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Is adding a third language a bad idea? | ||
Tags: Simultaneous study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| magnax1 Newbie United States Joined 3703 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Mandarin | Message 1 of 18 06 October 2014 at 4:36am | IP Logged | ||
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I've been learning Russian for about a year, and I'm getting good enough to read some
stuff on my own, and I just started Mandarin at my college this semester. So my question is would adding portuguese as a third language interfere with my study of the other two as long as I'm consistent? I mean, they're all pretty unrelated so I have a hard time seeing them getting confused or anything, but many people seem to think it's a bad idea. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| robarb Nonaglot Senior Member United States languagenpluson Joined 5058 days ago 361 posts - 921 votes  Speaks: Portuguese, English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, French Studies: Mandarin, Danish, Russian, Norwegian, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Greek, Latin, Nepali, Modern Hebrew | Message 2 of 18 06 October 2014 at 6:45am | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome to the forum!
There have been previous discussions about this topic, which you can search for. However, it's no problem to ask again, as each learner may have different needs to bring into the discussion. Those three languages are different enough from each other that you probably don't have to worry much about catastrophic interference, where you lose the ability to tell which words and structures go with which language. That means you don't necessarily have to wait for a reasonably high level in one before starting another, as you do when learning languages within a family. That said, three new languages in a year is a lot. Are you a full-time language student? If not, you're risking not being able to give enough attention to each of them. So there's no problem in principle but I'd say you're much more likely to succeed if you wait until your Mandarin is where your Russian is now, and your Russian is very solid. Studying multiple languages at a time can be great (and if you learn a great many languages, you do need to maintain reasonably frequent contact with all of them) but three new ones in the span of a year sounds like too much. That is not a sustainable rate of adding new languages, so why not space it out just a bit? 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Mutant Groupie United States Joined 3910 days ago 45 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German | Message 3 of 18 06 October 2014 at 1:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have to agree... I am very tempted by so many different languages, it's hard not to keep wanting to add more to my plate. But the truth is, it felt AMAZING to work so hard on French and to keep a promise to myself that I wouldn't touch German until I had at least finished Assimil. That's about six months of staggering my languages, so that I can now polish and improve my French while starting German. So maybe you should get wait and get your Mandarin off to a good start before adding anything else.
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| chiara-sai Triglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3707 days ago 54 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German, Japanese | Message 4 of 18 06 October 2014 at 2:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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It’s not just the danger of confusion, it’s also the fact that the more languages you study at the same time the less
time you can dedicate to each of them, which makes the learning slower and it can lead to frustration. However if you feel you have the time to do it then I’d say it’s alright, but be careful that once you’ve added a third language you might feel like you really like a fourth one and add that too and then a fifth and eventually it can overwhelm you if you’re not careful. Also you might want to learn Portuguese soon, but starting it now it won’t make it happen much sooner, as you’ll still be studying the other two language and have little time to dedicate to Portuguese. But if you wait, you can be sure that every progress you make in Russian and Mandarin brings you closer to the day in which you’ll be able to speak Portuguese, as you will be able to start it once you’ve reached a good level in the other two and you’ll have more time to dedicate to it. Edited by chiara-sai on 06 October 2014 at 2:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6581 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 5 of 18 06 October 2014 at 3:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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The standard response of "wait until you've reached a decent level in your current
languages before you add another" isn't just because of interference, or even time contraints. There's also a factor of mental exhaustion. Studying a language at the beginning levels is mentally hard work. You need to focus and exert yourself and it's hard to do it for many hours a day. On the other hand, at the higher levels you can spend a lot of time reading books and watching TV, which are less mentally taxing activities. This will leave you with more energy to tackle the more intensive activities of a new language. I have a lot of free time on weekends, but it'd be impossible for me to work with weak languages for 10 hours in a day. I can, however, read books and watch movies in strong languages for 8 hours and spend two hours on intensive work on a weaker language, if I want to. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| magnax1 Newbie United States Joined 3703 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Mandarin | Message 6 of 18 06 October 2014 at 7:53pm | IP Logged | ||
Well I'm getting to the point in Russian where I can do that. I have trouble listening to spoken Russian radio, but reading I'm doing alright with. I bought a couple Russian books actually. Edited by magnax1 on 06 October 2014 at 7:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 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 7 of 18 06 October 2014 at 8:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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See this.
What strikes me is that Portuguese is likely to be less exhausting than Mandarin or even Russian. You remind me on kujichagulia - but he lives in Japan and needs to learn Japanese, whereas Portuguese offers him time to relax. Realistically, I'm afraid you're likely to drop one of your languages soon (if you add Portuguese). Do you already have any contact with Russian outside of your learning materials? Your Mandarin situation also seems suspicious - you've just started it in August/September and you're already tempted to start something else? Also, is it a coincidence that you're picking BRICS countries or are you trying to get some business usefulness out of it? Both Russian and Mandarin can be incredibly useful, but you do have to reach a fairly high level, and you may find yourself competing with bilingual Americans. Portuguese is extremely useful too, but it's also easier to learn and you'll be competing with natives AND learners, including those who also speak Spanish. Sorry if I'm making assumptions, that's mostly because you didn't provide much details. You described your experience and possible plans, but the most important question is "why?". Why are you tempted to start one more language and why are you hesitating? Why Portuguese? Why do you think you'll continue learning Russian? Why are you taking Mandarin in college? Why aren't Mandarin and Russian satisfying your curiosity? :-) Of course these are just some suggested topics to think of. You don't have to convince us, just convince yourself first - with pro and contra lists etc. We can then point out the pitfalls of your argumentation :) Edited by Serpent on 06 October 2014 at 8:16pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| magnax1 Newbie United States Joined 3703 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Mandarin | Message 8 of 18 06 October 2014 at 9:48pm | IP Logged | ||
It's not that Mandarin and Russian aren't satisfying me. I just want to learn Portuguese. As for why Russian, I like Russian novels. Also want to visit. I have contact with some Russian people over skype. Why Mandarin, because China is an interesting country. My roommate is from China and speaks Mandarin. Why Portuguese? Just feel like it. Also want to visit Portugal and maybe Brazil. Okay I guess Ill try and list out why I thought now might be a good time to learn portuguese. My Russian learning seems to be speeding up a lot lately where I'm learning much more in a shorter time. My roommate makes Mandarin easier, and I think this will be more so true once I get the basics down and can use it consistently around him. If I start it after college I feel like I have a lower chance of succeeding because of less free time and more responsibilities. Also, like you said Portuguese just seems nice and easy compared to the other two. I can probably get the same out of portuguese if I put in half the time in Russian and a quarter of Chinese according to lists of how long it takes to learn a language (5-600 for Portuguese 1000+ for Russian and 2000+ for Mandarin) So compared to the others its a pretty small investment. Not that I think it well be easy or anything. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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