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Learning Languages Simultaneously

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
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kujichagulia
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4645 days ago
1031 posts - 1571 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Portuguese

 
 Message 33 of 77
21 May 2013 at 2:23pm | IP Logged 
Kronos wrote:

That's one of the reasons why many people like to study several languages at the same time. There is more variety, and in the long run you may have learned more due to wiser time investment...

What many people do is focus on one language (the more difficult one) at a time, and alongside work with lesser intensity on one or a couple of others which they can at a later date intensify. If that does not create any problems I don't see why one should not do it.

Yes, what you said about feeling less exhausted after adding French to your Spanish, despite reducing your Spanish time but increasing your overall language study time... that is similar to what I felt when I added Portuguese to my studies.

Perhaps because of the variety, studying two languages at a time works for me. Because I have Portuguese, I don't try to use all my free time for Japanese, so I don't burn out. In fact, since adding Portuguese, I've never been more consistent with my Japanese study. It's quite amazing.

Serpent wrote:

You have to love it insanely. Do you love Japanese as much as Khatzumoto does?

No.

Serpent wrote:

Would you be learning it if you weren't in Japan?

Heck, no. In fact, if I hadn't made a decent living for myself here, got married and settled in, I would have left Japan a long time ago.

I'm disciplined enough to make myself study Japanese an hour a day. I would need a powerful desire, though to study Japanese all day.

Anyway, this thread has been good for me, because I no longer feel guilty about studying two languages at one time.

Edited by kujichagulia on 21 May 2013 at 2:25pm
4 persons have voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6395 days ago
9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 34 of 77
21 May 2013 at 4:06pm | IP Logged 
emk wrote:
Kronos wrote:
If it read "B2" instead of "C1/C2", I would find it easier to agree. B2 is a basic level of mastery, a stage where you already have an all-round command of the language, can freely talk to native speakers about virtually all topics, provided it is not too abstract, read most books, provided they are not too literary, and understand what people say, though not without missing things here and there. You are fully functional, but your vocabulary and width of expression is still limited.

I passed my B2 exam by a decent margin last June. But at the time, I couldn't really watch TV comfortably (except for Buffy), and reading required a deliberate effort. But I kept on plugging away at the Super Challenge, and sometime late last fall, I reached a level where I could watch a much wider range of TV series comfortably, and read more comfortably. I'm still at an awkward level between B2 and C1, but my French is much easier to maintain than it was at B2.

So at least for me, the criteria might be: "B2 + the ability to watch a wide range of TV series for fun."
I think this says more about the exam than about you. Aren't you supposed to be able to watch TV at B2? The test just assumes that if you can discuss single-sex schools you can also watch TV, or something.
1 person has voted this message useful



iguanamon
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Virgin Islands
Speaks: Ladino
Joined 5060 days ago
2237 posts - 6731 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)

 
 Message 35 of 77
21 May 2013 at 4:09pm | IP Logged 
I started this thread over a year ago because I was genuinely curious as to how someone could juggle multiple languages and if there was a benefit in doing so. Having gotten to know both serpent and kujichagulia, over the past year I have seen how this has benefited both of them. Kuji would've burned out on ajatt. To limit serpent to one language would not make her happy.

Whatever works for you, whether that is one language at a time or three in a day, is the way to go. We are all different and differently motivated. The proof is in the pudding as the saying goes. I think kuji has proven that it works for him to keep him from burning out and serpent has proven that it works for her. No defense is needed for either. To each his/her own.


4 persons have voted this message useful





emk
Diglot
Moderator
United States
Joined 5330 days ago
2615 posts - 8806 votes 
Speaks: English*, FrenchB2
Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 36 of 77
21 May 2013 at 7:04pm | IP Logged 
iguanamon wrote:
Whatever works for you, whether that is one language at a time or three in a day, is the way to go. We are all different and differently motivated. The proof is in the pudding as the saying goes. I think kuji has proven that it works for him to keep him from burning out and serpent has proven that it works for her. No defense is needed for either. To each his/her own.

