Doug has to understand the language that the song is in. His subconcious mind is interpreting the lyrics of the song and feeding that interpretation to his magegift as "instructions"; without the linguistic comprehension, there's nothing to give to the magegift.
Now, I'm sure someone will point out that it might be possible that if he memorized the meaning of a particular song in a language he didn't understand, he should be able to get a power via the association between the remembered lyrics and the actual song. Theoretically, it might work -- but for the purposes of the story (and for gaming him), I'd disallow that. It just starts getting too complicated.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Now, I'm sure someone will point out that it might be possible that if he memorized the meaning of a particular song in a language he didn't understand, he should be able to get a power via the association between the remembered lyrics and the actual song. Theoretically, it might work -- but for the purposes of the story (and for gaming him), I'd disallow that. It just starts getting too complicated.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.