undertaken for one hour in French, and for one hour in English. The first order of business is choosing which language to start with. On my first meeting with this group we began with English, but it quickly migrated back to French. The person seated next to me explained that most of the people who attend have done so for years and that it is now more of a social gathering than a structured learning experience. Others also explained that there had previously been a near balance of French and English speakers, but the majority of British attendees disappeared once Brexit took hold. All the better for me, since my personal goal was to gain better fluency in French day-to-day conversation, and most of the conversation takes place in French.The members of this association are diverse and attend the Tuesday morning meeting as mood and possibility allow. It’s like a small-talk language immersion programme. Topics arise spontaneously and change as quickly as they appear. Sometimes the topic is obscure to someone who is not a long-time resident of France or Nice, which means learning some new tidbit about the culture, geography or local politics and politicians, for example. And everyone is curious linguistically—so interrupting a chat to ask that an unfamiliar word be explained can lead to an entirely new topic of conversation.For me, ...
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    11 分
  • Getting involved with French community life - Associations

    Getting involved with French community life - Associations
    2025/02/13

    There is a large and growing cottage industry catering to people moving internationally, particularly from the U.S. to France. These range from individuals and couples who have moved in the past couple years and are now offering how-to advice on social media, to corporate relocation firms that can handle or assist with many of the logistics and administrative paperwork involved. Some of these services offer advice on getting settled and building a new network of acquaintances, but few speak about the potential role of French Associations.



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    5 分
  • Why Nice (France)?

    Why Nice (France)?
    2025/02/06

    A question I hear frequently these days is, "Why did you choose Nice for retirement?” I hear it from residents of Nice most frequently (who probably can already guess some of the answers), but from others as well—including some Substack readers.

    There are many reasons why we chose to move from Dublin, Ireland to Nice, France when retiring at the end of 2021. It was partly from familiarity—we had made several trips to Nice and enjoyed two Christmas holidays there as a family. We appreciated the mild December weather (and the reprieve from Dublin’s often damp, grey winters) and simply being there. But choosing a place to live is different from just choosing a holiday destination, and we took the process seriously. ...

    Read the full text of this essay on Substack.



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    12 分
  • Is there a road home?

    Is there a road home?
    2025/02/02
    In several posts I’ve referred to my family’s departure from the U.S., which was motivated by an eminently practical concern: healthcare. Family health and well-being had not only become unaffordable, it had also become inaccessible due to the the industrial policy of not insuring individuals with “pre-existing conditions.” Subsequently the Affordable Care Act addressed the latter issue, largely by not challenging the myriad issues of healthcare costs.At the time, in 2009, I saw our departure as a difficult but necessary practical response to an existential issue. As we settled into a European culture where healthcare was adequately addressed, I came to realise that the base issue was not a single practical problem. It was, rather, a broader issue of shared societal values and of national culture. Shared societal values insofar as we believe in equitable access to healthcare for all citizens, not simply those born without chronic disease and with financial privilege (in Ireland, where we settled, access to healthcare is universally accepted as a right of the population). National culture insofar as we came to understand that American society’s expectation of the role of government is fundamentally different from that in most other Western democracies. The healthcare issue in America—indeed, issues of safety and security in general—are really symptoms of U.S. society’s historically meagre expectations of the role of government in actually supporting “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”Did these latter words, from the U.S. Declaration of Independence, imply that achieving such noble goals was the responsibility of the individual, or did it declare it a responsibility shared between the citizenry and the governing nation-state? The culture appears to have embraced the former interpretation, whereas we favour the latter.In the course of time, then, it became clear to us that the deeper reason for our departure from the United States had been, in effect, a lack of alignment between our values and convictions, and those of the society we were living in.Living outside of the United States one sees the country from a different perspective. The shape of the lens through which we view things changes in many ways. The press and the media are always, as I once read while living in Germany, “ein krummer Spiegel der Realität” (a curved or distorted mirror of reality)—in Europe the press offers different perspectives while also, in general, viewing the world as a much larger place than the American media generally acknowledges. And there are other more commonplace, more quotidian and even mundane phenomena in our new place of residence that change one’s perspective: the nature of the workplace and of the workday; everyday civility; the absence of the vitriolic anger we often witness among Americans; the ability to non-contentiously discuss contrary points of view with fellow citizens; the more comprehensive safety net of the welfare state; the greater accessibility of quality education, of healthcare; the lack of disagreement among even those of very different political views on the reality of climate change; and on and on.While living in Ireland I was often asked if or when I’d return to the United States. Indeed it was an inevitable part of first conversations with people. It’s not a question I hear anymore, and I don’t believe it is because we now live in France. I think it is because the evolution of American society and government over the past while has caused many European citizens to no longer regard America as the reliable and irresistible land of promise and endless possibilities it once was, and in many ways they perceive the consequences of its evolution as something threatening, dangerous and potentially contagious. If I were now called upon to answer that question about returning to the U.S. I would have to say that the trajectory of social policy from 2000 to the present only intensifies the worries that led to our difficult decision to move to a new jurisdiction. Yes, the Obama and Biden years mitigated some concerns, but I was profoundly disappointed by the modesty—indeed the tentativeness—of reforms effected by those administrations in the domain of healthcare in particular, our key personal issue.Moreover, from 2025 the country seems like the land of broken promises. Promises with regard to the welfare of society made through programmes like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, or the reforms implemented by the Affordable Care Act, all now under tangible threat. Promises with regard to security and the rule of law, now cast aside, while a policy of personal revenge unfolds from the highest seat in government. Promises made in treaties with its two closest neighbours and allies, now endangered and potentially meaningless as a result of vicious and ignorant political whim. And promises made to immigrants, like my forbears, enshrined in the poetic ...
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    7 分
  • Leaving Home, Coming Home

