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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| EnglishEagle Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4585 days ago 140 posts - 157 votes  Studies: English*, German | Message 1 of 18 29 July 2012 at 11:09am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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I am 14 now, and in about 18 months time, i'll be 16. In that time would it be possible to become up to a B2/C1
level in 2 other languages, such as German and Italian/Spanish? Along side studying for my GCSE's. German is quite an important language for me as it would help me with my future career prospects. As in the line of work I am looking to go down, it would be very useful tool. Where-as I like the sound of Italian and Spanish and they are both very beautiful languages that are spoken in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Malta, Brazil etc, the list could go on. I would plan to visit these countries so at least to be able to converse with some people, would be fantastic! Thankyou :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| ReQuest Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5042 days ago 200 posts - 228 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, French Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 18 29 July 2012 at 12:18pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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First: your 14, so don't worry about stuff like "the future", "carreer prospects" and the likes.
Second: learn the languages you like, see use for etc. ________________________ Then I might have a tip for you, you probably have a favorite cartoon like Spongebob for example. Look if you can find this Cartoon, in German or whatever languages on youtube (or somewhere else on the web). And then just watch it, because a lot of kids know most episodes of their favorite cartoon by heart, but this time it's in German. You might not get anything but exposure is allways good! You'd be amazed how quickly you'll learn words and intonation and pronunciation will improve too. Edited by ReQuest on 29 July 2012 at 12:20pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5463 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 3 of 18 29 July 2012 at 12:45pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
That depends. It depends on a lot of things: how gifted you are, how much effort you're willing to put into it, how much spare time you have, what resources you use etc. You're only 14. You have the life before you, and you shouldn't worry too much about the future. If you want to learn German and Spanish/Italian, go ahead and do it! If you reach a B2/C1 level in both of them in 18 months, that would be really great. But if you don't reach that level, that's not the end of the world either. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5542 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 18 29 July 2012 at 1:03pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
How much do you already know about your languages? B2 in one language is definitely doable, if you're willing to be a bit obsessive about it. There's no reason why shouldn't be able to read books for pleasure, watch some easier TV series, and carry on conversations about most ordinary topics without sweat running down your brow. :-) C1 in two languages in 18 months appears to be humanly possible. The US Foreign Service Institute trains diplomatic staff to speak foreign languages, and their rough equivalent of C1 is an ILR 3/3, or "General Professional Proficiency", i.e., enough to function in a white-color job. For the average FSI student, learning German and a Romance language would require between 53 and 60 weeks of full-time study (7+ good hours per day), plus upkeep costs for the first language learned. And by all accounts, the FSI classes are pretty hard—something like 500+ words of vocabulary per week. Only you can decide if you have the free time, the desire and the self-discipline to attempt something like that. Some people thrive on really ambitious goals, and I'd certainly love to read your learning log if you try. :-) If, on the other hand, you only feel slightly insane (like most folks around here), then there's no reason why you couldn't aim for solid German, and perfectly respectable tourist abilities in a Romance language. That's a totally worthy goal, and it's doable with some obsession and hard work. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| EnglishEagle Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4585 days ago 140 posts - 157 votes Studies: English*, German | Message 5 of 18 29 July 2012 at 2:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
I would like to aim high and fall slightly short, than to aim low and not accomplish a substantial amount. I have looked at the FSI courses and they seem interesting and so does ASSIMIL.
I would like to go in to the biology field of work (too long and tedious to explain) and there are a lot of interesting scientific research papers that I would like to read, but they are in German. And it would be nice to read the findings in the original language they were written in.
I am going to try very hard to achieve my goals. I want to aim high, and even if I fall slightly short, it will still be a good foundation in that language. My goal to get a good foundation is B2 in both languages I choose. I took Spanish for two years a school and quit a couple of weeks ago, and I am continuing my French for another two years at school. I have completed 5 years of French study. But none of it is really practical and the lessons are quite dull. Thankyou every for the feedback and positive posts :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5542 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 18 29 July 2012 at 3:56pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Sounds like fun! If you want to reach a solid B2 in two languages in the next couple of years, then you have some hard-but-fun work ahead of you. Here are some totally random thoughts and suggestions which may or may not help. Take them with a grain of salt. :-) 1. Can you study consistently over a long period of time? A lot of people fail to learn a language because they dive in, give up a month later, wait a while, and then try again. Don't worry if that sounds way too familiar! There are ways to fix this… 2. You only have so many hours in a day. Some are "high quality" hours, where you can focus. Others are "medium quality" hours, where you just want to veg out in front of the television. Then there's all those 10-minute chunks here and there. If you can find a mix of activities for your different moods, then you can use your time more efficiently. 3. Instead of devoting every waking moment to studying a language, can you take something you were already going to do, and do it in your foreign language instead? TV, hobbies, music, comic books, funny websites, socializing—you don't have to sacrifice any of them if you can do them in your target languages. 4. Is there any way you could spend a summer (or a school term) in Germany, Spain or Italy? If you can find a host family who doesn't speak any English, and split up your time between socializing, watching TV and studying, then you could easily take a language from A2 to B2 in 3 months. And it's definitely possible to to reach A2+ by spending 30–60 minutes per day on Assimil for 6 months before you leave. Anyway, other people here are a lot more experienced than I am, and will always be happy to offer you advice and encouragement. Good luck with your project! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| EnglishEagle Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4585 days ago 140 posts - 157 votes Studies: English*, German | Message 7 of 18 29 July 2012 at 4:59pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Thankyou for the advice! I was thinking about using Assimil as a language learning approach. I just get confused as to where I am a supposed start from. I'm confused to as which resources to use and what to do. I am unsure whether to follow the Assimil course and then watch some tv (such as the the big bang theory) in my target language and do some reading. I'm not sure whether to use chatrooms and or skyping etc... I think that is my problem. I don't have a set thing to follow or complete. Also I don't know how I should practise and learn each day. I know there is plenty of material, buts its the way that I go about using it. Do I use Assimil for about 30-60 minutes a day then watch 20 minutes of German TV and 10 minutes of recapping some unknown vocabulary? I'm not sure if thats make sense, I am sorry if my post is confusing. I was planning to go to Germany next year for a few weeks for a short 'immersion trip'. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6607 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 8 of 18 29 July 2012 at 5:30pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Yes, go for it! The best decision I made in my life was that I started to learn Finnish on my own at the age of 15, while everyone was telling me to "finish" German first because I was learning it at school.
You don't necessarily need a set thing to follow. You just need options, so that if you're tired of one thing you could do something else. Try lyricstraining.com if you like music. Later when you're no longer a beginner, try http://gloss.dliflc.edu/ (!!!) Finding the right techniques (btw: http://learnanylanguage.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Techniques) is largely about experimenting. Start with whatever seems sensible to you. Keep going. If you feel you're not improving, change something. I've learned much of my Italian and Spanish by watching plenty of football. With your knowledge of Esperanto, you should also be able to learn a lot by listening. German might be a little more difficult, though you could try whether your understanding improves if you read while listening to an audiobook - some things will probably be clearer in the written text while others in the spoken one. I'm going to try this in Danish. You may also want to try out the Listening-Reading method (see techniques). A popular choice for this is Harry Potter :))) emk has given some great advice as well. Although.. um, you're a female, right? Our times of "high" and "medium" quality may last longer. Don't feel guilty when your productivity seems to be lower. Most likely it's just different. Do what you can do. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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