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How proficient before next language?

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
14 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
Talib
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6421 days ago

171 posts - 205 votes 
Speaks: English*, Arabic (classical)
Studies: Arabic (Egyptian)

 
 Message 1 of 14
05 May 2015 at 11:04pm | IP Logged 
When learning multiple languages, how proficient do you like to be in one language before moving on to the next? Do you ever begin learning two or more languages at the same time?
1 person has voted this message useful



guiguixx1
Octoglot
Senior Member
Belgium
guillaumelp.wordpres
Joined 3852 days ago

163 posts - 207 votes 
Speaks: French*, English, Dutch, Portuguese, Esperanto, German, Italian, Spanish
Studies: Polish, Mandarin

 
 Message 2 of 14
05 May 2015 at 11:31pm | IP Logged 
From personal experience:

To answer to your first question: I am really happy with my level when I get to B2-C1:
understanding TV quite easily, being able to express myself almost effortlessly, and
when I can read native books without a dictionary, although I may skip unknown words.
In short, when I begin to really master the language and, more importantly, when I can
feel it and feel its grammar. when it has become very familiar (almost as familiar as
my native language). Unfortunately, this takes years...

To answer to your second question: I rarely learn only one language at a time. I
frequently want to learn 2 or more, although I notice that it's very difficult to
notice significant progress then. So I do this out of envy and fun, not out of level
requirement. When I want to really improve, I force myself to focus on only one, and
practice it all the time (listening to TV or podcast,reading, understanding grammar,
....)

Still, one thing that happens regularly, is that I study one or more languages at the
same time, then drop a language, focus on others, and go back to the language after
some time, and notice I have improved. Thus, I don't study a language from A0 to B2 in
a run. I usually take breaks, during which I study other language. I thus always have
more than one language between the A1-B2 range (4 for now). When I do reach B2-C1 (or
higher), I rarely make an effort to keep on learning. I rather just use the language as
a tool, to read interesting stuff, watch movies, and only study vocab when I feel like
it, but it gets rare to stop for that. This is the level I have in English and Dutch. I
thus don't try to learn them anymore. I don't focus on vocab or grammar
4 persons have voted this message useful



Bao
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5
Joined 5526 days ago

2256 posts - 4046 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 3 of 14
06 May 2015 at 12:41am | IP Logged 
Strong B1 at least. At least that it what I should do. Ha.
1 person has voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4467 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 4 of 14
06 May 2015 at 1:46am | IP Logged 
I move on when the inspiration strikes me. Better to strike when the iron is hot...
2 persons have voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6357 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 14
06 May 2015 at 1:48am | IP Logged 
Depends on the languages. With related languages, you're never a complete beginner anyway, and especially passive-only study doesn't really feel like starting something new. For example, most Portuguese native speakers have some exposure to Spanish in their life. If some are planning to learn it more seriously later, they won't be avoiding the language because of that in the meanwhile. They already understand a lot. (although they can benefit from a more active approach to input)

Also, obligatory wikia link.

Edited by Serpent on 06 May 2015 at 1:50am

2 persons have voted this message useful



Teango
Triglot
Winner TAC 2010 & 2012
Senior Member
United States
teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5316 days ago

2210 posts - 3734 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Russian
Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona

 
 Message 6 of 14
06 May 2015 at 3:09am | IP Logged 
Ideally, I like to reach a solid B1 level proficiency in all the languages I'm committed to sustaining via independent study before adding a new language to the jukebox. For example, I'm currently B1 or above in French, German, and Russian, but probably no more than A1 in Irish (the greenhorn in the group).

To be fair, I also study Hawaiian pretty intensely, and that's about A2+ right now (making its first baby steps towards B1), but I've been studying it since last Fall at university, so it's not strictly independent study at the moment.

In the past, I've also been a terrible flirt with side projects and general language wanderlust (so many amazing languages, so little time!) So now I'm working with the general strategy of leaving side projects to weekends only (e.g., Sundays work well for me), and wanderlust to the remaining days at the end of each month if I've been good (i.e., any days of the month remaining after 4 weeks). I'll let you know how this strategy goes...


Edited by Teango on 06 May 2015 at 5:12am

1 person has voted this message useful



lichtrausch
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5720 days ago

525 posts - 1072 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Mandarin

 
 Message 7 of 14
06 May 2015 at 4:34am | IP Logged 
C1. But with a marathon language like Mandarin I sometimes I burn out so I take a break
for a couple weeks and study one of my many wanderlust languages.
2 persons have voted this message useful



garyb
Triglot
Senior Member
ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4967 days ago

1468 posts - 2413 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian, French
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 8 of 14
06 May 2015 at 1:02pm | IP Logged 
In theory I'd rather reach a very high level, like C1, before starting another. From my experience and understanding of myself as a learner, I'm convinced that that would be optimal in terms of learning efficiency, even (and especially) for related languages. In practice however, I learn languages because I want to use them, so if I have many opportunities and a strong desire to use one then I'll start earlier.

So I try to reach a compromise between these two ideas, and balance long-term efficiency with short-term utility and enjoyment. I was very keen to start Italian, and I waited until my French was at around B2. I'm quite sure that waiting another couple of years and just focusing on getting French to a higher level first would have been a more optimal long-term strategy, but I also would have missed out on a lot of great social and travel opportunities that Italian gave me during that time.

I did a similar thing with Spanish, but I didn't have enough time to progress in three languages, so I quit it after learning enough to understand a lot of conversations and express myself inelegantly. Of course my eventual goal is a much higher level than that, but for the moment, even that knowledge is extremely useful.

This is all about active study; I agree with Serpent about passive exposure/study. I hear a lot of Spanish in my social life, which is helping to maintain what I do know and probably even giving me more passive knowledge which I'll be able to exploit whenever I do decide to actively study it again.


3 persons have voted this message useful



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