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The "Learn an easy language first" thing | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Everything Diglot Groupie France Joined 4632 days ago 87 posts - 167 votes  Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 15 14 April 2012 at 11:58am | IP Logged |
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Hi
I've often read on this forum this advice given to people interested in some "hard" languages : "You should learn an easy language first". I'm quite skeptical. Let's imagine a Spanish guy fond of Japanese culture. He wants to learn Japanese. So, because Japanese is harder than Italian, he should learn Italian, even if he's not into Italian culture ? How could it be possible ? I mean, reaching fluency in any language takes time. And that advice sounds like wasted time to me. What do you think ? Edited by Everything on 14 April 2012 at 1:23pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4987 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 2 of 15 14 April 2012 at 12:06pm | IP Logged |
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The answer was given to those who ask what language they should learn, it's just one
reason, not all the reasons. According to this Russians should always start with Belorussian, not English, German or French. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5266 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 3 of 15 14 April 2012 at 12:45pm | IP Logged |
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I don't read the advice threats very often because they get very repetitive but I find it
hard to believe that we would advise someone who wants to learn Japanese to learn Italian instead, just because it's easy. I think most people here would agree that you should learn the language you want to learn because difficulty is only relative and can be overcome with enough motivation and determination. What I have seen is people asking which of two languages they should learn first and being advised to learn the one that is considered easier. That, to me, makes sense, since these are often first-time learners who might be better off starting with an easy one. And like Mapk said, it is usually only one reason given alongside things like resources, usefulness, etc. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Pisces Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4553 days ago 143 posts - 284 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish*, French, SwedishC1, Esperanto Studies: German, Spanish, Russian | Message 4 of 15 14 April 2012 at 12:56pm | IP Logged |
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Learning an easier language gives a person the experience of being able to use a language much faster, and this helps learn other languages. Some research shows that learning Esperanto for one year and then some other language for two years has better results as far as the other language is concerned than studying the other language for three years. I don't know how true this is and how well it applies to any other language than Esperanto. But this is just one reason, as Mark says.
By the way, you mean skeptical, not septic. Septic means having a bacterial infection of the blood (sepsis), what is sometimes called blood poisoning. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4703 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 5 of 15 14 April 2012 at 1:14pm | IP Logged |
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I think the logic behind that advice is something related to this. The reasoning goes like this: regardless of your native language, your first non-native language will be the hardest to acquire; after you break the monolingualism barrier you will have developed the skills that will make acquiring other languages much easier. So it makes sense to start from an objectively easy language, like Esperanto, and then tackle the harder ones later. By this reasoning if the Spanish guy in question is already fluent in English, then he wouldn't need to learn Italian before taking up Japanese, since he has already broken the "barrier". And of course, the logic itself can be questioned (Is the third language really much easier to acquire than the second? Are Italian and Spanish too similar to each other for this to be of any assistance? What about, for instance, Swedish and Danish? etc.).
Edit: damnit, ninja'd! Curse my slow typing! Edited by vonPeterhof on 14 April 2012 at 1:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6528 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 6 of 15 14 April 2012 at 2:07pm | IP Logged |
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In fact it's also common to hear "I love language X, but Spanish is more useful, what should I learn?" and unless the poster's interest in that other language doesn't seem strong enough (or they have unrealistic expectations) everyone recommends going for what you love.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5697 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 7 of 15 14 April 2012 at 4:11pm | IP Logged |
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I myself give this bit of advice to first time learners or first time self learners that ask about the order in which they should learn two languages. The reason for that is that even when you are already proficient in a second language, you still have to learn how to study a language by yourself and when to look for which kind of support. Many people who haven't made the experience yet underestimate the challenge of having to motivate yourself when you do not have the social support of a study group, and many people who have overcome that motivational struggle a long time ago do not remember how difficult it was.
Of course, not everyone gains more from learning a language more similar to your native one first. I myself gave up on languages that are considered easy because I was too frustrated by my active skills lagging behind, but I didn't give up on Japanese because I expected it to be difficult and frustrating. Edited by Bao on 14 April 2012 at 4:41pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6840 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 15 14 April 2012 at 4:25pm | IP Logged |
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If the learner is equally interested in a "difficult" and an "easy" language, it's probably just as beneficial to go for the difficult one.
Everything will become much easier later on. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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