Learning a 3d language via a 2nd language (Questions About Your Target Languages) Language Learning Forum

Learning a 3d language via a 2nd language
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Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages

42 messages over 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Luso
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Portugal
Joined 6052 days ago
819 posts - 1812 votes

Speaks: Portuguese*, French, English^C2, German^B1, Italian, Spanish
Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical)

Message 41 of 42

08 May 2010 at 4:16pm | IP Logged

moisa wrote:

I had the experience of studying french through resources in English for a year, it worked well but the process is slower than study in my native language.
The English language has the great advantage of a great number of books, courses and great websites to learn languages.
When I got a french course book in Portuguese, I could see the difference of speed in the learning process.
I think anyone should use any resource that makes his/her learning easier, struggling with an arduous process can be discouraging.

It's the same this side of the ocean: if there are good resources in Portuguese (this is true for English, French, German and, nowadays, Spanish), I believe that it's best to use them.

As far as Arabic goes, it's another matter: the sheer quantity of materials in English and French (and, I'm told, in German) is overwhelming. And there are not so many materials in Portuguese.

I still think you have to master the second language, though. If not, this could seriously hinder your learning quality.

Edited by Luso on 08 May 2010 at 4:16pm
2 persons have voted this message useful

Derian
Triglot
Senior Member
PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5299 days ago
227 posts - 464 votes

Speaks: Polish*, English, German
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese

Message 42 of 42

14 May 2010 at 11:47pm | IP Logged

pli wrote:

My private conjecture is that when you learn one foreign language using another one, the brain operates in an only-nonnative mode and you both learn the new stuff quickly and get better comprehension and feeling of the language you already know.

Perfectly said!

And if you know a couple of languages already, it is best to learn another one via the language that is the closest to your target language, or the one that shares at least some grammatical features with it.

For example, when I used English materials to learn Spanish, a lot of attention was given to explaining the conjugation of the verbs, there were drills for recognizing the gender of the nouns etc. - basically things that for me, a native speaker of Polish, were quite redundant (at least in the extent that a native English speaker required), because I was familiar with all those things, and not only needed far less explanation but also far less practice.
So working with Polish materials was a lot better and faster for me.

But when learning Swedish, it was a lot faster to learn it using German or English materials, because in those materials the focus was not on things that would be new to a Polish speaker (like in the Polish textbooks), but which I already knew from other Germanic languages (that Swedish is one of).

Edited by Derian on 14 May 2010 at 11:49pm
1 person has voted this message useful

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