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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4046 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes  Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 1 of 21 23 March 2015 at 11:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi guys,
arrived at this point I think I reached a limit where I will be stuck with my 4 languages (English, French, Spanish and Dutch) for quite a bit of time. Among those French is the one I care the least. I need a C1 level in the other three languages and a B2 would be better for French. Probably it is better if I improve English for last. But in general I feel overwhelmed. It's like if I learn something else in a language I lose something in another one. I would like to learn other languages (comprehension only) but I observed that I basically can't. I feel stuck and I don't have a clear view of how I can bring my four languages to very good levels. I need some advice guys! (and it is just after you type this post that you check your email and you find this message: "You can now learn Turkish on Duolingo!") Edited by tristano on 23 March 2015 at 11:20pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4443 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 2 of 21 23 March 2015 at 11:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The last thing to remember is that learning a foreign language isn't an academic exercise. It is for learning a
new culture and communicating with people who are natives. Some people feel that acquiring a new language is strictly a number game (the more the better). It is ok to stick to the languages you acquire already. Last year I went to a Christmas dinner gathering. There were at least 4 people who passed their Gr. 6 piano exams at a conservatory level and nobody feel comfortable playing a song. These people had taken piano lessons and had played through half-dozen song books in front of a teacher. Learning to speak a language involve interacting with others in a social setting. Besides going to language classes, the 1 thing I tend to do is to work around my schedule to do things I'd normally do in 1 language in another such as reading a newspaper / news online, watching TV & listening to the radio. I normally keep a word list on computer. Even when I'm watching videos online, I'd stop the video every once in a while to lookup new words & phrases and record them. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5008 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 3 of 21 24 March 2015 at 12:14am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, it can be an academic exercise as well, there are people who find this motivation the best. And I totally
understand the need for comprhension as it is awesome to just enjoy those tons of culture and media without any living natives necessary for the enjoyment. So, there are many temptations for learning at least one more (one of the most common lies "just one more" usually refers to beers but it seems to apply to languages among htlalers as well) However, knowing four foreign languages, that is awesome, Tristano! There is more fun available to you than you could fully appreciate and enjoy in a lifetime so does it really matter that much that your brain isn't comfortable with adding a few more right now? And perhaps it is better to stop now, polish the four, and have some space left available so that you can learn a new language or two in a few years and choose by your tastes and needs by then? I personally wouldn't want to rush through eight languages and find out in ten years that I really need another and I simply cannot learn it and probably never will. Edited by Cavesa on 24 March 2015 at 12:15am 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5307 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 4 of 21 24 March 2015 at 1:41am | IP Logged | |||||
If you mean that literally and you're not just saying, then you may want to re-plan your reviewing methods and scheduling.
You're probably feeling frustrated because you're too used to rapid progress, because your 4 L2s are very similar to your native language. You're probably improving but not sensing it. Are you lost because you already seem to know everything, and have no idea what else there is to improve in (especially with Spanish which is so similar to Italian), or do you feel inadequacy but just don't know how to bridge the gap? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Monox D. I-Fly Senior Member Indonesia monoxdifly.iopc.us Joined 5134 days ago 762 posts - 664 votes Speaks: Indonesian* | Message 5 of 21 24 March 2015 at 4:22am | IP Logged | |||||
Or maybe because they are very similar, he keeps mistaking which one is which. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| chaotic_thought Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 3541 days ago 129 posts - 274 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, French | Message 6 of 21 24 March 2015 at 10:48am | IP Logged | |||||
For me it works to see how much time I can schedule (say, 15 hours per week), and then schedule time proportionally to their importance to you (e.g. 7 hr/week Spanish, 4 hr/week Dutch, 2 hr/week on each of English and French). For these languages maybe it would be helpful to pair languages together which are not as similar to each other. For example, on Monday you will focus on Spanish and Dutch, and on Tuesday you focus on English-French. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5235 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 7 of 21 24 March 2015 at 12:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I can speak only for myself, but I took a "hiatus" from Italian for almost a year to concentrate on French, and when I went back to Italian it only took a few weeks to get back up to where I was before. So perhaps you could use this method? Simply concentrate on the language you want to learn right now (I assume Dutch) and then do a week or two of the others every few months as a review so you don't slip back too much.
Of course there are a lot of people here who speak a lot more languages than me, so feel free to ignore my advice, but sometimes it is good to have a holiday. :) 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4046 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 8 of 21 24 March 2015 at 2:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you very much everyone!
@rdearmen, I think I will follow your advice. The language I need to improve the most in this moment is indeed Dutch. @Monox D. I-Fly: no it is not the case. English and Dutch are too different from theselves and the other and I don't mix Italian, Spanish and French. @smallwhite: it's true that I'm out of rapid progresses now. I'm in the situation where the 3 easy languages grow slowly and demand focused study and the other one is moderately complicated as always. So nobody is going to be impressed by how fast I learn anymore. But I perfectly now which are my limits. I absolutely don't know everything. My grammar is nowhere near as perfect and my vocabulary is still short. I know what I have to do but it will require years. That's why I feel like this. @Cavesa yes the temptation to learn another language to be able to understand new medias is huge, but it interferes with my level in the languages I'm studying now. @shk00design since now I aborted the study of all the languages that are not useful for me know to communicate to other people. Probably I can tie a particular language to a particular domain (like French for cooking, English for IT, Spanish for literature and Dutch for everyday's tasks). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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