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Learning > 1 Language at the Same Time | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| brian91 Senior Member Ireland Joined 5445 days ago 335 posts - 437 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 1 of 27 05 July 2010 at 10:21pm | IP Logged |
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Okay, so I'm learning French this summer (beginner) and I have materials for Spanish and Esperanto
ordered from amazon. I thought I would have a great summer learning languages, but I read this today from fluentinthreemonths.com: "Only learn one language at a time. I have come across very few people who have been able to learn two (or more) languages simultaneously. I personally could never do this; the danger of confusing them would be too great. Spreading yourself thin is another way of not giving each language the attention it deserves." It's not that I haven't heard this before, it's just that I didn't pay much attention to it. I HAD to study two language at school (Irish and German) but didn't really focus on either as I was too busy trying to pass basic maths exams. Also, I have a lot of respect for fluent in three months and don't want to screw up this summer! So what do you think? Should I just focus on one language until I'm somewhat proficient at it? Have you started learning more than one language from scratch simultaneously? Does it work, or does it just get too confusing? Thanks in advance, Brian Edited by brian91 on 05 July 2010 at 10:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 budonoseito Pro Member United States budobeyondtechnRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5806 days ago 261 posts - 344 votes Studies: French, Japanese Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 27 05 July 2010 at 11:22pm | IP Logged |
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I think it comes down to your goals. Many people here study more then one language at a
time. If you do go with multiple languages, it is recommended to pick unlrelated language to reduce confusion. But, there enough exceptions to this as well. I started with Japanese and recently added French. Obviously very different; but, I know it will lengthen the time it takes in both to increase fluency. I also translate from English to Japanese then to French during exercises. It will take some time before I think in French. So, my personal take on it. Know the pros and cons of how many and which languages and decide if you can overcome them cons to meet your overall goals 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5650 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 3 of 27 05 July 2010 at 11:23pm | IP Logged |
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Just because he can't, no one else is allowed to? You can take advice from people who have more experience learning languages, but their brain doesn't work the same as your's, and just because they have a website doesn't make them a god on learning learning.
Some people can learn two or more at once, some can't. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Thatzright Diglot Senior Member Finland Joined 5673 days ago 202 posts - 311 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English Studies: French, Swedish, German, Russian | Message 4 of 27 05 July 2010 at 11:35pm | IP Logged |
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I sort of study French, Russian and Swedish at the same time currently, although Swedish is somewhat on the backburner and doesn't get as much attention from me as the other two languages. Seeing as all three languages are a part of different branches of the Indo-European language family, it seems almost impossible to mix up vocabulary or grammatical concepts. Yet every so often, in the middle of talking to myself in one of these languages which I do as practice, I find myself accidentally quickly saying things like "Och si jag" and so forth (och and jag 'and' and 'I' in Swedish respectively, 'si' French for 'if'). Therefore I'd say that something is going on in the subconscious after all, but I don't feel it's affecting my process too much.
My French is the most advanced of these three, and I have little to no doubt that I'd be fluent within a reasonable amount of time if I only focused on that one. However I also feel that I need to study Russian now since it's a 'hard' language that I want to learn, and I may yet not be old enough (18) to be past the stage where the 'brain adapts to new concepts quickly', i.e. I feel it'd be easier to learn it now than later on. Only time will tell... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5353 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 5 of 27 05 July 2010 at 11:58pm | IP Logged |
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I think it is okay to study multiple languages at a time, although I would not suggest studying two of similar stock at once, until one of them is at a conversational/intermediate level.
I want to study Norwegian, but will wait until my Dutch gets improved, for example. Wearing yourself thin is the largest problem that I see, but if you have nothing else to do during the summer, better to use the time for study since when you hit the university or whatever you won't have so much free time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dolly Senior Member United States Joined 5791 days ago 191 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin | Message 6 of 27 06 July 2010 at 12:42am | IP Logged |
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Personally, I would wait a year. Language learning is hard; getting to basic fluency in just one language is a lot of toil. At the end of a year you might have a greater sense of achievement from doing one thing well, instead of trying two or three things. The other languages will still be there when you can "coast" in French.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| OlafP Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5436 days ago 261 posts - 667 votes Speaks: German*, French, English | Message 7 of 27 06 July 2010 at 12:45am | IP Logged |
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A surprising and counterintuitive truth in project management is that the time required to finish a job depends on how much time you schedule for it. Give something twice the time and the very same thing will take twice as long. Leave it open-end it will never get finished. If memory serves me right that was the central message of Brooks' book "The mythical man-month".
I'm convinced it does make a difference whether you plan to invest, say, 500h for one particular language in two years (45min per day) or in four months (4h15min per day). Four months looks like a very short time. You will probably avoid anything that looks inefficient if you have only four months, like movies with scarce dialogues, and use dense audiobooks instead. At the end of the day you should get more out of these 500h when you squeeze them into a shorter time frame. So, yes, I think it is best to learn one language at a time. If you plan a trip to the country where the language is spoken very soon, you need to get to terms before you run out of time. If we were machines we could achieve exactly the same by spreading the time thinner, but we are no machines. It's all about psychology. Give yourself more time and your progress will slump down beyond recognition. If we lived forever we probably wouldn't get anything done. 12 persons have voted this message useful | |
| aarontp Groupie United States Joined 5268 days ago 94 posts - 139 votes | Message 8 of 27 06 July 2010 at 3:46am | IP Logged |
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I highly suggest studying only Spanish or French this Summer. I am no expert on language
acquisition; but I am comfortable offering this advice. I think it is of enormous benefit to concentrate on hearing and speaking only one foreign accent for the first foreign language you learn. Your other materials won't go to waste. Set them on a bookshelf that you pass by often; and you will get to them in time. In my experience, the Spanish accent is easier to use; but start with the language you are most interested in. I started French several years after studying Spanish, and Spanish words would still occasionally pop up in place of French words. Then I went back to work on my Spanish, and I have a habit of using French words where Spanish words were intended. For example, using "avec" in place of "con" to mean the preposition "with." Avec just sounds more natural to me for whatever reason. Edited by aarontp on 06 July 2010 at 4:38am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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