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Language Confusion | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| matt25 Pentaglot Newbie Germany Joined 6391 days ago 19 posts - 19 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Latin, Ancient Greek | Message 1 of 13 02 June 2007 at 7:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi!
I am currently staying in Brazil and studying Portuguese. Anyway, my problem is that I somehow feel the new won knowledge in Portuguese sort of "expels" my knowlegde in French. I learned French at school and spent some weeks in Paris studying more. I did not obtain great fluency but at least I was always able to express almost anything I meant or felt. Well, right now my brain feels quite filled up with the Portuguese language and so when I try to form French sentences, it does not work out. I can only remember the Portuguese vocabulary then. Has one of you maybe experienced the same thing or dou you have an explanation / an advise what to do? Thank you very much, Matthias P.S. My English knowledge does not suffer from the new vocabulary. Probably because I am more experienced in this language?! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6555 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 2 of 13 02 June 2007 at 7:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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This has happened to me many times. I think your explanation is correct - if French was a strong as English, you wouldn't be in this quandry.
I think the only way to fix it is to get your French up to a higher level. I'd be very much interested in any studies showing where this level is. I never forget my Spanish for example, but I forget my Swahili, Thai and Japanese all the time. On the other hand, why fix it at all? Your French will come back to you when you start concentrating on it again. You'll lose a little, but in my experience not much. It may take a only few minutes of conversation, or as much as a couple weeks of immersion, but it will come back. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| matt25 Pentaglot Newbie Germany Joined 6391 days ago 19 posts - 19 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Latin, Ancient Greek | Message 3 of 13 02 June 2007 at 10:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well yes, you are totally right: Why fix it when it comes back? But after all, what I am concerned about is: Does it come back? Because it does not matter how much I concentrate, some words will not come back to me. Maybe at the moment I am still to busy with learning Portuguese and that is why French cannot come back totally. Anyway, hope it does sometime.
Thanks for your answer. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6444 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 4 of 13 03 June 2007 at 12:33am | IP Logged | ||
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I think it comes back partially. I had a similar experience, and lost most of my (small amount of) Esperanto when I took a month long intensive German class less than half a year after I started dabbling in Esperanto. My Italian, though, which was at a B2 level, improved (as the class was taught in a mixture of German and Italian). I did end up mixing Italian and German a lot (only when trying to use German). Re-learning Esperanto to the level that I'd achieved the first time was quicker the second.
Another good thing: experience seems to help. I barely mix languages at all anymore. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6707 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 5 of 13 03 June 2007 at 12:36am | IP Logged | ||
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It has happened to me as well. Last year when I tried to form sentences in French, half of the words would come out in Chinese. Not so much interference as not being able to remember the French, and being much more comfortable with Chinese at the time.
In the intervening year, I've made an effort to listen to much more spoken French, and it's cleared up the problem. Now when I speak French, there's no Chinese that comes up to take its place. If I can't remember something, I just don't remember it. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6899 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 13 03 June 2007 at 7:18am | IP Logged | ||
I'd say there is no reason to worry about it. If my own experience is anything to go by most of it will come back all by itself after a while, and the small remainder that won't just needs a very modest amount of conscious effort once you get around to it. Just relax and go ahead and have as much fun as you can with your current studies. In the long run the positive effects far outweigh these few insignificant and very temporary negative ones. Edited by Hencke on 03 June 2007 at 7:19am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Calro2 Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 6745 days ago 26 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese, French | Message 7 of 13 03 June 2007 at 12:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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If it's true that you don't lose much if you're away from a language for a while, does that make the standard "rule" that you must practice your language every single day untrue? I certainly hope so. I've had a very difficult time trying to both maintain and advance my French and Portuguese. I find it impossible to completely focus on just one and I'm not a beginner in either language. I was considering alternating days, weeks, or even months on each language. Does anyone have any advice on the best way to go about this? Matt25, I apologise in advance if I appear to be hijacking your journal entry.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6444 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 8 of 13 03 June 2007 at 1:22pm | IP Logged | ||
I'd consider alternating days ok [a few days off doesn't seem to hurt me particularly badly, other than that it means that progress is slower, due to less time being put in]. I'd be very cautious about alternating weeks. Alternating months is almost definitely a bad idea. One book mentioned on this forum (I think it was 'kak stat poliglotom') contained the advice that if you stopped a language for more than a week, your only option was to restart from the beginning. I personally consider this an overstatement - but there is, perhaps, a grain of truth too. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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