And this is one of things I really love about HTLAL. Unlike many places on line, we don't have a single "official" learning style, and—while we may get quite passionate about our favorite techniques, and we even have the occasional fad—we usually try to live and let live, and let the results speak for themselves.

So even if the multiple language thing would drive me a little nuts, that's just a personal peculiarity. I love following Serpent's Twitter account with football games in tons of different languages and I envy her ability to communicate with so many people.
3 persons have voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4505 days ago
5310 posts - 9399 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans
Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish

 
 Message 37 of 77
21 May 2013 at 7:41pm | IP Logged 
I think the nice thing about the logs here is that it shows how people document what
their goals are and how they work towards them. I love Iversen's log for the reason that
he is very clear about what he wants to achieve and how he does it (and Iversen must be
one of the most proficient people I know). I have learned something from many logs here.
There is nothing wrong with studying multiple languages; in the Netherlands that is a
school requirement, and our educational system routinely churns out people with great
results in English and quite a few with some ability in German and/or French and/or
Latin.

Edited by tarvos on 21 May 2013 at 7:57pm
1 person has voted this message useful



Chung
Diglot
Senior Member
Joined 6954 days ago
4228 posts - 8259 votes 
20 sounds
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 38 of 77
21 May 2013 at 8:05pm | IP Logged 
iguanamon wrote:
I started this thread over a year ago because I was genuinely curious as to how someone could juggle multiple languages and if there was a benefit in doing so. Having gotten to know both serpent and kujichagulia, over the past year I have seen how this has benefited both of them. Kuji would've burned out on ajatt. To limit serpent to one language would not make her happy.

Whatever works for you, whether that is one language at a time or three in a day, is the way to go. We are all different and differently motivated. The proof is in the pudding as the saying goes. I think kuji has proven that it works for him to keep him from burning out and serpent has proven that it works for her. No defense is needed for either. To each his/her own.



Right now I can't fathom having just one language to study. Whatever I study is gravy since my knowing English handles all of my requirements and I just get varying degrees of pleasure delving into the languages in my profile. That does imply though that some languages always get more of my attention, and the ones that get priority at a given moment are also affected by the prospect for using them in the forseeable future.

I certainly want to attain at least basic fluency in about 5 more languages apart from English and French but I feel that it'd take out too much fun or motivation if I'd focus that much on the goal. To paraphrase a cliché, the journey counts as much as the destination.
1 person has voted this message useful



Kronos
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 5059 days ago
186 posts - 452 votes 
Speaks: German*, English

 
 Message 39 of 77
21 May 2013 at 8:14pm | IP Logged 
emk wrote:
I passed my B2 exam by a decent margin last June. But at the time, I couldn't really watch TV comfortably (except for Buffy), and reading required a deliberate effort. But I kept on plugging away at the Super Challenge, and sometime late last fall, I reached a level where I could watch a much wider range of TV series comfortably, and read more comfortably. I'm still at an awkward level between B2 and C1, but my French is much easier to maintain than it was at B2.

So at least for me, the criteria might be: "B2 + the ability to watch a wide range of TV series for fun."

When I was trying to figure out how the FSI scale corresponds to the CEFR levels I found a number of comparative tables online, though I am not sure how reliable such comparisons are. In some the equivalent was given as B2, in others indeed as B2+ (never within the C range however).
1 person has voted this message useful



Darklight1216
Diglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4898 days ago
411 posts - 639 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German

 
 Message 40 of 77
21 May 2013 at 11:19pm | IP Logged 
I always choose languages to study with the intention that I will have a decent (obviously this is subjective) command of them. From my experience so far, I think that I will be very unlikely to study many languages simultaneously and I will not study more than one language at a beginner level.

My lowest language will need to be at a conversational level in order for me to move on, especially now that I've gotten a real taste at trying out more than one language at one time. I haven't updated by profile, but I'm currently studying German alongside French (it says that I speak it, but don't be fooled - I have not mastered it yet).


1 person has voted this message useful



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