Language Confusion (Questions About Your Target Languages) Language Learning Forum

Language Confusion
Tags: Maintaining Languages \| Confusion/mixing up languages
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Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages

13 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

luke
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 7209 days ago
3133 posts - 4351 votes

Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Esperanto, French

Message 9 of 13

03 June 2007 at 2:27pm | IP Logged

leosmith wrote:

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.

I wish I could cite a source, but as I understand, various benefits come at FSI level 3 (which I believe is similar to C2):

If language is "learned", as opposed to aquired in a multilingual background, it will help you learn other languages, whether they are specifically related to the languages you know or not.
If one gets to a fluent, advanced, thinking in the language level (C2 or FSI 3), the language can be revived much easier than if you terminated your studies before getting to this level.

The first item above is as I recall it from the Lessons Learned by the FSI over 50 years article. I don't know that the second item was from such an authoritive source. I'd be very interested in the experience of people here. Specifics are of course important. For example, there is a difference between putting a language down for a year, and putting it down for 25 years.

Here's what the old master said:

Ardaschir wrote:

As I stress over and over again in the class I teach on the effective study of foreign languages, everbody has his or her on style of learning
and studying, and the most crucial thing in making progress is to discover what yours is. Thus, it is hard to write linguistic prescripitions. However, I still think that there are some generalizations that can be made, and one is that if you want to be a polyglot, you must learn to juggle your languages simultaneously in small time slots. So, as a short and direct answer to your question, I think that yes, it does make sense to work towards maintaining and improving all of your languages, if not every single day, then at least on alternate days. This is how I got to where I am, and I cannot fathom having tried to concentrate on only one at a time for weeks or months, thus inevitably letting the others rust all that time. It would be a good idea to work on all your languages every day, but if you cannot for time constraints, or if you find yourself getting too confused, then you need draw up a detailed rotation schedule and develop the discipline to keep to it.

Edited by luke on 03 June 2007 at 2:31pm
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Hencke
Tetraglot
Moderator
Spain
Joined 6898 days ago
2340 posts - 2444 votes

Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, English^C2, Spanish
Studies: Mandarin
Personal Language Map

Message 10 of 13

03 June 2007 at 6:57pm | IP Logged

Calro2 wrote:

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?

Hmmm, if this was your interpretation of my post I should perhaps have expressed myself more clearly. I didn't mean to say that you don't lose much by being away, just that the interference from studying a different language during the away-time will not make matters a lot worse.
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Jerrod
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6507 days ago
168 posts - 176 votes

Studies: Russian, Spanish

Message 11 of 13

04 June 2007 at 1:02am | IP Logged

This experience may be relavent: In my classes here in Russia, an older lady has joined who studied Russian 16 years ago. She told me as a child she spoke Russian with her grandmother but once she turned about 7 she stopped. At the university level she studied for 8 years earning a B.A and M.A in Russian with 2 full semesters spent in Russia.
She said she put the language down and never touched it again after her degree, never even read.
For some reason she is now in Russia studying Russian again. In two weeks she has had an amazing transformation. First she tested into my level (amazing), and had a great deal of trouble with everything. With some self study she come up in reading, and grammar. She still makes many mistakes but she said that things are making more sense than when she studied it 16 years ago (though this is probably because we have a good teacher). I think if you study something to a high level, a month or two of immersion will bring it right back.
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Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6443 days ago
4474 posts - 6726 votes

Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

Message 12 of 13

04 June 2007 at 1:13am | IP Logged

A family friend learned Russian to a very high level; she used to lead tour groups in Russia, and sometimes the translator would not arrive and she'd have to do that too. Then, she didn't speak the language for years, until one time recently - and she had very little trouble with it (she could still speak fluently).

Sorry for the vagueness, it's been a while since I heard this, and I didn't pay much attention at the time.
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Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6601 days ago
9753 posts - 15779 votes

4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, Finnish^C1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

Message 13 of 13

04 June 2007 at 3:17pm | IP Logged

Volte wrote:

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.

This piece of advice was for beginners only.

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