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Can 2 be more efficient than 1? | ||
Tags: Wanderlust | Simultaneous study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5465 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 1 of 26 16 March 2013 at 11:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've been studying Georgian quite diligently for almost three years now, doing at least
something in the language almost every day over that time. Naturally, however, I find myself up against the two problems that I would imagine most of us face at some time or another. The first is a lack of motivation. Recently lots of days have been going by without me doing anything, and even when I do it's usually just reading a couple of articles or a couple of pages of a novel. All good practice, of course, but I really should be doing some more systematic study. It doesn't help of course that I am a Brit living in Japan studying the language of a small ex-soviet Caucasian country... It's not as if I'm overwhelmed with opportunities to put my new skills into practice. The second is the tempting, teasing call of other languages. Most on HTLAL would probably agree that the most fun part of learning a new language is always the first few months, while the hard slog to get from lower to upper intermediate a year or two down the line tends to be a little less immediately satisfying. My candidates, by the way, are Romanian or Thai. I've always resisted started up another language, figuring it would simply take time away from my Georgian, and not wanting to feel like a dilletant. I'd much rather be really f'ing good at Georgian than quite good at Georgian and not very good at all at Romanian or Thai. But does it really work like this? Perhaps if I started Romanian or Thai my general motivation level would rise again. Maybe after a couple of days of the new language I would be desperately keen to get back to my Georgian. Many of you here study multiple languages. Do you find it works this way? Does one feed into the other? Or do you have to force yourself back to your old friends? Do you end up neglecting them or even quitting them altogether in favour of the new, fresh, and exciting languages? 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6904 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 2 of 26 16 March 2013 at 11:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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I spent the last 5,5 months, basically alternating between two languages: French (probably B1 active skills and B2/C1 comprehension half a year ago, I guess) and Swedish (absolute beginner). I found it extremely motivating and refreshing to keep switching between learning these two, and I doubt I would have spent more time on either on them if learnt separately.
It seems that the key (for me at least) is to combine languages on different levels and different priorities (skills I focus on) - this way learning is getting more effective and enjoyable. It also seems that I can't learn two languages at the beginner level with equal efficiency - sooner or later one of them becomes more important than the other, which has to wait for its turn. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 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 3 of 26 17 March 2013 at 12:30am | IP Logged | ||
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Whenever I look at my stats for the various challenges (6WC, Super Challenge, Tadoku), I can't help thinking that there's no way I could've spend my total time on just one language. I would simply have spent much less time. Maybe a little more than I actually did on that particular language, but there would also be no help from the related languages, no synergy.
BTW my favourite part is where you can improve by using native materials, that is from low intermediate upwards. I'm not too keen on the 'clueless newbie' phase. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 4 of 26 17 March 2013 at 12:37am | IP Logged | ||
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Just jump right in to Thai or Romanian. No harm in trying it for a week or two.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6106 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 5 of 26 17 March 2013 at 1:47am | IP Logged | ||
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This video by Steve Kaufmann explores this question.
He concludes that novelty is a helpful motivating factor and that learning several languages at the same time may have a synergistic effect. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| AML Senior Member United States Joined 6826 days ago 323 posts - 426 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish | Message 6 of 26 17 March 2013 at 12:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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You're talking about language wanderlust. I have a personal strategy for language wanderlust. It's as follows:
My main focus is Hebrew (for you, substitute Georgian for Hebrew). It's the only L2 that truly matters for me right now, but I'm interested in at least ten other languages simply because I love languages. What I do to satisfy my L3 cravings is simply give into them via Assimil. The nice thing about Assimil is that their instructions suggest only a small amount of time per day. So if I'm interested in German, for example, then I start doing Assimil German. I spend about 15 minutes per day doing a new lesson each day. In the mean time, I continue my Hebrew learning yet I'm excited that I'm studying German. This excitement keeps me going in both languages. However, once I hit lesson 28 in Assimil German, my wanderlust ended and I stopped the German studies. But I'm still going with the Hebrew, and I was able to get that need-a-new-language-to-study feeling out of my system. It works well for me. Perhaps it will work well for you, too. 10 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6904 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 7 of 26 17 March 2013 at 1:17pm | IP Logged | ||
Exactly, I couldn't agree more! I do like the total newbie phase, though. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5465 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 8 of 26 17 March 2013 at 1:26pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes, this is very much the kind of thing I've been thinking about doing. I'm intrigued by Assimil after all the rave reviews on here, and the idea of working through a proper teach-yourself type textbook instead of the paucity of dry academic tomes we Georgian learners are stuck with is very tempting. I definitely don't want the new language to take the place of my Georgian; as I said above, I think leaving one language at an intermediate level to become a beginner in another is just pointless. Maybe I'll have a stab at Romanian. I'm guessing a Romance language that uses the Roman alphabet will be less time-consuming than a tonal one with its own complex writing system. Thanks for the feedback everyone. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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