Miuko Triglot Newbie Slovakia Joined 5432 days ago 22 posts - 24 votes Speaks: Czech, Slovak*, English Studies: German, French
| Message 1 of 4 27 March 2010 at 11:07pm | IP Logged |
Greetings!
I can only hope Professor Arguelles responds to my post but I am willing to hear as many hints as possible. So post please if you think you have something to say.
I am a 22 years old student. I am Slovak, I have studied 15 years English, 8 years German, 3 years French. The only language with I am content is English. I have loads of free time, I have started to study languages thoroughly 2 months ago, 4 hours a day. I think I can do even 6 hours easily. I need some help with my studying plan, I just do not know whether it is right the way it is. My German is A2, know grammar but cannot talk. My French is reading B2, speaking A2.
My plan
only French 5-6 months, 4-5 hours a day,repeat 3 times all this: Michel Thomas all four courses, Pimsleur 1-3, French without toil, FIA. (I gave up of FSI- was told it is boring)
reading 50 pages a day at least, listening to the music.
After all this I want to brush up my German, with Michel Thomas + Pimsleur and some reading and take up a new language, I need help to choose which first, Spanish or Russian. I am Slovak, so Russian is like Slovak with an accent for me and Spanish could be close to French- I am afraid of confusing it, false friends, etc.
What do you think?
Is it harmful to start Spanish when I will be intermediate in French?
Is it harmful to start Russian even now when I do study French, they are different languages, the change could refresh my mind but there must be some negatives, which are they?
Is it harmful to start to review German now even during my French studies?
Is there any free test online to test my reading, listening and writing so I can see where I am?
Can I get some tips what to avoid and take care about when studying these languages together- French, Spanish, Russian, German?
I have read on this forum that it is useful to take up a similar language when a person is upper intermediate and knows all the structures, I personally think that these criteria are extremely high, is it really true?
Please, help!
Thank all of you in advance:)
Miroslav Kocian
Edited by Miuko on 27 March 2010 at 11:09pm
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yenome Hexaglot Newbie United States Joined 5407 days ago 37 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, French, Persian Studies: Thai, Arabic (Iraqi), Mandarin
| Message 2 of 4 29 March 2010 at 3:57am | IP Logged |
I think French will insert itself into your Spanish no matter what - at the beginning. Once you gain more proficiency in Spanish, I doubt it will be much of a problem. You can always start something and then put it off for a while if it turns out to be confusing.
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Frieza Triglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5386 days ago 102 posts - 137 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German
| Message 3 of 4 09 April 2010 at 6:22pm | IP Logged |
Miuko wrote:
Greetings!
Is there any free test online to test my reading, listening and writing so I can see where I am?
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For that, I'd suggest Dialang:
http://www.dialang.org/
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WentworthsGal Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4921 days ago 191 posts - 246 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish, Spanish
| Message 4 of 4 11 July 2011 at 10:03pm | IP Logged |
I've recently started learning Swedish and even though it has been about 13-14 years since I learnt German (at school) and haven't studied it since, I still find myself adding bits of German into my Swedish. I think it's just something that will fade out as you get to grips with your new language :o)
I also learnt French and German at the same time at school and didn't have any problems, for me they're two completely different languages (could be different for you). I also taught myself some Turkish during this time and found that all three were easy to keep separate. I knew the most French and the least Turkish.
Perhaps if you're able to learn each language in a different room of your house then you'll associate each "lesson" to the right language when you come to remembering and recalling later. I learnt this method in psychology, it might help you :o) I think it's called "cue dependancy" if you wanted to research it... You could also use different smells for each language - different perfumes/aftershaves, scented candles etc.
Good luck on your language journey :o) x
Edited by WentworthsGal on 11 July 2011 at 10:04pm
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