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Learning Languages Simultaneously | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Kronos Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5262 days ago 186 posts - 452 votes  Speaks: German*, English | Message 49 of 77 22 May 2013 at 6:55am | IP Logged | ||
My post? My goodness. Quote as you like, it will only cost you my two cents. I don't even know what a wikia is. ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4445 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 50 of 77 22 May 2013 at 7:47am | IP Logged | ||
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Personally I've never studied more than 1 language at a time. I know someone back in my high school days who
took up Latin, French and German simultaneously while my focus was French. Now he is living in Germany and he had lived in several other places including Spain and Italy. I guess he would have a much better chance of retaining all the languages he learned along the way including Spanish & Italian which he picked up later. Most people tend to think picking up languages needs to be in a classroom environment. Nowadays a lot of learning can take place on the Internet interacting with people in online blogs or watching news reports and videos. Also, we pick up words and phrases while communicating with people in a social setting, shopping at a local market, etc. If a language is used in the workplace, people would try very hard to push themselves to be fluent than if it is taken as a hobby because you have a few foreign friends. In this case your fluency level may not progress to where you would feel comfortable communicating in a social setting than simply saying a few words to impress your friends. Finally, back to the classic example of a man from Akron, Ohio who is supposedly fluent in over 50 languages and learned them in pairs of 5 is Moses McCormick. Simply learning the grammar and vocabulary without practicing in a real-life setting is useless. Moses took every effort to strike conversations with people he would come across in their native tongue including going into Korean restaurants and insists on ordering in Korean when a waiter would speak to him in English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mrmap167 Tetraglot Newbie United States Joined 4684 days ago 21 posts - 23 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Italian, German | Message 51 of 77 22 May 2013 at 8:06am | IP Logged | ||
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I learned French as my first foreign language. I learned Spanish in high school (and
twas a breeze since I knew French). I am now at the point where I mostly understand everything in Portuguese and Italian (written and spoken) because of the similarity. I originally planned to study both languages simultaneously, but I would always get some concepts mixed up (and Spanish was just adding insult to injury). Now, I am pursing to be really fluent in Portuguese (EU and BR) since I will be participating with my church (on a mission trip) to Brazil next summer. Also, my Brazilian friends outnumber my Italian friends. Portuguese seems more practical right now, and mastering that AND Italian at the same time seems very quixotic. In order to avoid such consternation, when I am done with Portuguese, I will complete Italian fully (which right now is just passive or "I understand Italian really well, but speak like that of an eight year old). My opinion? You can learn languages simultaneously, but with some experiences previously, two or more languages in the same group (Icelandic/Faroese/Norwegian/Swedish/Danish), (Spanish/French/Italian/Portuguese/Catalan), (Czech/Slovak/Polish) etc. will be confusing in terms of writing (with spelling words) and remember concepts that apply to one language and not the other (esperar is subjunctive in Spanish, but esperer is not subjunctive in French, unless it is negative, EL mar=LA mer, EL minuto=LA minute). This will be detrimental (I believe) in the learning process for the individual. One should take their time and have a full grasp on one language before doing the next one. This is from personal experience. Adieu. Edited by mrmap167 on 22 May 2013 at 8:11am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kronos Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5262 days ago 186 posts - 452 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 52 of 77 22 May 2013 at 10:54am | IP Logged | ||
Personally I am more challenged by certain phenomena within the same language than among similar languages. In Italian there are so many similar pronouns and two- or three-letter words, sometimes even with multiple functions, words like gli, lo, li, lì, la, là, le, lei etc., that it will take me some time to eventually figure them out and get the meaning instantly. In French there are all those spelling idiosyncrasies, conjugations and irregularities which often appear to differ from each other just by a single letter, and this may not even be pronounced. Very tough for a beginner. In Portuguese the pronunciation is the biggest mystery, so I simply don't play it while learning. Only Spanish is without obstacles so far. The only language pair which I find potentially confusing is Spanish-Italian. I have found a solution to this by arranging learning sessions in the same succession as I would if I learned them one by one over the course of years, a sort of micro-cycle: Spanish - French - Italian - Portuguese (30 min each) Always in this very order. I have tried all possible permutations, and this one works best for me. French is distinct from all others, and Portuguese and Italian don't mix either. The order is not only ideal for keeping them apart, but the unvarying rhythm makes it easier for the mind to switch from a 'French' to an 'Italian' mode, etc., after a time this happens almost automatically. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ericg1977 Newbie United States Joined 5604 days ago 15 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English* | Message 53 of 77 22 May 2013 at 11:25am | IP Logged | ||
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For me, trying to study two new languages at the same has been a terrible distraction, and has caused me to start a 3rd and 4th language, instead of making progress on the 1st. When I start new language, I use the ASSIMIL books, which I have found to be the best by far. But I started Romanian & Turkish at the same time, got about half way through, and a month ago, I started German a month ago, and made it to the 88th lesson out of 100. Everyone language learner is different, but for those who use the ASSIMIL material, I think that a good role of thumb is to finish one language before starting another.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 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 54 of 77 22 May 2013 at 11:38am | IP Logged | ||
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I think that starting and stopping is more a matter of your own discipline and personal
goals. For me it is much more important to have good coverage of more language as opposed to specialist coverage of a few. I will eventually achieve that level in a few languages, but being able to travel using 10 languages is more interesting than be able to read obscure literature and debate nuanced philosophy in three. Why? Because it suits my character and my goals. I like being broadly educated and well-versed and that immediately entails being a jack-of-all-trades, so I would rather speak 10-15 languages decently. And then it is inevitable that you spread yourself somewhat thinner. I also have travel ambitions and these are quite wide, so in that case, a varied command of a number of important languages pertaining to cultures and landscapes that I like is very important. The languages you know the best are the ones you have spent the most time on. But sometimes, a single word can suffice to ingratiate someone. And you should not underestimate what you can do even with a limited vocabulary. Having minor achievements before you get to the big ones is a step we all go through and you should be happy you can achieve them, not chastise yourself for not being able to read Dostoyevski having internalised all of the vocabulary beforehand and being able to debate every aspect of the Hebrew triliteral root system. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kronos Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5262 days ago 186 posts - 452 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 55 of 77 22 May 2013 at 1:08pm | IP Logged | ||
I am also learning with Assimil, but I use them more as a preparation, amassing passive knowledge and sort of growing into the language. I am a firm believer in the efficacy of comprehensive grammar-translation manuals, and one of the reasons I start with Assimil is to ease the inevitable shock when I will go through these hard-studying methods later. Assimil is chaotic and eccentric, at least their oldest courses which I am just working with, I don't know if I could really learn a language by an Assimil course alone. But it's wonderful both as an introduction to a language and a follow-up to a real textbook. But it depends - some are better organized, like their Turkish and one of their old Russian books, I have done a few chapters in both. As a stand-alone method they are probably suited best for languages that are from the same group or of similar structure as the learner's mother tongue - e.g. Swedish or Dutch for a German learner, or Polish for a Russian learner. Edited by Kronos on 22 May 2013 at 1:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 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 56 of 77 22 May 2013 at 1:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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I do agree, the best results with Assimil so far have come with an older Romanian course.
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