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Can 2 be more efficient than 1? | ||
Tags: Wanderlust | Simultaneous study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 9 of 26 17 March 2013 at 4:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It takes a lot of strength and determination to work on a language for 3 years the way
you've been doing with Georgian. It's certainly something to be proud of. However, it's impossible to maintain that kind of motivation indefinitely and then we feel guilty if we can't deliver the way a robot would. That's not very realistic. I was in a similar situation with Japanese for 3-4 years; these days, I can hardly find the motivation to think in it or look at it. I learned Esperanto in late 2012; I've gone back to German (aiming past C1); I started Romanian. I hope to find the drive to go back to Japanese soon, but I don't know what will happen. It's possible that a new flame can help rekindle an old fire, but in my experience, becoming motivated with a new language doesn't imply that you will get your desire for the other language back, especially as we usually only have a limited amount of time available. I usually find that something has to change, some new important goal has to come up to give me that old motivation back. It might be a good idea to take a step back, think about what motivated you in the first place, re-evaluate your options and your long-term goals. Sometimes, thinking about what you'd like to have achieved in 6 months or in a year from now can help put you back on track. But in the grand scheme of things, it's not really that big a deal, is it? I doubt the universe is in any worse a shape because we happen to switch our focus to yet another passion. Which is a far better outcome than having no passion at all. 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4848 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 10 of 26 18 March 2013 at 4:37am | IP Logged | |||||
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I currently study Japanese and Portuguese at the same time. I'm about a B1 in Japanese and an A1 in Portuguese.
Prior to two summers ago, I studied Japanese only. Well, "studied" is used loosely, because I would often study for, say, a month, then drop my studies for several months due to lack of motivation. Two summers ago, I started learning Esperanto to see what it was like. Once I started learning Esperanto, I felt an urge to get back into my Japanese studies. So I studied both for about two months. At that point, I thought, "Your Japanese studies are going well. Why not just drop Esperanto and concentrate on Japanese?" So I did, and after a few weeks I dropped my Japanese studies due to a lack of motivation. So it wasn't until last summer that I realized that, for some strange reason that I cannot explain at all, I need to study another language to motivate me to keep up my Japanese. I started Portuguese last summer not long after re-starting (re-re-re-re-restarting?) my Japanese studies, and I've studied both ever since. Even though I study Japanese about 60-70% of the week, and Portuguese the rest, I've come a long way with my Japanese, simply because I am studying it consistently. Even with studying Japanese with a little more than half of my available "language time" every week, I've studied much more Japanese in the last 12 months than any other 12-month time period since I first started Japanese 11 years ago. So, yes, I would say that, for people like us, 2 can be more efficient than 1. 10 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5167 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 11 of 26 18 March 2013 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have two different speeches to say:
- First is that I'm absolutely worried and jealous that Tixhiidon may drop away anything of his time with Georgian, as we are a few learners and we depend so much on each other for resources, motivation, doubts. Tixhiidon has been out there for the longest time and been through a lot of difficulties I'm only seeing now or at which I've been stuck for a while. So, the mere idea that he'd be drop Georgian for something else scares me out. - That being said, I learn 4 languages on a daily basis, on a fixed schedule, and work on 3 other ones indirectly. Needless to say that Georgian is my favorite one, but I sometimes also feel less motivated due to the issues Tixhiidon already mentioned. I had wanderlust keep me out of the track for 12 years, and only last year I could finally set a strict schedule to prevent it. I also learned to have fun with making progress on a language, rather than with figuring out interesting linguistic idiossincracies. That was a big change of attitude that helped me pursue my goals. Now I long for the days I can use authentic resources like movies and novels, and I find textbook reading really boring. I can't stand Norwegian textbooks anymore even though I'm aware I still need them. So, I study Georgian for about 1 hour each day: a grammar book+ a bilingual novel + Anki. Even if I studied only Georgian, I wouldn't be much further than I am, because I'd get burnout after that time. My mind simply wouldn't be able to absorb more concepts and words in this language. I'd need to shift to something else. And that's what I do, and that (and my job with plenty of dead time) is what allows me to have a fixed daily schedule with 4 languages and extra activities on 3 more. I'd advise you to try a second language, Tixhiidon. You'll be amazed how things go much faster with a language that has plenty of textbooks. Just don't forget to maintain and improve your Georgian the way you are already able to, by using authentic Georgian material (and by helping us out with grammar, of course). You'll see that once you get stuck with a language you can simply switch to another and you may be able to do this even three times a day before you are actually mentally tired. 3 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 12 of 26 18 March 2013 at 10:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Ha, Expugnator, thanks so much for your concern, but don't worry. I'm definitely not going to give up on my
Georgian, not least because in approximately two months I'll be wandering the streets of my beloved Tbilisi again and I want to assure myself that my Georgian has, if not improved, at least not deteriorated! Due to a change in personal circumstances (don't ask!) I may possibly have a lot more free time at some point this year. If that does happen, I can definitely see myself being able to focus on two languages together. For now, though, I think I'll plough on with kartuli and maybe have the tiniest little dabble in Romanian (which actually started last night with a read through the "Surprise me!" section of the "Look Inside" function on amazon for Colloquial Romanian. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5263 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 13 of 26 18 March 2013 at 11:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
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DLI (Defense Language Institute) Romanian Basic Course Free and legal download of pdf manuals and mp3's. Good luck, TD!
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 14 of 26 19 March 2013 at 12:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Note that that manual uses the old orthography of Romanian.
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| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5263 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 15 of 26 19 March 2013 at 4:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
Sorry. I collected some links for Romanian and saved them for the day that I may need them. Good to know that the DLI material uses the old orthography. I didn't mind it with their Portuguese course. There is an online Romanian self-teaching course with pdf's, audio and minimal English and French base for a basic introduction to the language: Limba Romana nivel A1. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 16 of 26 19 March 2013 at 4:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
I wouldn't know about Portuguese, but Romanian went through several spelling reforms, most notably in the 90's, which is why material prior to that uses a different spelling. However, the changes are mostly predictable so it's not that big an issue -- just a bit of an annoyance. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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