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Learning L4/5 through L2/3 instead of L1

  Tags: L3 via L2
 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
9 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
hribecek
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 5340 days ago

1243 posts - 1458 votes 
Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish
Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian

 
 Message 1 of 9
10 October 2010 at 6:51pm | IP Logged 
I have a resources dilemma for my next language targets. For example I want to learn Russian and Italian but I don't know whether to get my resources in my L2 OR L3 - Czech or Spanish as opposed to my L1 - English.

I think it would be good for maintaining my L2 or L3 at the same time as learning a new one but I'm not sure how well it works. Does anybody have any suggestions and advice?

Also, is it wiser to learn eg. Italian through Spanish or through a more different language like Czech or English?

And does anybody have any experience with the LEDA series of coursebooks? (found them in the Czech Republic)

Thanks in advance


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Cainntear
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Scotland
linguafrankly.blogsp
Joined 6002 days ago

4399 posts - 7687 votes 
Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh

 
 Message 2 of 9
10 October 2010 at 9:42pm | IP Logged 
I would normally stick to my native language if at all possible, but I've recently been learning Catalan through French. By using a similar language, it won't take up a lot of space trying to explain the things you already know, just the differences.
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ellasevia
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2011
Senior Member
Germany
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2150 posts - 3229 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian
Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian

 
 Message 3 of 9
10 October 2010 at 10:24pm | IP Logged 
I agree with Cainntear, I normally stick to material in my L1. However, I recently began using Assimil for Romanian and am learning Romanian in part through French. I think it's beneficial for maintaining the L2/L3/L4 (or whatever), but it also might take slightly more work because you might not understand some of the words that are used in translations, or some of the jokes or grammatical nuances might not make sense.

Edited by ellasevia on 10 October 2010 at 10:25pm

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hribecek
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 5340 days ago

1243 posts - 1458 votes 
Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish
Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian

 
 Message 4 of 9
11 October 2010 at 7:39pm | IP Logged 
Thanks a lot for the advice. I was thinking those same thoughts about the possible effects of it. I still might do it though, at least for the lower level resources. Does anybody have any extensive experience with this method?
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jeff_lindqvist
Diglot
Moderator
SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6900 days ago

4250 posts - 5711 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French
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 Message 5 of 9
12 October 2010 at 8:49pm | IP Logged 
Since I finished high school, I've used English (=L2) material for basically everything I've ever wanted to learn. I'm studying all my languages (mainly) through L2 and you could indeed say that I practice my English a lot. Studying through German/Spanish would be more difficult (but probably doable, and at least better than not studying it at all).
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Lucas
Pentaglot
Groupie
Switzerland
Joined 5158 days ago

85 posts - 130 votes 
Speaks: French*, English, German, Italian, Russian
Studies: Mandarin

 
 Message 6 of 9
12 October 2010 at 10:17pm | IP Logged 
I would say it could eventually work for slovak (through your czech) and for portuguese
(through your Spanish)...as Cainteer learned catalan through french (though Cainteer
would speak better catalan now if he had learned it through English).
But it will definitely NOT work for russian and Italian: those two languages are not
related enough with the ones you already speak (czech and Spanish)!

And if you want to learn really russian or Italian, just don't think about learning one
of those languages through another one than English (unless you're already thinking and
dreaming in czech and Spanish)!

Of course, it could be an interesting exercice of language comparison to "study"
russian through czech and Italian through Spanish...but if you really want to speak
russian and Italian someday, learn it through English!

Conclusion: if I were you (i.e. an English speaker living in czech republik, who knows
he'll never masterize russian and Italian), I would learn them through czech and
spanish, because it would be more funny and interesting!
:)


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Cainntear
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Scotland
linguafrankly.blogsp
Joined 6002 days ago

4399 posts - 7687 votes 
Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh

 
 Message 7 of 9
13 October 2010 at 12:52am | IP Logged 
Lucas wrote:
as Cainteer learned catalan through french (though Cainteer
would speak better catalan now if he had learned it through English).

I learned Catalan through a French Assimil course, but through comparison with Spanish, Italian and French.

I would have learned better through English if the course had assumed a sufficient level of any two of those languages. If not, I would have wasted a lot of time relearning things that I already know.

In general though, I do agree that it's better to learn through your first language than some other language.
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starst
Triglot
Senior Member
China
Joined 5505 days ago

113 posts - 133 votes 
Speaks: Mandarin*, Japanese, EnglishC2
Studies: FrenchC1, German, Norwegian

 
 Message 8 of 9
13 October 2010 at 3:29am | IP Logged 
I'm a huge fan of the method learning L(n) by L(n-1). I learnt French through English, and plan to learn German through French. I just do this for fun, and it is usually because I get some particularly interesting learning material of my target language but not available in my L1.

Anyway, according to my own experience, it's best to learn a language by that language, e.g. learning French through French. Whatever method you use, I recommend to try to pass into the stage where you can directly use learning materials in your target language.


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