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A Linguistic Odyssey | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6144 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 185 of 265 13 March 2010 at 8:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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Oh, and since it passed midnight, I forgot to mention that I already have done my kanji reviews for "tomorrow" too. :)
Καληνύχτα! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6785 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 186 of 265 14 March 2010 at 11:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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So you seem to be highly experienced in this business of multilingualism, and I wanted to ask you how you find it on a daily basis. I don't mean how well is the learning going, I mean from a psychology/happiness point of view. What's it like, is it hard?
Because to me just two languages simultaneously is already an annoyance. They compete with each other for my attention, and one always beats the other. Which is nice for the first, not as nice for the other. There are days when I wish I could go back to Italian only, because I feel like I can't keep myself hooked into the language when I need to switch it out for another every so often. Both are going fairly well, nevertheless I'm not as happy as I used to be with just one that had my full attention. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6144 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 187 of 265 15 March 2010 at 12:25am | IP Logged | |||||
I do understand what you mean. It is definitely a lot of work and is something you will have to adjust your learning to. Back when I was just studying French, I was progressing extremely quickly because I studied it every day and just it (well, a bit of Greek, Spanish, and Portuguese too). You have to adjust how you go about study when you add more and more languages into your routine--you can't focus as much on any one of them, which I do find to be a problem now. Each week, I find that at least one language is typically "forgotten," which I am not pleased about. Psychologically it is difficult too because I feel that I still have to get as much done in each language (perhaps a bit less) as if I were studying just X language on its own. This causes me to push myself a lot and as a result, I generally get a bit stressed about it and fitting it all in. However, if I weren't getting stressed about this, I would probably find something else to be stressed about--school for example, and I much prefer being stressed about wanting to progress in my languages than in something that I really don't like in the first place (math, for example). What I generally encourage people to do who are new to studying multiple languages at once and want to still make progress in both (or all) is make a schedule. Sure, it's not the most natural way to go about it, but it will ensure that each language gets as much attention as you want. In your case, you could split the week up evenly between Italian and Dutch, and parcel out that extra day to one of the two in one of the following ways: 1. Give it to Italian. You seem to like the language better, so your learning experience would be more enjoyable for you to have more of that. 2. Give it to Dutch. You might decide that you need the extra day to bring your Dutch up to a level comparable with your Italian and thus making it more enjoyable to use (especially since you're in the Netherlands, don't you want to be able to use it in daily life)? 3. Alternate every other week. That is to say, one X-day-of-the-week will be Dutch and the next week it will be Italian. 4. Give it to whichever language you feel motivated to do on that day. But, since you feel that Italian always wins over Dutch, this might not be the wisest thing to do if you want to work on your Dutch. 5. None of the above. Take the extra day of the week as a breather and rest. In addition to this extra day, you could choose to split the other six days between Italian and Dutch in a number of ways, including alternating every other day, doing two days at a time, three days at a time, or even doing them both every day but at different times of day. However you prefer. :) Another suggestion I might give you is to make a list of goals for the week. Try to think of goals that are small steps towards your overall goal of proficiency in the language. These should be attainable, but just so that they make you work a little bit too to get them all crossed off. I find that seeing lots of empty boxes on my whiteboard where I write my goals is very motivating, and makes me want to work harder to check them off for the rest of the week. In conclusion, yes, it's hard and there's no way for me to say truthfully that it's not a lot of work. You have to be dedicated to studying, realize that one language can't just take over, adapt your study methods accordingly, make a routine, and make weekly goals. If you do this, I think you'll find that the process will be a lot easier and enjoyable, and you'll feel more productive (and happier as a result) than if you were just doing random studying at random. I hope this helps. :) In bocca al lupo! // Veel geluk! --Philip 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6785 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 188 of 265 15 March 2010 at 8:03am | IP Logged | |||||
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I echo what you said about wanting to give them all as much attention as when you only had one. So true.
At the moment I don't have a schedule per se, but due to my everyday routine one has emerged on its own. I read in Italian for 2 hours on the train, and for the rest of my commute to work I do Dutch audio courses. Then on top of that whatever time permits I usually watch Italian tv. But soon I'll be done with the audio courses in Dutch and I plan to get myself a textbook and start a daily routine with that, which should be more solid. One thing that bugs me is Assimil. I tell myself I should do 15 minutes of that everyday, but it's so short that it doesn't really feel worth doing, and I forget all the time. Have you had this too? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6144 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 190 of 265 15 March 2010 at 12:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
I haven't actually used Assimil yet (only read the introduction and part of the first lesson for Swahili), so I haven't had this problem exactly. However, glancing through the lessons, they do appear to be rather short, and yes, rather "not worth my time." I think that this could be countered perhaps by doing two or three lessons per day instead of just the one, then it might feel more as though the time was well spent.
I am definitely in agreement, and thanks for the compliment. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6785 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 191 of 265 15 March 2010 at 1:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Since you're learning so many languages, and many from the same language family, how are you feeling the "network effects"? Learning Portuguese after most of the other Romance languages has to be mostly an exercise in finding the differences from the others surely?
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| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5397 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 192 of 265 15 March 2010 at 2:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
For some languages, I feel the same way. I have started and stopped the Assimil Spanish course about a dozen times for that exact reason. However, I look through the book and there are things I don't know, so I know it can be useful. I have created a calendar for the week with my daily/weekly languages goals listed on an Excel worksheet. Everything in its own box, and when I finish something, I can fill in the box with my little green highlighter. It's an incentive for me to find the 15 minutes a day to do it, just to fill in the box. And for the 15 minutes I've taken over the last two weeks alone (since I've started keeping my log and holding myself accountable), I have noticed a big improvement. So it's worth it, it's just a matter of doing it. I find Assimil a little more challenging for my French, at a high beginner level. And the German even feels like it goes a bit fast for me. So I think a lot of it depends on the language. If I were doing the Swahili or Hungarian Assimil course, it'd probably take me a week to get through one lesson! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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