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Changing your mind | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| bela_lugosi Hexaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 6265 days ago 272 posts - 376 votes  Speaks: English, Finnish*, Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish Studies: Russian, Estonian, Sámi, Latin | Message 9 of 16 19 October 2008 at 5:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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I do that way too often.. :D My attempts to improve my Slovenian are doomed to fail because of my urge to improve Russian, which is already passable.
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| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 10 of 16 21 October 2008 at 9:52am | IP Logged | ||
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I jump around languages a lot, but never totally give up on them. If I'm travelling somewhere, I'll tend to weight that language heavily in my studies, but otherwise, I'll try and keep a number on the go at the same time. This week, I've concentrating entirely on Greek, as I'll be heading to Cyprus on Friday. In some ways, I'm a bit of a language tourist. Some people loves beaches, while other like museums and sites. I love exploring the language in it's natural context.
When I return, I'll pick up my on original plan, and study Russian, Spanish and Hungarian. When you postpone a language, and then return to it later, it doesn't take too long to pick up where you last left off. Having said that, my biggest problem, is the rather large collection of language products I've acquired over the years. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jody Senior Member United States Joined 6049 days ago 242 posts - 252 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Bulgarian | Message 11 of 16 21 October 2008 at 11:50am | IP Logged | ||
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I started with Bulgarian, since that's my wife's native language. But after getting discouraged with the lack of learning materials, I switched to Russian. I did pretty well with that, since there were dozens of useful materials. But I soon learned that...RUSSIAN IS HARD! I know it's possible, but it was very hard for some reason. And also there was very limited places to really use it day-to-day. So I decided to go with Spanish. It's not as "fun" as Russian, but much easier. I'm making progress much faster with Spanish, and i will actually be able to use it regularly. (Right now I'm not ready, and I'm too shy to start a conversation until i'm better).
ANyway, i think it's normal to change your mind, but if you want to make any significant progress you need to stick it out. Jody 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Principiante Senior Member United States lucasgentry.com Joined 6069 days ago 130 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 12 of 16 22 October 2008 at 8:37am | IP Logged | ||
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I suppose it all depends on your motivations and goals. My goal is to be able to speak to Mexican and other Latin American people within the United States. To meet this goal, I simply MUST stay with the one language, at least to the extent of having most of my studies devoted to it (not that I'm very good, but I've recently gotten to the point that I can actively and creatively make several sentences or relative complexity). In that, I understand the previous comment of treachery against your goals by swapping around. When you get in that habbit, it's not one that will leave you soon. You'll end up being able to understand the basics of several languages, but for all intents and purposes still be monolingual.
On the other hand, if your goal is just to have some fun learning random stuff, then jump around by all means. If your goal is to know basic travel phrases in all the languages of any place that you might ever go, do it. All in all, it's all about your goals. A lot of people on this board switch around all the time. For most of them, it's perfectly fine. There is no problem. Just don't fool yourself into thinking that you'll end up being great at many languages by continually switching around. You're a lot more likely to end up good by sticking with one language until you reach your goal level of proficiency and then picking up on another. That being said, picking up a phrase or two in other languages are fine, as long as you don't keep switching your primary around frequently. (Almost all of this rhetoric is just reflecting my understanding, but not necissarily my experience, as I have devoted myself to learning the one language and have not let myself switch around) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cheeky chica Groupie England Joined 5767 days ago 70 posts - 75 votes Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 13 of 16 22 October 2008 at 11:07am | IP Logged | ||
I think this is a good healthy attitude to have. This way, you may find a language you really love learning and just end up sticking with it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mytamk Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6089 days ago 64 posts - 68 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English Studies: Mandarin, Japanese | Message 14 of 16 01 November 2008 at 11:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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Life is all about experiences... I started out with Spanish and really got into it. But then when I discovered how Japanese is very similar to Chinese and how I was able to read a newspaper and medicinal journal even without studying Japanese and with just one semester of community college Japanese, I was able to understand basic sentence structure and grammar, I was hooked. I find myself thinking and responding to people in Japanese whether or not they are speaking to me in Japanese. Unfortunately when I traveled to Barcelona this summer, even though I could understand what people are saying to me, I wanted to response in Japanese. And that is so frustrating. When people ask me my name, I want to say, "I am (Soy (Spanish) so and so desu (Japanese)" Yet that is so natural to me. LOL... So Principiante is suggestion may be a good one. But life is all about diversity and mixing it all up!!!!
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| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6661 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 15 of 16 01 November 2008 at 11:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/taking-a-break-the -third-way
Good article. The basic idea is that if you need a break from your target language, take that break in another language. It's productive (assuming it's a language you want to learn down the road). Sometimes I take a break from Chinese and do French for a few days. It's motivating when I come back to Chinese. DaraghM is right. I've found it doesn't take long to pick up where you left off (in either language). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Alvinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 6045 days ago 828 posts - 832 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish | Message 16 of 16 02 November 2008 at 3:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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I gave up on Italian a few years ago because felt it useless at that time and would cause me trouble towards my English studies......recently I decided to go for Galician, even only reading news and listening to radio...next year I'll start studying its grammar itself and re-start with Italian....
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