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How many languages do you learn at once? | ||
Tags: Simultaneous study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| slymie Tetraglot Groupie China Joined 5220 days ago 81 posts - 154 votes  Speaks: English, Macedonian Studies: French, Mandarin, Greek Studies: Shanghainese, Uyghur, Russian | Message 1 of 12 08 December 2010 at 7:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm sure this has been brought up before but I couldn't find a thread. It seems like a hot topic and I wanted to know others ideas on how much is too much.
I know that one school will say you should focus on one language and one language only until you are fluent, then move on to the next. While some whom I respect share this theory I am one who sits on the other side of the fence and I will explain why. Your brain can only learn one language at a time First, I think no language is ever 'learned'. Nobody knows every single word in any language, thus we are continuing to learn every day. Someone who speaks several languages will read or watch movies for pleasure in that language, and in several ways they are at the same time studying that language. Thus, we are all studying several languages at once. :) Learning multiple languages will confuse you I can see the point that sometimes you can be confused. I remember being in gradeschool and sometimes injecting a Macedonian word into an English sentence and being laughed at, when I began learning Russian I kept saying "Savvato" (Σαββατο-saturday) for "Subbota" Суббота-also saturday. But it was mostly because I hooked it in my memory as being very similar. The languages I currently study are Shangahinese, Russian, and Uygur. Three different writing systems (Hanzi, Cyrillic and Arabic abjad). And they sound completely different (although actually Uygur has quite a few loan words from Russian) so much that I would never get stuck thinking "hhmmmmmmm... now is the word for Crab in Russian bolostosti Krab, or duzi ha. Take your time with one and get it right Nuh-uh. I live in Shanghai where there are an abundance of Russian, Mandarin, Shanghainese, Uygur, and English speakers. I don't have problems finding people to practice with, lessons or tutors. While I might 'focus' on a certain language that is lagging, I find it much more fun to learn many at once. For example. You spend 100% of your learning time on Russian. After Studying for 2 years you speak fluent Russian and will move on to Korean, then Chinese. The third year you are at ground 0 in Korean. the 5th year your Korean is pretty good and you begin Chinese, after 2 years you are at an acceptable level of Chinese. You can now communicate with people from all three languages. Then learning multiple, say putting 40% effort into Chinese, 30/30 into Russian and Korean. You have 6 years to learn these languages. After 1-2 years, you are conversational in all three. You meet Russians, Koreans, or Chinese and can already put a smile on their face with your skill in their language. From the language you have started to learn about the countries and the peoples themselves. You get addicted to a Korean sitcom, gain a fondness for Russian rap. Find a Chinese girlfriend. You absorb every opportunity around you to practice one of your target languages. Life is unpredictable and you never know who you are going to meet, I'm a very 'hands on' language learner as in I love to seek out native speakers and movies/music/ect in my target language to practce. I eat at least 4 times a week at the local Uygur restaurant to chat with the waiters and practice, my girlfriend is Russian, and I chat with every old lady at the supermarket about the rising price of vegetables in Shanghainese. I feel like if I only focused on Russian right now, I would be wasting all that practice time around me. ... but I understand other people could be in different situations, maybe sitting in a classroom with no native speakers around in Alaska or something. Anyways yeh. How many languages do you learn at once? ;) Right now I'm learning 3-7 depending how you look at it. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5122 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 2 of 12 08 December 2010 at 8:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm currently learning three. But they are each at a different learning and comfort level.
One thing I try to do is vary each language's learning method for the day or week. For example, if I plan on watching a lot of movies and listening to a lot of music in Norwegian, I won't do that with Polish and Turkish. Currently, my Norwegian is focused on movies and music. My Polish is focused on reading and my Turkish is focused on basic audio lessons (ie Pimsleur), since I've only been at it for about a month. But I'm about to finish the Pimsleur course, so I'll be switching that to more reading to increase vocabulary. When I do that I'll try to move Polish over to more movies and music and my Norwegian to more writing. That's a simplistic explanation though, and it doesn't always work out that way. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6695 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 12 08 December 2010 at 8:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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For me the most taxing phase of learning a language is the period where I try to learn the main points of the grammar and suck up vocabulary, while at the same time trying to get a practical foothold in the language by studying texts, preferable while having a literal translation ready. Duting this period I prefer focussing on a single language. But as soon as I am capable of relaxing with extensive reading and listening I'm ready to take on another.
