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 FSI Language Courses Forum : Learning Languages : General Discussion
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helene23186
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Quote helene23186 Replybullet Topic: Multiple language learning
    Posted: 19 May 2007 at 2:55pm

I'm curious what the recommendations are about learning more than one language at the same time. 

 
How closely related can the languages be without confusion for the student?  In college I had the first semesters of Ancient Greek and Old English at noon and 1, and did fine, but they were basically reading knowledge only, and I'm sure the different alphabets helped.  I would think two romance languages, for example, might be difficult to learn together.  Would it be better to get to a certain point in one before beginning another, or can they be started simultaneously? 

 

I realize everyone learns differently, but I was wondering if any of you had advice based on your own experiences.  Thanks!!

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fbsmith3
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Quote fbsmith3 Replybullet Posted: 21 May 2007 at 8:23am
Hello it all depends on the student.
 
I took French and Spanish at the same time.  I love French and I was told to take Spanish to work in health care.
 
I did very well in French and basically barely passed Spanish.  I kept using French in my spanish tests.
 
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jalabi99
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Quote jalabi99 Replybullet Posted: 21 May 2007 at 3:10pm
It does depend on the student, but I have heard that most people have better success when the two languages they are learning simultaneously are pretty different, such as trying to learn Spanish and Cantonese simultaneously. Your mileage, of course, may vary.
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helene23186
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Quote helene23186 Replybullet Posted: 22 May 2007 at 4:32pm

Thanks...I've been trying to prioritize based on "really should" learn  (based on what grad schools want) vs "want to", but was concerned since the "really shoulds" are all European.  Guess I'll try German and a romance language, and see how it goes. 

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Darechka
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Quote Darechka Replybullet Posted: 10 September 2007 at 11:20pm
I agree that it depends on how closely the languages are related and also on how interested the student is in a particular language. Back in high school I studied Endlish and German at the same time (I`m a native Russian speaker) and did well in both - actually somewhat better in German because I was more interested in it at the time. Since then, I`ve been studying 3 Romance languages, Hebrew and trying to refresh my German. There is indeed some interference between French, Spanish and Italian - but what`s interesting is that I notice a better progress in my "favorite of the moment" (which changes depending on cultural events etc.) - evidently, I tend to pay more attention to one or two languages at a time and have a better progress with them no matter what interference.
In the end, I think your decision to study German and a Romance language (choose a language by the culture you love) is a really good one - virtually no interference between German and Romance languages.
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JonB
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Quote JonB Replybullet Posted: 29 September 2007 at 11:27am

Most people will tell you that it's no problem to learn two languages during the same period of time, provided that they are linguistically quite 'far apart'. Therefore, combinations like German/Spanish, or Italian/Russian, or French/Arabic shouldn't be a problem. But Spanish/Italian, or German/Dutch, etc. could prove to be a real son-of-a-bitch!

In my own case things seemed to work a little bit differently. Back when I was a student, I studied German and Italian together for 4 semesters in England, before spending a year (i.e. 2 semesters plus the summer break) in Germany  on a student exchange.
While I was in England there was never any problem with these two languages. But when I got to Germany I found that - to begin with - my Italian seemed to 'take over'; I found myself looking for words in German, but getting the Italian instead!
Then, after two or three weeks, I started to get really mixed up, and to come out with things like 'spechiamo' (i.e. a 'bastardisation' of the German verb 'sprechen' and the Italian verb ending '-iamo'!)
Of course, this was only a passing phase, and I was soon speaking 'real' German!
 
However, there was a 'Nachspiel': after I had been in Germany for a year, I found that I couldn't put together a single sentence in Italian anymore! I could (and still can) understand Italian quite well when I hear it or see it - but I just can't seem to generate it in my own mind. (If I try, I just get German coming at me!)
 
I sometimes wonder what the heck would have happened if I had been able to take a second exchange year in Italy...!??Clap


Edited by JonB - 29 September 2007 at 2:35pm
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euphony
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Quote euphony Replybullet Posted: 25 November 2007 at 7:37am
Originally posted by JonB

Most people will tell you that it's no problem to learn two languages during the same period of time, provided that they are linguistically quite 'far apart'. Therefore, combinations like German/Spanish, or Italian/Russian, or French/Arabic shouldn't be a problem. But Spanish/Italian, or German/Dutch, etc. could prove to be a real son-of-a-bitch!


I agree. But a curious thing happened to me as I learned Latin and worked on my German at the same time. I kept confusing the two, even though they are not so very related, because they are both heavily inflected languages. In speaking German I would sometimes throw in Latin words to the amusement/bewilderment of whomever I was speaking to.
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Cinzia
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Quote Cinzia Replybullet Posted: 15 December 2007 at 3:24pm
My experience is that simultaneously studying two (or more) languages has advantages and disadvantages. At school I studied both French and Italian and found that mastering the grammar and learning to read were helped significantly. The differences in the grammar between the two languages actually increased my understanding. The disadvantage for me came in speaking. Initially my French was stronger, so when speaking Italian, my mind would default to French in both vocabulary and accent. Now that my Italian is stronger, my French is always mixed with Italian!

Currently I am studying Japanese and Portuguese, clearly dissimilar languages and very easy to keep apart.

(In case you are wondering, my native language is English.)
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