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Should I give in to language wanderlust? | ||
Tags: Wanderlust | Simultaneous study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| nj24 Diglot Groupie United States Joined 4654 days ago 56 posts - 106 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Italian, French | Message 1 of 16 29 December 2013 at 11:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My main question is "Should I learn French?"
But a little bit about my language background would probably be helpful before I ask that question. I've always been fascinated by foreign languages and dabbled in languages all throughout high school. I studied Latin for several years and even took a semester of Latin in college (but promptly forgot nearly everything I'd learned after passing the exams). I also studied French off and on for over a year (I remember only a few sentences now), Spanish (an unsuccessful adventure with a Rosetta Stone program), a brief stint with Japanese (several months with a Pimsleur program), and Italian (slightly more seriously than the other languages, but still not that intensely). Anyhow, when I reached my sophomore year of college, I knew that if I ever wanted to truly learn a language I would have to pick just one and dedicate a solid two to three years on that language alone. I actually had been studying Italian for a while at the time, but couldn't find a good, comprehensive course that fit my learning style and ended up making very little progress. It was around that time that I discovered this forum and the FSI site. I also happened to be friends with several Spanish speakers, so I decided to drop Italian and try to learn Spanish instead. The funny thing is that I was very reluctant about it. I didn't even like the sound of Spanish compared to Italian. However, I really wanted to be able to speak a foreign language, and if I would be able to do that with Spanish, I was willing to put my Italian studies on hold. I told myself that learning Spanish to a decent level would help me learn Italian in the future. It was the summertime, and I had two months left before heading back to school. I challenged myself to reach the same level in Spanish in two months that I had accomplished in Italian over the course of the past several years. And I did. In just two months using the FSI course and several other resources, I had passed my level in Italian. And I had also fallen in love with Spanish. I can't imagine not speaking this language! Anyhow, for over two years (it will be three this summer), I've been studying Spanish and have reached an intermediate level. I'm almost finished with the FSI course (I have about two or three lessons left). I can watch movies and TV shows without subtitles and can read fairly easily depending on the difficulty of the book. Speaking is my problem area, mostly because I haven't practiced it very much, so that will be my main focus in 2014. I found a language exchange partner this fall so I'm hoping to be able to speak more consistently each week. I know I still have a lot to learn, but I'm beginning to experience wanderlust and am ready to start studying a new language. And here's my dilemma. I've already decided I'm going to start seriously studying Mandarin Chinese. My brother has been interested in studying it, and since I'm sort of the foreign language ambassador in my family, I thought it would be fun to learn it with him and encourage him along the way. I know that Mandarin Chinese won't hinder or interfere with my Spanish studies at all (that is, I shouldn't mix up Chinese and Spanish words when I'm talking). But I also would love to study another Romance language as well. I guess I keep on having wanderlust for the languages that I studied briefly back in high school, and the two main languages that I've also wanted to speak are Italian and French. I'd love to pick up Italian again but I'm thinking my Spanish speaking skills should be stronger first. I'm afraid that the languages are too similar that I'd end up speaking some weird mix of Spanish and Italian. So, I've been thinking about taking up French. I've heard so much about the Assimil courses and I've always really wanted to try them. I bought a copy of the Assimil French course about a year ago and have been dying to try it out, but I'm worried that studying French on top of Mandarin will take away too much time from my Spanish studies, especially since I'd already be cutting back on my Spanish studies to learn Mandarin. What do you all think? Should I learn French or not? I keep on thinking of the old saying, "Two's company, three's a crowd." I'm not interested in just dabbling in French and Mandarin. I really want to reach a level where I can converse easily, read, listen to the radio, and watch shows without subtitles. I guess I wouldn't feel as bad if learning French would actually be helping to reinforce my Spanish. Does learning another Romance language help reinforce the grammar of your first Romance language? I am also wondering if I'll pick up French faster than I picked up Spanish, and if that means that I shouldn't be as worried about the time allocation. I've already tried reading French news articles and can actually get the gist of most of the sentences, probably because of the countless similar words between French, English, and Spanish. If I do pick up French, do you think it would be best if I switched off between Mandarin and French? For example, one day I study Mandarin, the next day French. Or maybe I should study a little of each language each day, but switch off on which one I study more intensely. I'm really looking for advice from those who study multiple languages at the same time and how that works for you. Maybe it would be better for me to make a little headway first (three months or so) with Mandarin before diving into French as well? Maybe I should just kill my French dreams for the time being and spend 2014 focusing on strengthening my Spanish and reaching an advanced beginner level in Mandarin? I'd love to hear the experience of others and what you think the benefits and drawbacks would be, especially regarding my specific situation. Thanks for your help! Edited by nj24 on 29 December 2013 at 11:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7196 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 2 of 16 30 December 2013 at 1:29am | IP Logged | |||||
No. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6894 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 3 of 16 30 December 2013 at 1:44am | IP Logged | |||||
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In this situation, I would focus on improving Spanish (particularly the speaking skills) and learning Mandarin. You already have quite a lot on your plate, and it might not be reasonable to limit your Spanish and Mandarin learning time to accommodate another language.
