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Too many languages VS significant progres | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| guiguixx1 Octoglot Senior Member Belgium guillaumelp.wordpres Joined 4027 days ago 163 posts - 207 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Dutch, Portuguese, Esperanto, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 9 of 21 14 February 2015 at 7:14pm | IP Logged |
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I wanted to learn russian because I have already encountered Russian people and spoken
about languages with them, and it appears that Russian is very different from English or French, and I wanted to try it. I am also interested by its different alphabet. So it's mainly out of curiosity, and it's also a challenge, since I've heard it had a quite tough grammar. Those are actually the same reasons that push me toward trying Mandarin Chinese (which I also want to learn), But I more often come across a desire to learn Russian than to learn Chinese, I don't know why, though... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6532 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 10 of 21 14 February 2015 at 7:46pm | IP Logged |
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If you want to learn the Russian alphabet, just learn it. And then make your decision without taking the alphabet into account. Polish and Slovak are just as different from English/French despite maybe having a more Western "feel" about them, and the main Russian difficulty that they lack is the unpredictable stress.
A few links that won't answer your questions directly but may help you in choosing the direction you take: one thread about choosing a language one more thread, about learning several at once a wikia article I started Prof Argüelles' biography 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4824 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 11 of 21 14 February 2015 at 10:49pm | IP Logged |
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I maxed out at five - I went from "learning four languages slowly" to "learning one language
slowly and slowly forgetting the other four." I think this maximum would change for me once I achieve more proficiency in my target languages. But I need to see progress to reach a proficient level. Studying too many languages was a fun and tiring phase, but in the end I find focusing on one at a time for 12-20 months (with flirts along the way) far more rewarding and effective. Though I think I had to learn from experience that five was too many for me. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| guiguixx1 Octoglot Senior Member Belgium guillaumelp.wordpres Joined 4027 days ago 163 posts - 207 votes Speaks: French*, English, Dutch, Portuguese, Esperanto, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 12 of 21 18 March 2015 at 9:02pm | IP Logged |
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Long time no see!
Although I LOVE using and studying many languages at the same time, I do realize that the only way to have a quick and good learning is to focus on one language. Every time I improve significantly in a language, it was thanks to focus, an creating an immersion in the language for a couple of days/weeks. I think it's best to reach B1, if not B2, in a language, before moving on. This would also enable me to also study a related language (Italian after Spanish), without mixing both. Among my 5 foreign languages (Spanish, Italian, German, Esperanto, Polish), although I am tempted to chose as many of those as I could, I think I will have to just focus on 2 (I want to get to B2 in Spanish, which is currently around B1, and I have decided to stick to 1 lesson of Polish Assimil every day, which only requires about 30 min). My only problem with that is that I'm afraid of loosing my Italian and German knowledge, both around A1-A2. Would it be better to just listen to them everyday? Or just focus on Spanish actively until getting to B2 in order to then switch language? God, I envy all those polyglots who can use 5-10 languages a day because they have already studied them... But well...they have worked for it. It's my turn now to take years to reach what they have reach, or at least to try and near it as much as I can. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5142 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 13 of 21 19 March 2015 at 10:50am | IP Logged |
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2 is my maximum. I tried 3 (all Romance) but progress was far too slow and changing between them got too confusing. Even two is a big compromise, and I'd make much faster progress in one at a time, but efficiency isn't the only factor that goes into my decision-making: I love both languages and am impatient to use them and improve at them, so I accept the very significant trade-offs.
I think the main factor is how much free time you have. Serpent's example of 8 hours per day day only makes sense if you have 8 hours per day in the first place, which few of us do. I do think there's an upper limit to how much you can study one language in a day, especially for less familiar languages (beginner level and/or not similar to ones you already know). A while ago I dabbled in Russian for a few months and my brain just stopped accepting information after 30-60 minutes each day, so if I wanted to spend more time than that on languages it had to be on other ones. With a more advanced or familiar language, you can more easily put in several productive hours per day of study, input, and conversation. Judging by the How long per day thread, many of us have around an hour or two per day to dedicate to languages. This is my case, and I find that it very much is linear: I could spend two productive hours on Italian, or two on French, or one on each. There's some amount of synergy between these related languages, but personally I find that that mostly just applies to receptive skills rather than productive ones and it's nowhere near significant enough to compensate for the trade-offs. As usual the short answer is "it depends": on your free time and on what works for you. I've arrived at my conclusion from experimentation, and others probably have to do the same. Common advice is to reach a reasonable level in one before starting another. I agree, but bear in mind that going from intermediate to advanced takes a lot more time and effort than going from beginner to intermediate, so if your plan is to continue progressing in the first when you add in the second then you might find yourself struggling for time. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6532 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 14 of 21 19 March 2015 at 11:41am | IP Logged |
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Greater synergy requires a knowledge/understanding of linguistics. Given the OP's experience with Ancient Greek and Latin, I kinda took that for granted (at least in terms of having an interest in linguistics).
Almost nobody has 8 hours a day. But we have plenty of minutes here and there. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4944 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 15 of 21 19 March 2015 at 11:26pm | IP Logged |
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My maximum is three and only when I am not too busy otherwise. I'd say all those
people who manage to learn more need to be very good at time management and very disciplined, which are qualities I lack. I find very interesting Serpent's note on whether we would put several times more time into one language if we weren't learning others at the same time. I think her assumption is correct, I wouldn't. My few months of pure French focus were somehow efficient, yet I wasn't enjoying it as much as I enjoy learning two (or sometimes three) languages at once even though less intensively. I think there is as well one more question to ponder. Most of us, from what I read in the logs, learn actively one or two while maintaining the others (I am usually maintaining just English and now French but some people are maintaining a dozen languages which I find amazing and worthy of admiration). However, where is the line between slow learning and maintenance? In past, I had been doing activities I considered to be pure maintenance for an extended period of time. And I found out later I either made some progress or, at least, I had prepared ground for a larger chunk of progress shortly after return to active studying. Therefore I believe it is well possible we are often learning more languages at once than we believe. After all, we are getting better (=learning) even at our native languages for as long as we live and use them, in my opinion. So, guiguixx1, I would consider maintaining your Italian and German somehow, if I were you, even though it tends to be rough at such a level. But, as always, you are the only one to know how much free time you can devote to your languages. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| guiguixx1 Octoglot Senior Member Belgium guillaumelp.wordpres Joined 4027 days ago 163 posts - 207 votes Speaks: French*, English, Dutch, Portuguese, Esperanto, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 16 of 21 20 March 2015 at 12:36am | IP Logged |
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Thank you all for your answers and advice!
I is true that 2-3 seems a good maximum, if the goal is to get somewhere in our languages, although the best progresses seem to be made when focusing on only one language. these weeks, I have barely enough time to do my daily polish assimil ((I have an exam soon + the most important work of my university year + books). But in 2 weeks' time, I should have a bit more time (although more works are coming, especially during the easter holiday). I have still found a couple of minutes to continue reading my harry potter 2 in spanish, and realise that I still have a good command of the vocab (although HP2 is not particularly difficult). I nevertheless need more time to remember which time are used, to which time specific endings correspond, and how the subjunctive is used. Still, since I have not looked at any Spanish grammar book ever since last june, I think it's understandable. But I still wonder if I really have to continue working on my book, or if my command is good enough to go on to Italian, which is definitely the next language I have to focus on. maybe I should try the challenge of "cien anos de soledad" in order to push my level again...Well, since Italian is next, a higher level in Spanish would be more than welcome I suppose... and in the meantime, I would keeping listening to italian and German chunks here and there, just to maintain 1 person has voted this message useful |
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