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Anyone learned 5+ new languages? | ||
Tags: Simultaneous study | Beginner | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 38 07 July 2012 at 9:50am | IP Logged | ||
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I hate how little space there is for the title, but the full question is the following: Has anyone successfully
learned new 5-10 languages at the same time? I ask because occasionally we get the enthusiast who wants to learn 10 languages from scratch at the same time, and I always shake my head at that, but for all I know there may be someone out here who has done just that? Have you, or anyone you know ever done that, and if not, what do you think are the likelyhood of succeeding? The mentioned head shaking says most of what I think about that method, I find it hard enough to learn one language, and keep up some others, but I find it close to impossible to be at the beginning stage of 10 languages, and make real progress. I know that for instance Tim from New York, has learned a number of languages in a short time, but as far as I know, he was fairly solid in at least 3 or 4 of them before he continued. Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 08 July 2012 at 11:44am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 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 2 of 38 07 July 2012 at 10:19am | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, to the intermediate level for now, but judging by the dynamics I'm fairly confident about my eventual fluency.
I spent about 8 years reaching a solid level in English and Finnish before that, though. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| nakrian keegiat Diglot Groupie Thailand Joined 4907 days ago 70 posts - 172 votes Speaks: English*, Thai Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 38 07 July 2012 at 11:56am | IP Logged | ||
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I guess it depends on your definition of "successfully". To some people, Moses probably qualifies, but from what I've seen it doesn't seem like he's learned any of his languages to a decent conversational level other than Mandarin.
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| Asperger-glot Diglot Newbie Denmark Joined 4546 days ago 16 posts - 22 votes Speaks: Danish*, English Studies: Dutch, Serbo-Croatian, Persian, Arabic (classical), Pashto, Polish, Bulgarian, Russian, Turkish Studies: Mandarin, Romanian, French | Message 4 of 38 07 July 2012 at 3:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Im learning 5 languages right now: Farsi, Pashto, Bulgarian, Mandarin, and Urdu
I think it works very well. Though.. I was wondering, could it be that my autistic brain (I got aspergers) helps me in this matter? I think so... considering that languages is my special AS interest, so that would help me to hyperfocus and maybe that also helps me not to mix them in my head and avoid confusing. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4638 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 5 of 38 07 July 2012 at 4:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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After my native languages (Guarani and Spanish) and Quechua, I've learned four languages to a C1/C2 level (which is my definition of "successfully"): English, Arabic, Persian, and French, but never at the same time. I started with English at age 13 when I moved from Paraguay to the United States, about 19 years ago. I focused on Arabic (MSA, Egyptian, Moroccan, and Levantine) for about 6 years, Persian for about 4 years, and French a little over 3 years. All of them were at separate intervals and I always somehow managed to not give in to wanderlust. I tried Kurdish for almost a year, but I could find nearly no resources. English was my focus for my first 5-6 years in the U.S., until Arabic, but I've studied it pretty much continuously to keep improving it. It's taken my 19 years total. But I never learned more than one language at the same time, aside from technically my native languages.
Currently, I'm focusing on Portuguese, with an occasional look into Hebrew which I plan to be my next language to study after Portuguese. But yes, I'm curious as to if and how some people have managed to study several languages simultaneously and succeed. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5262 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 6 of 38 07 July 2012 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | ||
Great question, Cristina! I shake my head too, in wonder at how anyone can make serious progress by dividing their focus so much. Also, how is it possible to have a life outside language learning- earn a living, spend time with family, date, find a partner, enjoy life- go to an art gallery, a long quiet walk on the beach, being in nature (disconnected from media), etc, given that there are only 24 hours in a day? Some of those hours must be taken up by human needs- eating, hygiene, sleeping, resting, etc. If one is an independent adult, some of that time must be devoted to earning a living as well. These folks must be masters of time management. I look at what @emk accomplished in a few months by solely devoting himself to French. I doubt if he would have reached that goal by studying Swedish, Spanish, Irish, Finnish and Russian at the same time. Edited by iguanamon on 07 July 2012 at 5:42pm 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dinguino Nonaglot Groupie GermanyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4754 days ago 55 posts - 96 votes Speaks: English, German*, FrenchC1, Catalan, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Turkish, Russian, Irish | Message 7 of 38 07 July 2012 at 6:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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I started to learn Latin in school when I was 12 years old. With 14 I voluntarily chose French. When I moved to France in september 2011 (I am 20 years old) I spoke it more or less fluently. In October 2011 I embarked upon Spanish, 3 months later Italian, 5 months later Norwegian and some weeks ago Indonesian (which I actually began to learn when I was 16 years old, but since I didn't use it that much I forgot almost everything). I manage to learn almost all of those languages every day and I can have fluent conversations in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. I think this is because of the Latin language I worked quite a lot with, as well as I meet native speakers of those languages every day so that I can practice a lot.
So, to answer your question: I learn five languages at the same time and although I haven't reached fluency in all of them by this time, I already got the hang of three of them. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5130 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 8 of 38 07 July 2012 at 9:02pm | IP Logged | ||
Not totally relevant to the thread, but you reminded me: I have an aunt that works in child psychology. We were talking one day about Aspergers, because I have a second cousin that has until now been diagnosed with it. I was unaware of this, but there is a movement afoot that is trying to reclassify Aspergers. The proposal is apparently to remove the label "Aspergers" and place it completely under the autism spectrum, weighing it with a only spectrum scale number. This isn't a slight against you in any way, but I wonder how many people (adults, in particular) with Aspergers feel about it. I see a lot of people announce - many in the language learning and tech communities that I tend to follow online- that they have Aspergers almost as if it were a badge of honor. Would the reclassification change the way people with Aspergers view themselves? Would they feel more stigmatized? I'm genuinely curious. R. == Edited by hrhenry on 07 July 2012 at 9:45pm 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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