I don't think French would help you that much to reinforce your Spanish, at least not to an extent that would compensate for possible interferences. Speaking is the skill that is most likely to suffer from interferences, and given that it is your weakest skill anyway, I would suggest working on that before starting any serious French studies. (That said, some people are less prone to interferences than me... maybe you are one of those lucky ones :).) Furthermore, it seems to me that you are a bit more into Italian than into French... so maybe it would make sens to wait for a while, and then reconsider going back to Italian before your French studies. In the case of strong language wanderlust, you could also dabble just a little bit with French - read about it, do some fun activities etc. However, I would not give in to language wanderlust completely at this moment, not when you are still on your way to master your first foreign language. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Indíritheach Senior Member United States Joined 4036 days ago 108 posts - 146 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Irish, French | Message 4 of 16 30 December 2013 at 2:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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My rule is 200 hours in a language before even contemplating starting another. It's a trick I picked up on this forum, and it's good advice. You should really stagger your languages, i.e. start one, put in a good amount of hours, and then start another. And you're right, you would have way too much on your plate. And from what I understand, Chinese is a very demanding language. So if I were you, I would work on Chinese for a while, and at the same time keep working on your Spanish. That's what I'm doing...I started learning Irish after I got to an intermediate level of Spanish, and I am not going to start learning French until I've got at least 200 hours of Irish under my belt. Maybe in 6 months or so, when your Spanish is even better and you've gotten a good start in Chinese, you can think about adding French. Also, keep track of the hours you put into your languages, and make a goal. It helps keep Wanderlust at bay and will help keep you focused, and you can "reward" yourself with French after you've reached your goal in Mandarin.
9 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6588 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 5 of 16 30 December 2013 at 4:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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Are you addicted to the beginner stage?
It's fun indeed. The progress is fast. Just remember that in any new language it will also slow down at some point. What you need now is to make your current stage of learning as fun as the beginner one was. But also, have you started Mandarin yet? Are you intimidated or just not as interested as you are in French... or Italian? You don't need to learn the language seriously just to help your brother. What if he loses interest as soon as he realizes how difficult it is going to be? The more I reread your post, the more I have a feeling that you actually want to learn Italian. Apart from the pronunciation, the similarity level with French is pretty much the same. I can read French although I hate the language :P In my experience, if you limit your study to the passive skills (reading, listening), there's no interference. You should continue to be serious about Spanish, but if you really just need a fun distraction, go for Italian. I don't think French is any better if you are worried about interference, and Mandarin is too much of a commitment. Just think of what happens when you've reached "basic fluency" in Spanish. You'll want to start Italian no matter how much you've learned in French, Mandarin or any other language, won't you? So (re)start it now, just focus on the passive skills. Or try to hold on just a little longer (and start nothing). But really the risks of going back to Italian now (instead of waiting for the right moment) are smaller than these of starting one or more languages you like less. (I've been there too, exactly with Italian, and also with Portuguese. Originally for the 6 week challenge, you had to start a new language. I started Esperanto and Yiddish... and as you can see even my huge list has no space for these nowadays. There's nothing wrong with a less than perfect start. You just have to start somewhere. Speaking of starts, you'd be welcome in TAC team STARt. It's for people learning their first foreign language/aiming to take it to fluency) As for "how", see this wikia article. 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4349 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 6 of 16 30 December 2013 at 8:58am | IP Logged | |||||
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I feel or you. 2013 was wasted in wanderlust. So I'd say, no, you shouldn't. Stick with certain languages a while before you start a new one.
3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4900 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 7 of 16 30 December 2013 at 1:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
Why not? It all depends why you're studying languages. There is nothing wrong with being a beginner in a dozen languages, if you enjoy doing that. If you need a language for work/study/travel then that is different. If you're studying for enjoyment, then do whatever gives you enjoyment. The only argument against this in your post is that you said, "I really want to reach a level where I can converse easily, read, listen to the radio, and watch shows without subtitles." That is a difficult level to attain in one language, and will be even harder trying it with two. I agree with those who have said Chinese will be demanding, and French won't help your Spanish. I also agree that if I were in your place I would make sure I maintained my Spanish. But if you have the time and if you have the willpower, by all means spend a bit of time each day on Assimil French while working hard on your Chinese. I say, go for it! You'll probably end up favouring one language and eventually dropping the other (at least temporarily). But it will be because you want to, and you will have discovered from experience which language you enjoy learning more. EDIT: Having reread some of the posts above, particularly Serpent's, I might revise this to suggest you just go for Italian, in the spirit of doing what you actually want to do. Edited by Jeffers on 30 December 2013 at 1:55pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| culebrilla Senior Member United States Joined 3988 days ago 246 posts - 436 votes Speaks: Spanish | Message 8 of 16 30 December 2013 at 2:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Why don't you just focus on one language until you can conjugate verbs reflexively, form sentences without much thought, and can choose the word that a native speaker would pick 95% of the time? If you reach such a level I don't think you would ever get confused when you learn other languages.
The problem with learning so many languages without really reinforcing them is that maintenance really of languages really takes a lot of effort and you will get really rusty if you don't practice your languages every day. Personally I lose fluency in my ONE foreign language if I don't speak at least every other day. Imagine what would happen if I only got to speak it once a week! Good luck. Edit: it is just personal preference. If you want to have a tourist level ability in a lot of languages or be near-native in only few, you will have to make compromises. The only way you would be able to be near-native in a lot of languages is with a LOT of work. Nobody can answer this question except you. Edited by culebrilla on 30 December 2013 at 4:39pm 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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