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Learning languages simultaneously

 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
9 messages over 2 pages: 1
cityhunter
Newbie
Germany
Joined 5028 days ago

5 posts - 6 votes

 
 Message 9 of 9
30 July 2010 at 7:11pm | IP Logged 
I don't think it's a good idea to start Japanese and Mandarin at the same time. A lot of people do this, but I think it's more efficient if first you build up basic knowledge in one of these languages and then start the other one. When you know how to write Chinese characters and how to pronounce them (let's say in Japanese), it will only feel like a readadjustment if you have to do the same thing in Mandarin-- but in learning both at the same time there will be no real gain. Delving into the complex Japanese grammar, trying to pronounce Chinese words correctly, learning how to write & read a character in simpfified/traditional form is nothing short of an overkill.

You thinking of learning languages simultaneously to speed things up. But you will be faster if you master a language one by one. In my experience, the more languages you already know, the faster you will "get" a new language.

The only scenario in which perhaps learning many languages at the same time would be OK: You only want to have basic conversational skills. If you want more than that, you just have to spend a certain amount of time with a language. So on the one hand you lament that learning all these languages would take probably too long, but if you learn 3-4 different languages at the same time (beside having other interests than languages) it would really take 3-5+ years to be sufficient (just a wild guess) but if you put everything you have into one language, you'll have a pretty adequate grip on the language within 1-2 years (just a wild guess again).

In a nutshell: Try to build up your Latin skills first, that will help you with your Italian. I guess learning Russian at the same time would be OK too, about Japanese or Chinese as the third concurrent language I'm not so sure, because learning an Asian language for the first time is always in a league of its own. So perhaps you should build up a basic level of Italian/Russian first and then you can move on to either Japanese or Chinese.


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