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Can I learn 2 languages and a forced 3rd? | ||
Tags: Learning Strategy | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Akao aka FailArtist Senior Member United States Joined 5338 days ago 315 posts - 347 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona | Message 9 of 21 07 May 2011 at 1:43am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm still interested in Swedish but I have an itch for Asian languages as well. I guess I
should use this to practice patience. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kmart Senior Member Australia Joined 6126 days ago 194 posts - 400 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 10 of 21 07 May 2011 at 2:51am | IP Logged | ||
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Why not use your 3rd language as a "doggy treat"? Don't dive headfirst into it, taking time away from your other languages, but reward yourself with it after you've completed a set amount of study on the other 2. Probably only about 15-30 minutes/day.
Get a simple audio program for the language of interest. Set your language study goals for Spanish and Swedish each day (I recommend writing them down or plotting on a spreadsheet - Sprachprofi has designed an excellent one - there's a link to it somewhere in this forum) , and when you have achieved them, reward yourself with your 15 minutes of "dessert" language. It's important that you discipline yourself and stick to the rules. By stopping before you want to, you leave yourself eager to do more, and that gives you more incentive to get stuck into your other studies. And, even though you are not making huge strides in your 3rd language, by the time you have achieved a sufficient level in the other languages to be ready for the next one, you'll be starting at maybe A2 instead of from scratch. Another alternative way to use your reward time is to try out all the other languages you are interested in. Spend a few weeks on each language, and use this time to determine which is the one that most appeals to you. You'll need to access a library for this method, unless you have a huge allowance! I'd advise working at the Spanish - since you have to do it anyway, it's almost a free language. A bit of extra study on your part though takes you from average student to outstanding one, and as you gain in competence, I think you will enjoy the language more. It's a very valuable language to have, especially in the Americas, and I am certain you will appreciate the effort you have put into acquiring it, when you are an adult. Try to find ways to make it more engaging for yourself, maybe try Hispanic music, films, make some Hispanic friends, try out your Spanish on the Hispanic greengrocer, waiter, whatever. And as a bonus, if you acquire a good understanding of Spanish, there are a bunch of other Romance languages you can pick up down the track for "half price" so to speak. Good luck ! ;-) 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Akao aka FailArtist Senior Member United States Joined 5338 days ago 315 posts - 347 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona | Message 11 of 21 07 May 2011 at 3:07am | IP Logged | ||
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Can I do that with an Asian language?
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6552 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 12 of 21 07 May 2011 at 3:12am | IP Logged | ||
Good. Learn Spanish. It will be good for you. Everything else can wait. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5011 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 14 of 21 07 May 2011 at 12:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I wouldn't say all teachers mean well, szastprast, I've met several who did not. Or some mean well and just aren't good teachers. That's why a lot of people started with self-teaching :-)
I have been "forced" to two languages so I can understand your dislike. First was french, when I was 9 years old. As I got through the difficult beginnings, I started to enjoy my progress and finally I fell in love with the language. Another was English, when I was 12, (one of the cases when the teacher means it well but can't teach) and even though I don't like the language that much, it serves me a lot so the time invested was not wasted. Either of these can happen to you and Spanish if you let it happen. If you want to solve the trouble, you need to think about what you really dislike about Spanish. The methods or personality of the teacher? A textbook with silly dialogues? The grammar or pronunciation? Or just the fact that you were given no choice? There is a solution for each of those or any other trouble you are experiencing at your Spanish classes. You just need to think about it. I'd advice you to keep studying your beloved Swedish and give a chance to Spanish. At least till you are sure to have gained solid base of at least one of them. You are just 14 years old, you don't need to hurry that much. Use the time with Swedish and Spanish to learn how to effectively study a language and how to get past various obstacles. You'll find it valuable later either when you start learning an Asian language or in other situations as well. Good luck, Akao. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kmart Senior Member Australia Joined 6126 days ago 194 posts - 400 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 15 of 21 07 May 2011 at 3:27pm | IP Logged | ||
Do it with any language that takes your fancy ! The point is not to become proficient in this 3rd language, it's to play with it, see if you really do enjoy it, or it's just a whim. If you find (like I did) that the tonal stuff in Asian languages drives you crazy, and it's more pain than pleasure, then you've still learned something useful - that this language is not the one for you, or at least not at this point in the journey. Move on and try another. In 12 months or 2 years time, when you are aceing Spanish and feeling comfortable with Swedish, you'll probably have a priority list of the next 10 languages you want to learn, haha. My personal suggestion would be to use Pimsleur for your language try-outs if you can get hold of it for free. It's not a hurried course, it's slow and methodical. Even if you only spend 15 minutes (half a lesson) per day with it, after a few weeks you'll have a good grasp of the conversational fundamentals of the language. At the very least, you'll be able to order a beer if you take a trip to the target language country (oops, not much use to you, as you won't be legally old enough to order a beer for a few years yet)! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5354 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 16 of 21 07 May 2011 at 5:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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Another thing I will mention to you, as hindsight really is 20/20 and I’ve seen this happen so many times to count. You might not like Spanish much, but since you have to take the class anyway and seem to have/will be learning a nice amount of the language, if you love languages in general, you really should just stick it out to obtain some sort of fluency with it, as opposed to dropping it when you get the chance. Spanish isn’t my favorite language on Earth either, but there are so many native speakers in my area, that I realize its use and importance in the USA, and that is why I keep working to improve my skills with it.
I have a Bosnian friend who had learned some Russian while growing up, but he never kept up with it. Now, he is getting private Russian lessons from a local Russian woman. My father studied German for four or five years in high school, and then took a few semesters in college. He didn’t like the university professor so he stopped taking it then, and now he cannot remember much. My mother took many Spanish classes when she was younger, and a Spanish-speaking boyfriend had apparently commented on her good accent, etc, but now she has forgotten almost everything as well. Finally, I can attest to the fact that when I was in high school, I was not as studious in my Latin studies as I should have been, but I learned quite a bit, seeing as how in the later courses we translated The Gallic Wars and so forth. I never did anything with Latin after high school, and really regret that I don’t remember much at all, as a year or so of review and who knows what I could have been reading! With all that said, you may not be overly thrilled by Spanish now, but since you are already gaining some sort of knowledge with it, it would be a waste to throw that knowledge out. I personally like kmart’s dessert analogy. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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