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What’s the perfect number of languages? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Malcolm Triglot Retired Moderator Senior Member Korea, South Joined 7118 days ago 500 posts - 515 votes  5 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 17 of 37 22 March 2005 at 4:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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I understand now, and I think the third type of motivation is the one that is dominant in me. I enjoy using languages to communicate with other people, and while that's my goal, it's not really my reason for learning them. I could easily just use English to communicate with everyone I know, but there's something very enjoyable about speaking in a non-native language. I think this kind of motivation is a must for the native English speakers, as there are so many other people in the world who speak passable English. Edited by Malcolm on 22 March 2005 at 4:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7059 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 18 of 37 22 March 2005 at 6:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Victor, I'm sorry, I overlooked your question while answering Malcolm's.
The only way to "test" whether or not you can learn two languages at the same time is to try it and see what happens. Unless you have lots of experience, you are likely to get confused, but you may well find that you can keep them in separate categories in your brain, and if so, you may also find that the comparative/ analogical perspective you gain is well worthwhile. I think you will get the best results if you use Assimil or Linguaphone type courses and the kind of shadowing methodology that I have described elsewhere. Both in order to test this, and in order to learn what kind of schedule you work best with, you need to keep a language learning log or journal. Document exactly what you do, when and how you do it, and what you think or feel about your experience. Strive to develop and maintain regular study times. Keep in mind that the brain really cannot remain focused on a task like language acquisition for more than a maximum of 30 minutes and that your optimal time span for study may be only 10 or 15 minutes. Experiment with these, and if, for example, you have an hour a day to study, don't do it all at once, but rather in two half hour blocks or four quarter hour chunks or six ten minute sessions. Edited by Ardaschir on 22 March 2005 at 6:32pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7059 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 19 of 37 22 March 2005 at 6:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Malcolm, it does sound as if you have this kind of motivation, and indulging it or beoming obsessed with it is the key to becoming a polyglot.
My experience as a language teacher is that people who only have the first kind of motivation (communicative), no matter how strong initially, almost always fail to make any progress. Those who have the second kind (cultural) are more likely to get somewhere with their studies, but still the majority of them will not. Only people with this third kind of motivation are really likely to succeed. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6487 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 20 of 37 17 September 2006 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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This has been a very interesting thread to read, as I've been thinking about this very question myself lately.
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| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6462 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 21 of 37 18 September 2006 at 7:46am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think there's a magical perfect number that applies to everyone. However, there are practical limits. The more languages you speak, the more difficult it is to maintain them.
It's also a question of needs and wants. If you regularly encounter speakers of a large number of languages or do a lot of reading in many different languages, that will affect your answer. Perhaps it's also a matter of when you feel satisfied with the number of languages you speak. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 6818 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 22 of 37 18 September 2006 at 12:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think that it depends on the level you want to take each language. Some people might be happy with knowing 12-15 languages at a beginner level (perhaps they just dabbled briefly) whilst others might be more happy with in-depth knowledge of 3-4 languages.
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| Superking Diglot Groupie United States polyglutwastaken.blo Joined 6446 days ago 87 posts - 194 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin | Message 23 of 37 21 September 2006 at 12:07am | IP Logged | ||
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Patuco has a good point. And if I had to choose between being fairly competent in 12-15 languages, or having a deep knowledge of 3-4, I'd definitely choose the latter. My motivation is something of a combination of all three, but I must admit, the dominant motivation is learning languages as a purely intellectual exercise. Reading and communication come in a very close second, but if I had to say one reason why I wanted to learn multiple languages, I'd have to say it's because of a love I have for the process of learning them itself.
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6506 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 24 of 37 21 September 2006 at 2:41am | IP Logged | ||
I would be happy with 12-15 languages at at least the basic fluency level (yes, I'm one of those who accept this term). At that level you can say and read and understand most things, even though you may have to check a word or two once in a while, and if I really needed a certain language it would automatically creep up into the glorious world of near native fluency. However it would be a waste of time to bring all 12-15 languages up there, - time that could be spent on dabbling in language nr. 16,17... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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