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Is this a good idea to study German and.. | ||
Tags: Simultaneous study | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| reddd Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4072 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes | Message 1 of 7 24 March 2013 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Firstly sorry if this is in the wrong forum, first post. Anyway basically I have been wanting to learn German for the past few months but haven committed to it but I am now ready to do so.. but I know that I am the type of person to get disheartned easily and get fustrated when I am not perfect at something I learnt yesterday etc.. basically I am a perfectionist. So to stop this from happening I thought I would try and learn another language at the same time like Chinese or Russian. Obviously I will make much quicker progress with German since I have learnt some of it before in school and stuff. But my thought process is that I can compare my progress in both languages and add some perspective to it when I get annoyed with myslef. So do you guys think this is a good idea? And also if you do what second language should I have a go at..it has to be totally different to English though..
thanks Edited by Fasulye on 31 March 2013 at 1:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6406 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 2 of 7 25 March 2013 at 12:24am | IP Logged | ||
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If you start today, in a week you can think of where you could be if you hadn't studied for a week. etc.
I'm all for learning many languages at the same time but you need to be very motivated. In general I've failed my only similar attempt, which was learning Yiddish to get back my excitement about German. I learned very little and it didn't help at all. The factors that caused my motivation problems were still there, and some of them are still there. You need to find a way to deal with your perfectionism, and also a way to be more perfect at what you learnt yesterday. As you're new to this forum, have a look at the wiki. Some specific ideas: -try Assimil or another course with many small lessons, rather than 20 huge ones. -find some friendly natives, whether in real life or online -start a log on this forum -join lang-8.com and post your texts to get them corrected. Note that it can be hard to get much explicit praise, so be happy when you start getting fewer corrections per sentence and/or when the natives remark that this is very subtle/not so important/hard to explain or even pinpoint. That they have no clue why they say it this way. -get motivated. read AJATT, especially the twitter. And btw this twitter too. And heck, even Benny. -use SRS to forget less -get to know someone who has a baby :) and compare yourself to the baby. who says learning like a child is fast? it will take many years before the baby speaks his/her native language better than you speak German. Edited by Serpent on 25 March 2013 at 12:28am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| zerrubabbel Senior Member United States Joined 4409 days ago 232 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Mandarin | Message 3 of 7 25 March 2013 at 12:25am | IP Logged | ||
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I would say theres nothing actually wrong with that, however starting two languages from 'relatively' the same level
could prove overwhelming. I studied Japanese for 6 months before I went 'tasting' other languages, and even now, I'm really only flirting with Spanish and Mandarin. Im glad it worked out that way, because for the first beginner stretch, I think having that focus payed off. Anyway, I wish you good luck with your German. as well as Chinese or Russian if you decide to do so. [I dont think I understood your last statement well, but between Russian and Chinese, personally I would find Chinese more interesting... but maybe considering Japanese would be good too. Just weigh the options you have, and whatever you have the most interest in, you should go for, because thats the best way to keep motivation :D] 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4718 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 4 of 7 25 March 2013 at 12:49am | IP Logged | ||
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I think one of the problems we experience when we are frustrated with our progress is
because we expect too much of ourselves, and we expect our brains to retain everything we learn. For the first problem, take Serpent's advice and compare your progress to a baby's. For the second problem, that's why we have the concept of SRS. When I play a role playing game (I used to play Runescape a lot), my character gets to a skill level, and retains that skill forever, whether I use it again or not. But in reality, you need to keep forgetting and relearning a concept to really get to know it. Today, you might spend an hour tackling some thorny problem of syntax. Next week when you come across the same problem, you tell yourself you ought to know it, but the fact is you've already forgotten it. You now have two choices: get frustrated, or learn it again. (Or both!). If you learn it again, you might retain it for two weeks before you have to refresh it again. The only way to really keep your language skills up is, well, to keep them up! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Tsopivo Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4280 days ago 258 posts - 411 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Esperanto | Message 5 of 7 25 March 2013 at 4:04am | IP Logged | ||
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In your post, you did not express any interest in learning Chinese or Russian, except for the purpose of stopping yourself from being too perfectionist. If this is because you actually are not interested in those languages for themselves and what they have to offer, this does not seem like a good idea to me as learning a language by yourself will be quite difficult without motivation.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4738 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 6 of 7 31 March 2013 at 12:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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If I may offer a small observation:
I suffer from the "perfectionist" gene, and I've found that it's an excellent procrastination method. How to Not Learn a Language in Three Months: expect to be perfect and never start studying. Learning two languages, especially if they are similar, can be daunting, but it's entirely possible. I would only recommend three things. 1) Let go of any ideas about being "perfect" in both languages in all areas. Treat each new thing that you learn as a newly-discovered jewel that adds to what you already know. Appreciate the language in small bites, rather than try to swallow it whole in one gulp. 2) Make a real schedule, as if you are going to work, or school. Make a set starting time for some minimum practice in an area and keep to that schedule on a regular basis. It's so easy to miss a practice session when it's not well-defined. Don't be late for your own language study appointments. 3) Make sure each study session has a well-defined goal. It doesn't have to be a big goal; it could be simply "by the end of this session, I will be able to use these words to do x,y,z" or "I will learn how to decline this noun or conjugate this verb". Evaluate if you reached your goal at the end of the session. The more you reach even a small objective, will give you the motivation to continue studying. -- These are only for structured study; I think a great part of the fun of learning languages are times when you can just goof around. So talk to native speakers, watch a movie, listen to a song, try to read a magazine, and don't worry if you can't get it all. Unstructured play with the language can lead to some deep insights later. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6406 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 7 of 7 31 March 2013 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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