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Why Studying With English Lyrics Hurts More Than K-Pop

The language of a song's lyrics decides how much it disrupts your studying. Lyrics in your native language interfere most because your brain automatically decodes them; a second language interferes less; a foreign language you don't understand interferes least. Same song, same volume — different memory cost, driven entirely by comprehension.

What the evidence says

Same song, same volume — different cost

Here’s a fact that surprises almost everyone: two people can listen to the same song at the same volume while studying, and one of them loses more memory than the other. The deciding factor isn’t the beat or the loudness. It’s whether they understand the words.

The irrelevant speech effect

Your brain is built to decode language automatically. When you hear speech you understand, you can’t switch that decoding off — it happens whether you want it or not. This is the irrelevant speech effect, and it’s why music with lyrics competes directly with the reading and memorising you’re trying to do. Perham and Vizard showed that intelligible background speech disrupts our ability to hold word-sequences in order — exactly the skill you use when learning.

The language ladder

The newer and more striking finding is that interference is stratified by language. Ding and Choi (2025), in Applied Cognitive Psychology, found a clear ranking:

1. Native language (L1) — interferes the most. Your brain understands it effortlessly and completely.
2. Second language (L2) — interferes less. You decode some of it, but not all.
3. Unfamiliar foreign language — interferes the least. If you can’t understand it, the words behave more like noise.

For a Vietnamese student, this produces a counterintuitive ranking: studying to Vietnamese pop is the worst; English songs you partly follow are next; Korean or Japanese lyrics you don’t understand are the least harmful. The more you comprehend, the more it costs you.

Why “K-pop over English” is real — but not the finish line

If you don’t speak Korean, K-pop lyrics are closer to instrumental sound for your brain. That’s genuinely better than lyrics you understand. But “less harmful” isn’t the same as “helpful.” A 2018 meta-analysis (Vasilev et al.) confirms that any lyrics still tend to hurt reading more than instrumental music does. The true winner for language-heavy study remains instrumental music or silence.

What to do with this

• Studying words (reading, writing, vocab, essays)? Drop lyrics entirely — especially in a language you understand.
• Can’t give up vocals? Pick a language you don’t speak, and keep it quiet.
• Best of all: use instrumental, non-melodic noise, or silence.

Keep it in perspective

This is one lever, not the whole machine. No playlist choice will substitute for active recall and spaced repetition, and no soundtrack “guarantees” a better grade. But if you’re going to have sound on while you read, understanding why your own language distracts you most lets you make a smarter, kinder choice for your own brain.

Cross-reference: Sound Science Library