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When start to learn third language? | ||
Tags: Time to learn | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| leyus Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5225 days ago 21 posts - 31 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 9 of 14 18 April 2011 at 1:12am | IP Logged | ||
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I have exactly the same issue as an author :D My English is quite advanced now (IELTS 7.0 (8.5 reading, 8.0 listening, 6.5 speaking, 5.5 writing - last one you can probably tell :D) but I can still see some holes in it (as my writing or grammar). On the other hand I will start uni in UK at September as they accepted me with those results therefore my English will be superior to my Polish within next 4 years :D (ok that was exaggeration but you get the point don't you? :D Uni should push my English to the limits without even learning much with typical language learning manner ). So I would love to learn some new language (I'm thinking about Spanish and Dutch, however I think I will focus on Spanish as I already know few words and Spanish speaking places are my dream holiday destinations) but I'm afraid that it will slow down my progress in English. As I live in UK I know how big is English vocabulary, how different are local dialects, how much I need to improve my writing etc. So every day I read at least 10 pages, I watch films in English and I keep on learning. And every time when I'm thinking about learning next language first what comes to my mind is fear how much of my English will I have to sacrifice? Will I have to ? Can some of you explain me how did learning another language impact their second one? Or did it?
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| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5123 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 10 of 14 18 April 2011 at 7:38am | IP Logged | ||
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I used to have some qualms about starting a third language as well because I didn't want to leave my English 'unfinished'. This was based on the erroneous assumption that you can ever 'finish' a language and don't keep improving it for the rest of you life, as long as you keep using it. I still hear, read, write and speak English every day and I've not noticed any detrimental affect from studying other languages at all. I'm actually constantly adding to my vocabulary because whenever I learn a new word in French I make sure I know the English word as well. The way I learned English was very erratic so there are quite a few holes in my vocabulary, which my French helps me to discover.
Since you both are living in the UK and are guaranteed to keep improving your English, I don't see any reason why you couldn't add a third language. Choosing something like Spanish or Dutch might actually add to your understanding of English because they're related to English. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| leyus Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5225 days ago 21 posts - 31 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 11 of 14 18 April 2011 at 11:46am | IP Logged | ||
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Ok. I will start Spanish :D The only things I'm still not sure is:
1. When to add 4th language? :D As I would like to learn Spanish and Dutch :D Should I wait till I reach some kind of level in Spanish or should I start with both languages at the same time? :D 2. As you probably noticed my biggest issue is writing in English (well actually my all active skills, as my pronunciation is a disaster, but as I have 6.5 from speaking I have some ideas how to improve it and I'm not so worried about it), to give me peace of mind could you recommend me some kind of exercise in writing that helped you with your English? Can be some kind of link to this forum (I used search option but it's such a massive place that I wasn't able to find anything useful), I will be happy to read about your ideas or what worked well with your writing or links to articles about it. Thank you for all the answers! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Alexander86 Tetraglot Senior Member United Kingdom alanguagediary.blogs Joined 4769 days ago 224 posts - 323 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, Catalan Studies: Swedish | Message 12 of 14 23 April 2011 at 12:14am | IP Logged | ||
Your University studies will help with your writing! And to be honest it seems pretty good to me. The key is to just write and write and write, which is what you seem to do anyway. So don't worry. You´ll keep on learning, you live here, you use the language lots and you watch films and read etc. University helped me to write better, an I'm from the UK... So I'm sure it will help you too. Otherwise, just keep posting here! When to add a 4th language? Well, that's a question I'm asking myself at the moment... When you feel ready? With University and a new language, maybe you should wait a bit, but hell, maybe you're ready to start picking up two - it depends on how much time you've got, how much effort you can put into both etc. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| leyus Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5225 days ago 21 posts - 31 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 14 of 14 24 April 2011 at 1:35am | IP Logged | ||
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Alexander86 - Thank you. I already started to learn Spanish and I think it actually motivated me more to focus on some areas of my English (mainly writing and pronunciation/accent as those I consider causing me the most difficulties). I think your idea about posting on this forum is a great one, it will not only help me with my writing but with clarifying my knowledge and experience acquired while learning English, so I can adapt it and use it on my Spanish. I've also tried recently to write something at Lang-8 to get some corrections from native speakers, however no one gave me any comments at all. I'm not sure is that portal popular, and does anyone actually posting there, I've looked at Polish sections and people seems to be actively answering and posting their comments, maybe I just posted it wrong or something....
Anyway thanks to all your answers guys I'm learning now Spanish everyday and hopefully I will be fluent in no time, thanks to you guys :D 1 person has voted this message useful |
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