    Leaving Home, Coming Home
    2025/01/29

    We arrived in Dublin, Ireland in September of 2009 to begin new jobs at Ireland’s largest university, which at the time identified itself as “distinctly Irish.” We had never travelled in Ireland prior to the trip my wife and I made to Dublin for the job interviews, although the maternal side of my family was also, well, distinctly Irish. In fact, I’d never given much thought to my Irish ancestry—it was simply something that was there, and was not a salient part of my identity. I quickly learned, however, that it was meaningful to my new colleagues and acquaintances.

    Read the text version of this podcast on Substack.



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    11 分
  • The extreme price of prescription drugs in America

    The extreme price of prescription drugs in America
    2025/01/22
    Living in France I still regularly hear stories about Americans’ experiences with healthcare—often focusing on the extraordinary cost of prescription drugs. The most recent tale involved a prescription for a three-month supply of Eliquis (Apixaban) for a person using a Medicare Advantage plan. The insurer had provided a “Copay card” pre-loaded with $750 to be used when purchasing drugs. The Eliquis prescription turned out to cost $1,781—so paying for the prescription required $1,031 out of pocket.I then looked up the comparable over-the-counter cost for Eliquis at pharmacies in France, for the same dosage: it was €176.85, or about 10 percent of the cost in the United States. In fact, if we were prescribed Eliquis by a doctor here in France, our cost at the pharmacy would be zero, thanks to the single-payer health insurance system and our low-cost supplementary insurance (generally referred to as a mutuelle). How could there be such an extraordinary difference?I’ve since compared the costs of fifteen prescription drugs in the U.S. and in France according to two reliable purveyors of drug information. Ten of the drugs are among the most commonly prescribed by American doctors; the others were chosen arbitrarily, but are also frequently prescribed, often for more specialised conditions. The results are shown in the table on the Substack page for this essay.The result, in aggregate, is even more astonishing than the initial comparison made with Eliquis—on average, the cost of the very same drugs (brand and dosage) in France was less than 6 percent the cost in the United States.There is something wildly wrong here. Let’s consider some reasons why.First and foremost, France has a single-payer health insurance system—the Assurance Maladie, or more formally Caisse Primaire d’Assurance Maladie (generally referred to as CPAM). This means that there is a single public-sector entity nationally that is authorised and positioned to negotiate drug prices for the whole of French society—and obviously it does so effectively.Second, there is genuine competition among the private insurers that provide supplementary health insurance. These organisations, consisting mostly of non-profits and private for-profit insurance companies, provide policies that cover costs that are not fully covered by CPAM. These organisations number in the hundreds. The high level of competition means costs are generally low, and consumers can evaluate many offerings to find one that fits their specific needs. If an individual or family cannot afford supplementary insurance, policies for those in need are also available from a range of public- and private-sector organisations.The Biden administration and the Democratic Party have trumpeted advances made in the past several years in lowering costs of prescription drugs for Medicare subscribers. Specifically this includes authorising Medicare—the country’s existing single-payer medical insurance system—to negotiate prices with drug companies. It also includes lowering the cost of insulin for those over age 65 to $35 monthly, and capping overall annual expenditure on prescription drugs (with some exclusions) to $2,000.But let’s put this into perspective. Medicare represents less than 20 percent of the U.S. population, so impact is limited. Many with Type 1 diabetes are diagnosed with the illness as adolescents, and the average age for diagnosis of all types of diabetes is 49.2 This means that some parts of the population are denied beneficial costs for insulin reserved for seniors for 15-50 years while suffering from both the disease and the costs of treatment. As a result, some will perish before qualifying for Medicare, and many others will suffer financial hardship. Also consider that many Americans over the age of 65 and living in retirement depend exclusively for income on Social Security. The average individual Social Security payment as of January 2025 is $1,976 (before taxes). So, the cap on drug payments of $2,000 annually will, for many, consume an entire month’s pre-tax income, or more.So the government’s efforts to lower drug prices in the past four years on behalf of its over-65 population have been extremely modest. Why? It is because the government and its leadership, regardless of party, also serve another powerful constituency—the private insurers who dominate the Medicare Part D marketplace, and who also control the industry that performs medical coding, prescription benefits management and the direct issuance of drugs to clients by their pharmacies. Indeed, a Federal Trade Commission report released 14 January 2025 concludes that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) were responsible for eye-watering increases in the cost of drugs for treatment of cancer, heart disease, HIV, and other illnesses. The report "found that the ‘Big 3 PBMs’—Caremark Rx, LLC (CVS), Express Scripts, Inc. (ESI), and OptumRx, Inc. (OptumRx)—marked up numerous ...
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    9 分
  • German (then) French (now) (Podcast)

    German (then) French (now) (Podcast)
    2025/01/18

    Growing up I found the notion of speaking languages other than English intriguing. The experiences of learning French in childhood, learning German in early adulthood, then coming back to French later in life has been a fascinating cultural experience.



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    17 分