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Using your 2nd language to learn your 3rd | ||
Tags: L3 via L2 | 6 Weeks Challenge (6WC) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7182 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 1 of 16 05 October 2007 at 10:56am | IP Logged | ||
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I've read quite a few posts on this forum that often sway people away from learning 2 languages at the same time. Though usually most people advice that it's ok to pick up a second once you're at a higher intermediate level in your 1st language.
But the thing is the advice always seems to lean towards always using your native language to learn any other foreign languages. Recently I decided to just start studying German in Chinese. Really I believe there's no other way. Now that my Chinese level is high enough to grasp the grammar explanations why would I want to use English to go into German. I feel like i'm getting two languages for the price of one. Actually I think that a good benchmark for knowing if you're ready to take up studying a second language is whether or not you can get to it through your 1st foreign learnt language. At the moment I'm just going through a Chinese German phrase book which seems like a good approach to the sentence learning method that has been talked about before. This way I avoid the heavier grammar explanations for the time being. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| furyou_gaijin Senior Member Japan Joined 6387 days ago 540 posts - 631 votes Speaks: Latin* | Message 2 of 16 05 October 2007 at 11:16am | IP Logged | ||
Because German is so much closer to English that a lot of Chinese explanations are redundant? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FSI Senior Member United States Joined 6360 days ago 550 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 16 05 October 2007 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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It kind of depends on whether your goal is to learn the L3 as efficiently as possible or not. A native English speaker using Chinese to learn German seems unnecessarily inefficient (and masochistic). Sure, it's possible, but if one has the choice, it's far more logical to use related languages to learn each other (English for German, Spanish for French, Japanese for Korean) than to use languages on opposite ends of the rainbow, so to speak. Edited by FSI on 05 October 2007 at 12:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| joan.carles Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6334 days ago 332 posts - 342 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*, French, EnglishC1, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Hungarian, Russian, Georgian | Message 4 of 16 05 October 2007 at 12:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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Sometimes it's a combination of relatedness of the two target languages and the availability of material of one language in the other. Maybe nowadays with so many resources on internet, the latter is not that critical, but sometimes the higher prices of material in your first language can force you to choose a second language. Years ago, during one stay in Moscow, I bought some grammars and methods of Bulgarian and Lithuanian in Russian, much cheaper and it was easier to get into Bulgarian from Russian than from Spanish or English. It's possible also that your native language is as unrelated to your 2nd language as this one to the 3rd. Then it doesn't matter which language you chose and it's a good exercise of refreshing/progressing in both at the same time (For example, Spanish, Hungarian and Chinese). Edited by joan.carles on 05 October 2007 at 1:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| El Forastero Pentaglot Senior Member Colombia alijunakai.blogspot.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6270 days ago 186 posts - 228 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Portuguese, FrenchB1, EnglishC1, Italian Studies: German | Message 5 of 16 05 October 2007 at 2:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm Spanish speaker and have learned Italian with PIMSLEUR. The instructions are in english and the italian sentences are very close to the Spanish ones. This method has helped me to Learn my italian and improve my english as well.
I need to do the third level. I suppose that the english instructions are getting harder and harder to understand by a intermediade english speaker as me. In this case, the very transparent italian traduction help me to improve my English listening and vocabulary as weel. That was the same with portuguese (even though I have taken some portugese classes before PIMSLEUR Method). _But, i'm sure, If i had tried to learn chinese with pimsleur when I had a poor english, I wouldn't have learn it! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FSI Senior Member United States Joined 6360 days ago 550 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English* | Message 6 of 16 05 October 2007 at 2:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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^ Yeah, that's the thing. If the languages are close to each other, you can teach yourself * a lot * about the L2 while simultaneously learning the L3 at light speed.
Right now, when I finish reading Harry Potter in French, I might read it in Spanish, because I'm really curious to see how much both languages will play off each other. I've undoubtedly learned some things in French that I haven't picked up yet in Spanish, and vice versa, and when both are combined, it's going to stack up with such similar languages. Anyway, I'll see how it goes if I decide to do it. I might just keep reading and start the second book, though. Gone are the days of repeating a book several times; suddenly even reading one twice for language learning seems too much. I'd rather just read lots of different things, and have fun doing so :^) Edited by FSI on 05 October 2007 at 2:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Thomas Newbie Japan rhinospike.com Joined 6260 days ago 38 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Swedish | Message 7 of 16 06 October 2007 at 6:36am | IP Logged | ||
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I think it would also depend on the availability of language materials. If your second language is obscure, like Sinhala, and you want to learn Russian, will you be able to find an adequate Russian textbook or dictionary? Sinhala-Russian dictionaries probably exist, but I imagine it would be hard to find and even if you did find them the selection would be limited.
That said, I think the fact that you are learning German through Chinese is awesome. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| furyou_gaijin Senior Member Japan Joined 6387 days ago 540 posts - 631 votes Speaks: Latin* | Message 8 of 16 06 October 2007 at 6:46am | IP Logged | ||
This makes a lot of sense, actually, as it helps one build on the similarities between the new language and the already known one. I have once learnt a whole new language in this way while on the plane to the destination (about 3 hours), by reading backwards and forwards a textbook written from the perspective of a very closely related language. My skills at the end of the journey were not perfect but I was able to hold conversations with locals on almost any subject... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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