Actually I have not always stuck to this principle. FOr instance I tried to learn Russian and Greek at the same time, and I could feel that they got into the way of each other. Then I dropped my Russian studies for a period until I could feel some real progress in Greek, and at that point I resumed them. Right now my main 'new' language in Bahasa Indonesian (though supplemented with some sources in Bahasa Malaysia, which is very close). Actually I was studying Irish, but then I visited Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei this some and become hooked on Bahasa. I still occasionally look in an Irish grammar or textbook or language guide, but my focus is not on that language right now. Edited by Iversen on 09 December 2010 at 11:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6134 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 4 of 12 08 December 2010 at 11:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am currently learning sixteen, but am studying only ten of those. That sounds a bit frightening, but here's how it breaks down.
"STUDYING" 01. Greek (Basic Fluency) 02. German (Basic Fluency) 03. Swedish (Intermediate) 04. Swahili (Intermediate) 05. Japanese (Intermediate) 06. Esperanto (Intermediate) 07. Russian (Beginner-Intermediate) 08. Romanian (Beginner-Intermediate) 09. Dutch (Beginner-Intermediate) 10. Persian (Beginner) I am also "learning" all of those, of course, but I'm also learning six others in addition, as I constantly learn new words in all my languages, including my native language and others which I already speak: 11. English (Native Language) 12. Spanish (Native Fluency) 13. French (Advanced Fluency) 14. Portuguese (Advanced Fluency) 15. Italian (Basic Fluency) 16. Finnish (Beginner) [I'm studying Finnish vocabulary right now to build a base for future study.] Yes, it takes a huge amount of time. Yes, it's often tiring. Yes, it's sometimes confusing. Yes, it might not be as efficient as learning only one or a few of them. All true. But also true is that I enjoy it, which is what really matters. Edit: Mistakenly wrote that I had advanced fluency in Italian. Oops! Edited by ellasevia on 09 December 2010 at 5:42am 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| thephantomgoat Groupie United States Joined 5463 days ago 52 posts - 103 votes | Message 5 of 12 09 December 2010 at 2:20am | IP Logged | ||
Love the way you put this. I'm currently studying the following languages: -German (high intermediate) -Mandarin (high beginner) -Polish (complete beginner) I'm also learning English (native) and Spanish (advanced). These five are keeping me quite busy, and the differences in my levels in these languages keeps me interested and from becoming overwhelmed. Similar to hrhenry, I mostly read and watch authentic works in Spanish; strengthen my grammar and acquire more vocab in German, gradually adding more and more authentic materials; improve my current knowledge of Chinese characters and their Mandarin pronunciation and usages; and build a basis in fundamental Polish vocab and grammar. Since I'm at different points in learning all of these languages, it's not as difficult to study more than one at once. I ran into trouble when I studied Mandarin and Vietnamese at the same time and with the same level of proficiency (the latter has fallen by the wayside for now), and when I began Polish and Turkish at the same time. But I'll start Turkish in another year or so, and I'll get back into Vietnamese at some point. So then those languages will take the place of the ones I currently am actively studying, and the others will hopefully have moved closer into the maintenance-and- gradual-improvement stage that I've attained with my Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rad Newbie United States Joined 5606 days ago 18 posts - 23 votes Speaks: French | Message 6 of 12 09 December 2010 at 3:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Life is too short, languages are too many and too long to study just one at a time. Besides if I'd only study one at a time, I'd forget it if I picked up another.
So at the moment, it's reading ancient Greek (intermediate), studying Arabic, (middling beginner) starting Dutch (mainly listening). I really wish I could find enough time to advance in Russian, Italian, Spanish, German, Latin, French... but it seems I am content to get to somewhere at the intermediate level. At any rate, three languages are the most I can deal with during the winter. In summer, two are plenty. Jean 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ThisIsGina Groupie United Kingdom languageblogbygina.w Joined 5310 days ago 56 posts - 72 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Romanian, Catalan, Greek, German, French | Message 7 of 12 09 December 2010 at 4:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am studying Spanish, Romanian and Greek. I've been studying Spanish for over a year, Romanian for a few months, and Greek for only a few weeks. I follow the rule that I should be fairly OK at one language before beginning another.
My mum thinks I'm taking on too much at once, and suggested I cut down to just the ones I need for college (I will be studying French, German, and Spanish at college). I said I couldn't because I need Greek for when I go to Crete, and I've worked so hard at Romanian the past few months it would be a shame to quit. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JPike1028 Triglot Senior Member United States piketransitions Joined 5389 days ago 297 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, French, Italian Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Portuguese, Czech | Message 8 of 12 09 December 2010 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm currently studying 9 - although I give each one a specific time frame for devoted study (i.e. - coming in February I will be spending 3 months focusing on Italian). However I play with all of my languages at the very least weekly through speaking with friends. I personally like the confusion, as I have said before, out of that confusion I am able to play more and really figure out things as I deem necessary. For the most part though, the languages segement themselves into different...partitions in my brain and I transition between most of them pretty easily.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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