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Two languages - same time or separately | ||
Tags: Simultaneous study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Talib Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6473 days ago 171 posts - 205 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (classical) Studies: Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 1 of 23 23 April 2013 at 10:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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If, for example, I only want to learn French and German for reading purposes, and I only
have a half hour a day to learn them, what is the best strategy? Would it be better to use the half hour to concentrate on a single language until some proficiency is reached, or is it possible to study each of them for 15 minutes a day. Of course, it would be possible at times for me to study more than a half hour a day, but I want to set a minimum that will be easy to keep in place over a period of time. How would you go about tackling both languages? Would you prefer to do them at the same time or would you prefer to concentrate on one? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6409 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 23 24 April 2013 at 2:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Make more time by cutting down on your native language (books, TV, computer, music - everything). You can't learn two languages in half an hour a day. You can start from that, though - I recommend starting an Assimil course in one of them, maybe the weaker one.
Also, like with everything in life - experiment. After 15 minutes I generally feel like my session has finally started, and I'm in the state of flow. On the other hand, if you start losing concentration at this point and have a feeling that you waste the time when you try to continue - stop trying. There are also other combinations possible like 20+10.... and 29+1 hehe. all those +1... +2...+3 can amount to another 30 minutes. (use your dead time) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Talib Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6473 days ago 171 posts - 205 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (classical) Studies: Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 3 of 23 24 April 2013 at 3:07am | IP Logged | ||
Even though a half an hour a day experiment for these two languages might be interesting, I think it would ultimately be a waste of time if there aren't any expected results. Since I'm not willing to give up some of the beneficial activities that are unrelated to learning languages, I would have to limit myself to one for the time being. However, for the sake of argument, what would be the minimum amount of time that would be necessary to study both of these languages for reading knowledge? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Paco Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 4089 days ago 145 posts - 251 votes Speaks: Cantonese* | Message 4 of 23 24 April 2013 at 11:09am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know the lower boundary, and I have never heard about it. The minimal amount of
time I have heard people discussed is 15 minutes, but I am not sure whether this would work for everybody. It works for some such as a small group of advanced learners here and Prof. Arguelles. Two quotes from the professor: "Here, in actual practice 15 minutes a day in isolation is probably too little to sustain a long-term quest. In answer to the point raised by Mr. Frenkfeld, I concur that even 30 minutes of one language is unlikely to sustain the momentum required to get firmly grounded in it over a 6-year period. For that, yes, I completely concur again that at least 1 hour a day is necessary." - from Time Management (http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp? TI D=7748&PN=0&TPN=2) "When learning a language: fifteen minutes a day, every day, over a period of years will certainly bring results if you have the requisite patience. You need to put in at least half an hour a day in order to feel your progress, however, and an hour a day would probably even be preferable. After you have gotten to an “intermediate” level, if you can add the intensity of even more time for a given period, this can only help the overall learning process, though this is not necessary if you can maintain systematically regular study habits." - from Long-term learning plans (http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp? TI D=7363&PN=4) What was he conveying? You may argue over "momentum". From my personal impression, it is generally believed in this forum that one should better think twice before starting a new language if s/he cannot devote at least half an hour to achieving the goal. That said, time-slots of 15 minutes is still perfectly respectable, especially for the busiest ones who nonetheless would like to learn something. But you have to take the risk, for intensity, too much or too little, might affect the results. P.S. Dear moderators, please excuse me for posting the links directly. I don't know why but the URL function does not work for me these days. Edited by Paco on 24 April 2013 at 11:15am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6409 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 5 of 23 24 April 2013 at 12:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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What are those activities? You can listen while practising sports, cooking or painting... or almost anything apart from meditation. Just because you're more interested in reading, don't disregard listening. It's important and it'll simply make reading less tiring if you pronounce things correctly in your head.
As for reading knowledge, the tricky thing is that while it's easiest, if you don't develop it, it's also the easiest to lose, secondary only to the phenomenon described as "tuning in" to a related language. After you've learned to read, you need to have time for reading. The more you read, the easier your learning will be. Not only faster, but easier. It's repeatedly compared to sliding, climbing uphill (especially a hill covered with ice). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4345 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 6 of 23 24 April 2013 at 1:24pm | IP Logged | ||
The Foreign Services Institute estimates about 1000 hours of study to get to C1-ish level in German. So at 1/2 hour per day, you'll only need 5.5 years. However, I suspect things are a bit non-linear, in the sense that studying more than 1/2 hour per day is probably more efficient. However, you obviously don't need to get to C1 level to read, but I would guess you'll need to study for a 2-3 years at least before you start being able to pick any sort of useful book. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6409 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 23 24 April 2013 at 1:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you want to read, you'll be discouraged after less than a year. Use parallel texts and pick up an interesting book after 1-2 months at most.
Also, I think with Prof Arguelles it's an important factor that he was learning many languages. There's synergy involved, for example if you do 15 mins of Italian in the morning and 15 mins of Spanish in the evening, it will feel a bit like revision. The related languages will keep each other fresh in your memory. Whereas if you only do 15 mins once a day, you'll forget more by the next day. Edited by Serpent on 24 April 2013 at 1:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Talib Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6473 days ago 171 posts - 205 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (classical) Studies: Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 8 of 23 25 April 2013 at 3:00pm | IP Logged | ||
Most of the activities have to do with studying classical Arabic and related activities. So basically, the suggestion to use the time while exercising and doing similar things is good, but that time is already taken through activities such as listening to lectures in Arabic. Here 30 min. a day is about all that I am really willing to set aside on a consistent basis. Otherwise, it will impede on the other things that I am doing. Edited by Talib on 25 April 2013 at 6:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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