December seems to have flown by…!
I thought I’d mix it up for the advent challenge, but in the end it seems I pretty much just focused on Chinese - I read several graded readers and 100+ stories for learners. And in the last week or so I’ve been enchanted by German, reading a few graded readers and a couple of children’s books. I’ve done some bits and pieces for other languages, but nothing major.
I’d like to say I’ll be better at balancing things next year, but I know myself too well. 
There are just so many interesting things! I’m having fun, that’s what matters! 
I’ve been spending some time exploring music this month (it does relate to languages, kinda). Gonna preface this by saying I’m not musical and have only a vague understanding of the harmonic style of 18th century European musicians music theory.
A while ago I looked into 판소리, a traditional type of Korean musical storytelling that emerged hundreds of years ago. Its popularity has waxed and waned, but the tradition is still continuing and today. It has a very unique sound, mixing singing and rhythmic speaking, with the accompaniment of a drum. Anyway, it got me thinking about how music is a part of the fabric of society, and unique to the culture it is born from.
Since I picked up Chinese again, I’ve been listening to various traditional Chinese instruments: I’m particularly fond of the guzheng(古筝) - for me, it’s the representative traditional Chinese instrument, which evokes images of the tranquil Chinese countryside (many of the songs take inspiration from nature). This is a lovely playlist, I especially like the first track:
Below is a tutorial on how to play the guzheng (unfortunately the audio isn’t great - the instrument sounds fine, but the teacher’s explanations are a little difficult to hear). She explains many techniques, but the slurs(滑音) are what I really associate with traditional Chinese music. (49:41)
As an aside, the most common tuning is D major, the notes of the strings being D-E-F#-A-B (Do-Re-Mi-So-La).
Compare this to a western harp, which is tuned in C major: C-D-E-F-G-A-B (Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti).
Below is an interesting video that goes into how music developed differently in the East and West:
This is another interesting video on how the West has a very narrow view when it comes to music theory. It’s like finding out there are hundreds of flavours of ice cream, you don’t have to just stick to vanilla! 
As I mentioned before, I’m not musical, but I was a little shocked to realise that I had never even considered that there might be differing perceptions and understanding of music and music theory in other cultures. I feel quite ignorant.
So how does this relate to language? Well, music is a complex language in itself, and while musical traditions around the world share similarities, each has its own distinct qualities, deeply tied to the culture it emerges from.
I could listen to this lady talk all day!
I can see many parallels between music and language: from the very basic idea of vibrations in the air conveying meaning, to more specific comparisons, such as a musical phrase resembling a sentence. I think there are many aspects of music and language that could be compared, such as: a piece of music and a story; musical notation and orthography; notes and vocabulary, which have different meanings in different contexts; melody and intonation. And of course with tonal languages the similarities are even more obvious.
And, much like learning a language, I think knowledge of a culture’s musical traditions and music theory can allow you to understand the people and their culture at a deeper level.
As I was writing this I remembered that I bought a Korean book of music for traditional instruments, 합주 영산회상 (合奏 靈山會像). I was hunting all over the place for it before realising it’s packed away in a box because I don’t have enough shelf space for all my books. I thought I wouldn’t be needing it any time soon, but… 
I’ll have to dig it out so I can see what type of musical notation it uses. The description says it is transcribed from 이두(吏讀); from memory I think it’s into western-style musical notation rather than numbered notation.
Well, that’s enough of my waffle. 
Happy New Year, everyone!
