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Fluency in one language vs. reading in two | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Talib Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6651 days ago 171 posts - 205 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (classical) Studies: Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 1 of 20 15 September 2014 at 12:27am | IP Logged | |||||
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I would be interested in gaining high proficiency in Spanish to fluently communicate with other people in the United States. On the other hand, I could probably gain a reading knowledge of French and German with a similar amount of effort since I would only be learning those languages on a passive level. Would you choose to have high proficiency in one language or moderate proficiency in two?
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| Mutant Groupie United States Joined 3901 days ago 45 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German | Message 2 of 20 15 September 2014 at 12:44am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hmm...as long as my French gets to an advanced level, and I can eventually learn German to a similiar level, I'd be happy just wandering around at will, studying languages and only getting to an intermediate level in most of them. Of course, if I ever really needed one for extended travel, I'd want to become as conversational as possible. And it's almost impossible for me to avoid speaking Spanish where I live, so I suppose my Spanish will always be constantly reinforced with speaking practice.
So, in short: As long as I can reach an advanced level in French and German, I'd be happy only getting to an intermediate level in everything else. Edited by Mutant on 15 September 2014 at 12:45am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6587 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 3 of 20 15 September 2014 at 3:03am | IP Logged | |||||
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Go for all three :) just don't start them all at once. Choose the one for which you have the most immediate need (most likely Spanish, but if you're desperate to read something specific in French or German, go for it). Also, even if you choose "only" French and German, you probably shouldn't start them at once.
Also, it's not clear how strong your motivation is for Spanish. Do you like the culture? Do you have friends who speak it? There might be a lot of Spanish speakers around, but if you're not that interested in them, you'll struggle. Well, interest can be developed, but the spark has to be there. Basically, don't choose Spanish just because it's useful. One more factor: if you decide on Spanish+French (one now, one at least a little later), they'll reinforce each other. You should be able to learn French faster this way. But on the other hand, if you drop Spanish, you can start learning French right now :) And I wouldn't say that one active language would necessarily equal two passive ones. It's very individual. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Talib Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6651 days ago 171 posts - 205 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (classical) Studies: Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 4 of 20 15 September 2014 at 4:52am | IP Logged | |||||
Good advice!
Even though I like all of those languages, the main reason for learning them is for studies at the university. The large number of Spanish speakers in the USA is just an added plus. I think that the difficultly lies in not know which language’s literature I will like to read the most before actually trying it. I guess I will just have to keep my eyes open for the one that has the most spark. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4628 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 5 of 20 15 September 2014 at 8:56am | IP Logged | |||||
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In your situation I'd take Spanish to a good passive level and then reassess from there
whether to start another language or activate Spanish (or split my time between doing both). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4999 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 6 of 20 15 September 2014 at 1:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It's not one or the other. Even if you focus on the passive skills first, you are getting closer to the active fluency/proficiency and whether or not you do the other steps as well, that is up to you. Some people even prefer this approach with "silent period" on the beginning.
So, choose what you really want to learn and go for it. Both in terms of language and skills. And as Serpent said, some languages will give you a headstart for the others. However, I as well agree it isn't reasonable to start everything at once. Take one, give it a shot, bring it out of the dark ages and add more, if you've got enough time and will :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5298 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 7 of 20 15 September 2014 at 3:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
If I don't yet know any foreign language to a high level, I'd pick 1 high-proficieny. If I already know one or more foreign languages to a high level, I'd pick 2 passives. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4224 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek | Message 8 of 20 15 September 2014 at 3:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Generally speaking I would prefer 2 languages for reading to a fluent one since I'm not very talkative person, don't have many friends and so on. But I think that studying 2 languages for reading doesn't equal getting one to fluent (surely not from 0). Modern courses are mostly aimed at developing all the skills and it's not that often when a learner wants just to read (therefore, not so many targeted textbooks). Plus I think reading can't be completely separated from studying active skills - perhaps not up to fluency, but this will also get you to some certain level.
Volume of required vocabulary is twice as big (average) comparing to dealing with one language, grammar is also different and so on. Once again, though: generally speaking... Edited by Via Diva on 15 September 2014 at 3:26pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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