When choosing becomes just too difficult (Advice Center) Language Learning Forum

When choosing becomes just too difficult
Tags: Wanderlust \| Choosing a Language
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14 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

Lorren
Senior Member
United States
brookelorren.com/blo
Joined 4253 days ago
286 posts - 324 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish
Studies: Russian

Message 9 of 14

21 September 2013 at 3:09am | IP Logged

caam_imt wrote:

There are many threads on the forum about this matter, so you could try searching. But to
answer your question, here's what I did. I opened an Excel file and devised a points
system in order to rate my languages. My criteria were grammar (how hard for me),
resources
(a lot or not), how exotic it is (writing system, language family), number of articles in
Wikipedia and phonetics (how hard for me). I had a list of like 30 languages, but after
seeing the results of the sheet, I narrowed it down to 15. It's still a lot, but not as
bad as before. And what's more important is that I also came up with an order, so now I
know that I'll be learning e.g. Greek a loooong time from now. Try to do something like
this yourself, sometimes math and statistics offer perspective.

I have a Word file that's not detailed like this, but it does have a list (quite long) of languages that I'd like to learn someday. So I know that the next language that I want to work on is Russian, and I know that after that, I'll probably want to work on German, but I might change my mind between now and then.

Before I allow myself to start working on the next language, my goal is to get the language to a usable level. In my case, I wish to be able to read news articles and magazines, and be able to listen to some intermediate podcasts. That's not the end of my studies, but at that point, I give myself permission to start working on another one.

Of course, everyone's goals and reasons for studying languages is different. That helps me stick with one language for a while, and gives me motivation to keep going, so I can start learning the next one.
1 person has voted this message useful

Cavesa
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 5011 days ago
3277 posts - 6779 votes

Speaks: Czech*, French^C2, English^C1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

Message 10 of 14

21 September 2013 at 12:55pm | IP Logged

Whether to actively study one or more depends 95% on your motivation and amount of free time.

But if you cannot choose between ten languages (something quite common), than you may like my way. I spent approximately two months on wanderlust, learnt about the languages, about the opportunities they might give me, about the culture available, about the resources and how hard it would be to get them etc. And after that period of time, I had no trouble to choose anymore as everything was clear, no excel needed. I found out what I should learn now, what later and what I shouldn't probably learn at all. And there are no hurt feelings for studying just a few anymore :-D
4 persons have voted this message useful

FuroraCeltica
Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 6867 days ago
1187 posts - 1427 votes

Speaks: English*, Spanish, French

Message 11 of 14

06 October 2013 at 7:55pm | IP Logged

Jacob_Kap wrote:

Hey guys,

I'm really into learning languages and linguistics but when it comes to choosing the next language to study, it just becomes too difficult. I struggle a lot deciding on a target language and when I overcome this struggling I get tired of the language, as I become more interested in some other language. Have you experienced this feeling? Was it difficult for you to stick to ONE language, too? Would be glad to read any suggestions!

The best way around wanderlust is to set yourself a target

1) I will learn 1,000 words of X language
2) I will learn X language every day in Jan, Feb, March then 1st day of April will change

The thing these targets do is force you to stick to the language, and by the time your wanderlust takes you elsewhere once you have finished the target, you have at leats got a good grounding in a language
4 persons have voted this message useful

tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4709 days ago
5310 posts - 9399 votes

Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans
Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish

Message 12 of 14

07 October 2013 at 12:12am | IP Logged

I don't understand why you would skip, say, Korean because it has a hard reputation. I
find Korean easier in many respects than strongly inflectional languages such as Latin or
Russian. Harder in some other aspects though. It doesn't matter that much, I just learn
what I like. How fast it is? Who cares. Fast enough for me if I keep improving.
2 persons have voted this message useful

renaissancemedi
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Greece
Joined 4360 days ago
941 posts - 1309 votes

Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, English^C2
Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew

Message 13 of 14

07 October 2013 at 8:42am | IP Logged

I t has been very difficult for me to stick to one language, and that only happened because I need Italian by the end of the year. I still get temptations (i'll start only one more language, just one little language) but fight them off, because I know it will not work for me. For others it may work of course.

So, after Italian is over I will move on to the next language. If I can give three months to each language I will be very happy. Let's assume I finish Italian with ease and perfectionnement. After that it's a matter of using the language in order for it to really stay with me (as I do with English, I never study anymore but I really use it).

That's the plan anyway :)
2 persons have voted this message useful

ilcommunication
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6694 days ago
115 posts - 162 votes

Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin

Message 14 of 14

22 October 2013 at 6:37pm | IP Logged

FuroraCeltica wrote:

The best way around wanderlust is to set yourself a target

1) I will learn 1,000 words of X language
2) I will learn X language every day in Jan, Feb, March then 1st day of April will
change

The thing these targets do is force you to stick to the language, and by the time your
wanderlust takes you elsewhere once you have finished the target, you have at leats got
a good grounding in a language

Good point...expanding on that I've found it helps to set goals based on real-world
events. One of the reasons I've finally been able to resist wanderlust is because I
keep thinking of the World Cup in Brazil next year...even if I can't get there to
witness it I want my Portuguese to at least be functionally intermediate by the time
the first ball is kicked. And then I can focus on brushing up my Russian for World Cup
2018.

1 person has voted this message useful

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