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How proficient before next language? | ||
Tags: Simultaneous study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Talib Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6659 days ago 171 posts - 205 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (classical) Studies: Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 1 of 14 05 May 2015 at 11:04pm | IP Logged |
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When learning multiple languages, how proficient do you like to be in one language before moving on to the next? Do you ever begin learning two or more languages at the same time?
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| guiguixx1 Octoglot Senior Member Belgium guillaumelp.wordpres Joined 4090 days ago 163 posts - 207 votes Speaks: French*, English, Dutch, Portuguese, Esperanto, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 2 of 14 05 May 2015 at 11:31pm | IP Logged |
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From personal experience:
To answer to your first question: I am really happy with my level when I get to B2-C1: understanding TV quite easily, being able to express myself almost effortlessly, and when I can read native books without a dictionary, although I may skip unknown words. In short, when I begin to really master the language and, more importantly, when I can feel it and feel its grammar. when it has become very familiar (almost as familiar as my native language). Unfortunately, this takes years... To answer to your second question: I rarely learn only one language at a time. I frequently want to learn 2 or more, although I notice that it's very difficult to notice significant progress then. So I do this out of envy and fun, not out of level requirement. When I want to really improve, I force myself to focus on only one, and practice it all the time (listening to TV or podcast,reading, understanding grammar, ....) Still, one thing that happens regularly, is that I study one or more languages at the same time, then drop a language, focus on others, and go back to the language after some time, and notice I have improved. Thus, I don't study a language from A0 to B2 in a run. I usually take breaks, during which I study other language. I thus always have more than one language between the A1-B2 range (4 for now). When I do reach B2-C1 (or higher), I rarely make an effort to keep on learning. I rather just use the language as a tool, to read interesting stuff, watch movies, and only study vocab when I feel like it, but it gets rare to stop for that. This is the level I have in English and Dutch. I thus don't try to learn them anymore. I don't focus on vocab or grammar 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5764 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 3 of 14 06 May 2015 at 12:41am | IP Logged |
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Strong B1 at least. At least that it what I should do. Ha.
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| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4705 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 4 of 14 06 May 2015 at 1:46am | IP Logged |
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I move on when the inspiration strikes me. Better to strike when the iron is hot...
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6595 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 5 of 14 06 May 2015 at 1:48am | IP Logged |
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Depends on the languages. With related languages, you're never a complete beginner anyway, and especially passive-only study doesn't really feel like starting something new. For example, most Portuguese native speakers have some exposure to Spanish in their life. If some are planning to learn it more seriously later, they won't be avoiding the language because of that in the meanwhile. They already understand a lot. (although they can benefit from a more active approach to input)
Also, obligatory wikia link. Edited by Serpent on 06 May 2015 at 1:50am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5554 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 6 of 14 06 May 2015 at 3:09am | IP Logged |
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Ideally, I like to reach a solid B1 level proficiency in all the languages I'm committed to sustaining via independent study before adding a new language to the jukebox. For example, I'm currently B1 or above in French, German, and Russian, but probably no more than A1 in Irish (the greenhorn in the group).
To be fair, I also study Hawaiian pretty intensely, and that's about A2+ right now (making its first baby steps towards B1), but I've been studying it since last Fall at university, so it's not strictly independent study at the moment. In the past, I've also been a terrible flirt with side projects and general language wanderlust (so many amazing languages, so little time!) So now I'm working with the general strategy of leaving side projects to weekends only (e.g., Sundays work well for me), and wanderlust to the remaining days at the end of each month if I've been good (i.e., any days of the month remaining after 4 weeks). I'll let you know how this strategy goes... Edited by Teango on 06 May 2015 at 5:12am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5958 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 7 of 14 06 May 2015 at 4:34am | IP Logged |
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C1. But with a marathon language like Mandarin I sometimes I burn out so I take a break
for a couple weeks and study one of my many wanderlust languages. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5205 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 14 06 May 2015 at 1:02pm | IP Logged |
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In theory I'd rather reach a very high level, like C1, before starting another. From my experience and understanding of myself as a learner, I'm convinced that that would be optimal in terms of learning efficiency, even (and especially) for related languages. In practice however, I learn languages because I want to use them, so if I have many opportunities and a strong desire to use one then I'll start earlier.
So I try to reach a compromise between these two ideas, and balance long-term efficiency with short-term utility and enjoyment. I was very keen to start Italian, and I waited until my French was at around B2. I'm quite sure that waiting another couple of years and just focusing on getting French to a higher level first would have been a more optimal long-term strategy, but I also would have missed out on a lot of great social and travel opportunities that Italian gave me during that time. I did a similar thing with Spanish, but I didn't have enough time to progress in three languages, so I quit it after learning enough to understand a lot of conversations and express myself inelegantly. Of course my eventual goal is a much higher level than that, but for the moment, even that knowledge is extremely useful. This is all about active study; I agree with Serpent about passive exposure/study. I hear a lot of Spanish in my social life, which is helping to maintain what I do know and probably even giving me more passive knowledge which I'll be able to exploit whenever I do decide to actively study it again. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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