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Learning languages simultaneously? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| kidnickels Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7061 days ago 124 posts - 119 votes  Speaks: English*, SpanishB1, French Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 22 23 January 2005 at 4:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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So what does everyone think about trying to learn two (or more, I guess) languages at the same time - fool's errand or a nice way to keep it interesting? I've never really tried it - I usually do one language full throttle and a little maintenance on another - but I am wondering whether this is a sensible way to use my time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7187 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 22 23 January 2005 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is the question I get asked most often on the website. Here is what I think - please do not hesitate to let me know if you have had concrete experiences in that matter.
Basically, I would recommend to the beginning language learner to concentrate on one language at a time. It is easy to get carried away by one's enthusiasm and to try and study several language that you just love all at the same time. But unless you are a savant, you need to cope with a limited amount of study time, motivation and probably capacity of the brain to assimilate new words. It, in my opinion, much better not to chase two birds at the same time. You should rather concentrate all your energy on studying a single language, then move on to another once you have mastered it to the level you were aiming for. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kidnickels Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7061 days ago 124 posts - 119 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishB1, French Studies: Mandarin | Message 3 of 22 24 January 2005 at 12:23pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks for the response. However, I wouldn't consider myself a beginning language learner; my first experience learning a language myself was in 1992, and I've taught myself a couple more since then. Has anyone on the board tried to learn two languages at once? If so, what were your experiences? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| manna Groupie Kyrgyzstan Joined 7069 days ago 94 posts - 112 votes | Message 4 of 22 24 January 2005 at 12:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've tried two or even three at the same time. The result was that I dropped all but one... it just takes so much energy.
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| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7187 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 22 24 January 2005 at 3:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Kidsnickel, sorry for the misunderstanding, I did not want to imply you were a beginning language learner (not that there would be anything wrong with that). Rather, I was trying to say that most people should concentrate on one language at a time, except for the most experienced polyglots, of which I am not.
Perhaps Ardaschir, who definitely qualifies as experienced polyglots, can give us his feedback on trying to learn several languages at the same time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kidnickels Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7061 days ago 124 posts - 119 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishB1, French Studies: Mandarin | Message 6 of 22 24 January 2005 at 4:04pm | IP Logged | ||
No offense taken. I was just wondering if your advice would be any different to someone who wasn't a novice. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Malcolm Triglot Retired Moderator Senior Member Korea, South Joined 7126 days ago 500 posts - 515 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 7 of 22 24 January 2005 at 5:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've been learning an easy language (Spanish) and a difficult language (Mandarin) simultaneously. I started Spanish about six months before Mandarin. I've had no problems learning these two languages at the same time. Sometimes I get bored of one and I study the other more intensely. I think it's just a matter of study time. If you can devote a small chunk of time every day to each language, it shouldn't really matter how many you're learning. I've also started Japanese, but I'm not studying it very intensely yet. With Mandarin and Spanish, I can already "speak" the languages to a certain degree, so all I have to is learn the more advanced vocabulary. I think when one reaches this level, it's okay to start a new language. However, I wouldn't want to start two or more languages at the same time.
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| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7067 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 8 of 22 24 January 2005 at 8:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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I concur, "beginning" language learners should not try to start two languages at the same time. However, since learning any language is a life long process, it is illusory to think that you can "master" anything before going on to the next, and there are so many wonderful languages out there waiting to be learned, that you do have to stagger your learning times. What I am trying to say is that until you have a great deal of experience, attempting to begin learning two languages at the same time is somewhat foolish because you are most likely to confuse them, even if they are not related, and thus at very least to waste your time, and indeed likely to have a bad experience overall. However, there is no danger in, say, starting language x one year, adding language y when you are intermediate in x, and so on.
Now, what is a "beginning" learner? I like to borrow the concept of the "ace" from WWI fighter pilots. Back then, people noticed that novice flyers were more likely to get shot down themselves than they were to shoot down an enemy plane, but that those pilots who had already managed to shoot down about five enemy aircraft seemed to have developed an instict that gave them a much higher chance of survival thereafter. Learning the first five or six languages is indeed a "hard" task, but after that, you pretty much know what you are doing, and so learning gets progressively easier. As I just wrote in another post, the only constraint is time, which brings us to another matter: how intensively could you and should you study? There are times when an impending visit to a country or simple passion can carry you away and you can indeed work effectively for hours on end. However, ample psychological and pedagogical research demonstrates that the mind focuses most efficiently for relatively short periods of time, different for each individual, but generally between 15 and 30 minutes. After that you concentration slips measurably, even if you do not feel it. It is not study itself that is impaired, but the attempt to focus on one particular subject matter. So, you might well make more progress studying two languages for 30 minutes each rather than one language for a full hour. Once you have considerable language learning experience, beginning several languages at the same time is no longer difficult or dangerous. Doing so is, in fact, actually easier than studying only one, both for the time consideration that I just mentioned (say you want to juggle a dozen languages - how can you maintain them all if you focus on only one at a time?), and because you will have enough knowledge to see them all as analgous to each other, the similarities and differences serving as distinctive features of each individul one, and thus serving to anchor them more deeply in your mind. I added most of the languages that I know in about a three or four year binge, "learning" them all simultaneously... and struggling to keep them up and improve them ever since. 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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