Event review: HELTA EGM, Music Workshop, and Summer Bash. A Day to Remember!

By Vincent Wongaiham-Petersen

On July 13, 2024, at 5 pm, we kicked off our highly anticipated event at the Stadtparkvereinshaus, our usual venue, but this time with an exciting twist. We packed the day with three thrilling events: an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to pass our statute changes and officially re-elect our Co-chairpersons, a cherry-on-top workshop with the incredible Mike Budden, and the icing-on-the-cake summer bash!

The new statute changes were officially approved, making co-chairpersonship an official possibility in HELTA. I’m thrilled to announce that George Arping and I have been voted in officially as co-chairpersons of HELTA. We also passed a provision allowing general meetings to be held online, hybrid, or in-person.

After our brief EGM, we dove into Mike Budden’s workshop. Traveling all the way from Berlin, Mike brought an infectious energy to his session titled “Music is a Kind of Language.”

Mike kicked things off by asking us, “Do/Did you play music? How has this impacted your language learning?” This set the stage for a series of fun and engaging exercises that revealed the inherent musicality within us, even for those who initially felt they weren’t musically inclined.

We started with the iconic “clap clap boom” of “We Will Rock You.” Mike then switched it up by offsetting the beat, making it surprisingly challenging. Even seasoned professional musicians struggle with this, much like language learners with fossilized mistakes!

Next, we played “Pass the Beat,” where we had to clap to pass the beat around a circle, keeping in sync with Mike’s rhythm. It was exhaustingly difficult and required intense concentration.

Then came “Boots and Cats,” where we rhythmically chanted “boots and cats” while simultaneously attempting foot stomping and hand clapping. Just imagining it is already exhausting!

We wrapped up with a round of “Frère Jacques,” which made for a fun round of rounds and a relaxing end to our musical exercises.

We then delved into enlightening discussions on how these activities relate to language teaching and learning. We reflected on challenges, ease, breakthroughs, and the skills on display during the exercises.

 

We explored the connections between music notation and language, how our brains assign phonics to sounds through repetition, and the common experience of mispronouncing words like epitome, hyperbole, and awry until we hear them correctly.

 

Mike guided us through the parallels of learning a musical passage, like a trumpet section in a Chet Baker recording, and learning a language. We examined key elements such as repetition, experimentation, making mistakes, listening, chunking, physical response, and existing technical ability.

We further explored musical skills development—transcription, slowing things down, analysis, imitation, memorization, manipulation, composition, and performance—and their relevance to language learning. We all had a sense that there were parallels between music and language learning, but seeing them clearly laid out in this section was truly astounding.

In summary, Mike’s workshop was not only incredibly enjoyable but also eye-openingly enlightening!

After the workshop, we transitioned to our potluck summer bash. The event was filled with delicious food and heartwarming conversations with both familiar and new faces. We didn’t need a particular theme; the joy of being together with good food and great company was more than enough.

And with that, another HELTA summer highlight was in the books and we naturally can’t wait to see everyone again for another event!