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Learning a second Romance language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 7035 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 33 12 November 2005 at 5:04pm | IP Logged |
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I'm learning Spanish for 3 months now.
It will probably take me another year or so to become good enough for normal conversations I think. But I wonder about something: If I would want to learn French after Spanish: could that ruin my Spanish? Because I think the two languages are very simular. With counting for instance: I don't know how to count in French anymore (I could count till 16). So I will probably mix things up! So is it possible to learn a second Roman language without ruining the first one? When would be a good moment to start then, what level of proficiency should I have of Spanish before it would be safe to start with French? And does anyone have tips how to make such an undertaking possible? I do know that learning a language takes a lot of work every day. So I don't think it would be possible to learn French AND practise Spanish at the same time (except maybe by watching television). Tuffy 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 33 12 November 2005 at 5:29pm | IP Logged |
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I learned French in school and I found that my fluency in Spanish did help a great deal in just about everything, from vocabulary to grammatical structures. I did occasionally slip up and use a Spanish word when it was very similar to the French but I still passed the course with an A.
Since school, I haven't "touched" my French at all and I can still pick up a newspaper and get understand most of the stories without missing too much meaning. Also, if someone speaks slowly I can just about understand them. To answer your question, I think that it's an excellent idea to learn an second Romance language directly after your first. However, before you start French, make sure that you have "finished" Spanish as much as possible. Then, it should be no problem to study for one while refreshing the other one. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7105 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 3 of 33 13 November 2005 at 1:44am | IP Logged |
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When I started French my brain took about two months to adjust. I was mixing the two up, but now it's fine. In-fact it helps to see the bigger picture of how languages relate to each other.
Having the knowledge of some Spanish also helped to pick up on French grammar points. Because I knew the Spanish way, it felt like I was learning an "alternate" way of saying what I already knew, as opposed to it feeling all new. So learning another language doesn't ruin the others, as long as you still practise them and give you brain enough time to sort things out. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Malcolm Triglot Retired Moderator Senior Member Korea, South Joined 7316 days ago 500 posts - 515 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 4 of 33 13 November 2005 at 3:14am | IP Logged |
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To answer the question about time, I'd say it would be best to wait one year before starting French and two years before starting Portuguese. I'm guessing Italian would be somewhere between the two. If you've studied a lot of other languages before, you should be proficient at creating separate categories for languages. If not, you should work on dividing the languages in your mind by speaking one for a long period of time, then switching to the other. The first language will try to creep into the other for the first few minutes, but don't let it. Keep practising this and it'll get easier. Whatever you do, don't stop studying Spanish when you begin French. Make an effort to speak Spanish every day you study French, even to yourself for just ten minutes a day.
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| Brent Groupie United States Joined 7015 days ago 55 posts - 54 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 33 13 November 2005 at 2:44pm | IP Logged |
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I'm also learning Spanish now, and I want to learn both French and German in the future. Would I be better off learning German before learning French, so there's more time for Spanish to sink in? Or would learning French immediately after Spanish allow me to benefit more from understanding how Romance languages work? I'm also worried about mixing things up in the languages. Thanks for any help.
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| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 33 13 November 2005 at 5:03pm | IP Logged |
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I would recommend learning French after Spanish for exactly the reasons you mentioned above, i.e. another Romance language so constructions would be similar as would certain vocabulary.
German is in the same family as English so it would probably be relatively easy for you to learn but since you've started a Romance language already, why not stick with another member of that family first. I don't think you'd mix up French and Spanish that much, but if it were Spanish and Portuguese, then that's a different story. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dadafeig Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6987 days ago 82 posts - 83 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Dutch | Message 7 of 33 14 November 2005 at 7:36pm | IP Logged |
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I wouldn't worry about learning a second romance language at the same time, i did the same thing with German and it hasn't hurt me a bit.
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| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6950 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 8 of 33 20 November 2005 at 10:09pm | IP Logged |
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What about learning two Romance languages at the same time? I came across a site called multilingua.info that actually recommends learning Italian, Spanish and French at the same time since they're so similar. I can't seem to decide between Spanish and Italian, and I'm wondering whether it would be easy to learn them both together or whether that would do more harm than good.
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