How I Successfully Learn Multiple Languages at the Same Time

[@MatiJumps]

Hi Tim, 6 months ago I started my journey working on a cruise ship. I remember I wrote you a comment on another video. I'm a Spanish speaker from Argentina, and the other languages I knew were English, Italian, and very basic German. While working on the cruise, I had a girlfriend from Brazil for barely 2 months, and I found that my motivation to learn another language increased exponentially. Now, I can write a lot in Portuguese. I was with her and two more Brazilian girls, and I was constantly exposed to comprehensible input, which made my Portuguese skills skyrocket. Working on a cruise ship is definitely a great environment to improve your language skills.

[@polyglotdreams]

Legal... fabulous

[@dartharaneus67]

What an inspirational journey!

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks

[@elainer8288]

Wow! I can't believe this channel doesn't have 10 million subscribers! You are a master of discipline and a language genious! So inspiring! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us! I'm a native Portuguese speaker and I can understand almost everything in Spanish. If I read or listen, I can understand. But I can't speak. What do you recommend in this case? And also, do you have any videos showing exactly how you go about studying a language from the beginning? I mean, how to learn the most frequent words and build the base to be able to start reading bilingual books?

[@polyglotdreams]

Wow, thank you! That is really supportive. With a bilingual book that has audio, depending on the language in relation to the ones you already know, you can learn to understand in the target language even as a beginner.

[@lucyfromsiberia]

Only singers have 10 million subscribers.😄

[@Rhythm412]

It's so great how you learnt so many languages! That's a great brain exercise also!

[@polyglotdreams]

Yes.. a great exercise that keeps me young 💪

[@DEUTSCH-kurzundknackig]

Very interesting!

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks

[@thetightwadhomesteader3089]

Im on my 8th month with my first 2nd language, spanish. I'm learning italian on the side and was learning another, but it doesn't have much resources so I dropped it to focus on the other 2. I don't feel no where near fluent in spanish yet. I need that "2nd brain" for the confidence boost. Id love to learn multiple languages, mostly the romance languages, but dutch and german would be cool to learn.

[@polyglotdreams]

Go for it!

[@jessejinkins8390]

Very interesting! I'm from Ocala, Florida. I was first very interested in Spanish from watching sesame Street and used to watch Rich Little. I learned early how to impersonate accents. In Elementary school I made friends with some neighbors from Colombia and started learning Spanish. I took Spanish for one year in High school and it was a disaster. I barely passed but practiced with latino friends afterwards. I used to listen to Cuban radio on the am band. When I was 18 I had a Dutch pen pal and was learning Dutch. I lived in Germany and my knowledge of Spanish helped a lot because if I knew the words Latin origin in English I would say the word in Dutch with a German accent. People usually understood! One of my best friends was from Japan. He taught me a lot of vocabulary and some phrases. I've studied Brazilian Portuguese and now learning French. My great uncle lived in Germany and Spain for some years. He spoke German, Spanish, Dutch and Arabic fluently. Pretty cool I'm from central Florida too. I worked at the University of Florida many times and I used to listen a.m. radio as well and the same stations no doubt.

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks so much for sharing... I have fond memories of Gainesville.

[@paulwalther5237]

Your videos are very inspiring. But it's one thing for you to say you divide your time between languages effectively and I appreciate wanting to keep the video short but personally I'd like a deeper dive going over the difficulties and any failures you had to overcome. Watching this it just seems like smooth sailing all the way (it's not smooth sailing for me). I suspect it's easier to learn multiple languages simultaneously when you're younger (but I'd love to hear otherwise).

[@RogerRamos1993]

He like Alexandre Arguelles had the resources, time, dedication, patience and drive to study many languages. If your goals are learning 5-7 languages, it can be done, and you can get very good at all of them. If you start at 20 by the age 35-40, it will be only a matter of acquiring more vocabulary through practicing, listening, reading, in a way that when you are 50 or 60, you will possibly be better in all of those languages than when you were young. If you add more languages, things start to get more complicated for the simple fact of time restraints. Even if you study Polish from a German base, Japanese from French and Greek from Italian, in a way that you get to practice the languages you already know, it will be a far cry from reading novels in German, French and Italian. My 2 cents.

[@elainer8288]

Steve Kaufman learned 10 languages after he was 60 years old. So don't worry about age. You can be sure it doesn't matter. You just need time. Steve says he studies listening while doing other activities to make more time. 😊

[@RogerRamos1993]

@@elainer8288 Never downplay the absurd amount of time he put in learning each of those languages. If you want to become what people call a hyperglot, for whatever reason, you have to accept a lot of imperfection and a lot of sacrificing the languages you know well, in order to learn new ones.

[@paulwalther5237]

@@elainer8288 I don’t know what languages Steve learned to fluency after 60 though.

[@elainer8288]

​@@paulwalther5237 In his channel, he says which ones. He focuses on getting a lot of passive vocabulary through extensive reading and listening. And the rest (active vocabulary and grammar) comes from it.

[@user-hn6wn6tp1r]

🌈🌈🌈No way I will acquire or study multiple languages at the same time. I am acquiring Swahili, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch and Modern Standard Arabic.🌈🌈🌈

[@polyglotdreams]

At the same ⏲️

[@tassyocrazy]

My fellow, you could try your Portuguese conversation skill with me because i'm a native Portuguese speaker because i'm Brazilian.

[@Leo-bf4lq]

that’s crazy

[@neesiecieslak7869]

Thank you.

[@polyglotdreams]

My pleasure

[@lucyfromsiberia]

When you said you started studying Russian in 1978, I was very surprised. You look great.

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks... this August 68

[@pohlpiano]

The annotations "český" and "slovenský" are not correct. You cannot put adjective with its paired noun, we would immediately ask "český" what (český jazyk is the answer, I guess)? We have dedicated nouns "čeština" and "slovenčina" (in Slovak, in Czech it is "slovenština") for that.

[@-nf9vt]

Immersive translate can help you learn multiple languages and it's actually free and user friendly. I suggest it for anyone in question

[@frdz4188]

It is much easier to learn a language when in a foreign country. I have learnt all of the languages I teach/speak at school and never in a course, except at home and by myself but I only speak/understand/read in those. If I only had had more time... I never lack love and motivation. I was never much interested in languages similar to my own although that could make me 'richer' by nine more. 😊
Congratulations on hard work and perseverance, sir.

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks so much.

[@OGmaximilian]

Is there a video where you count every language you speak? Id be very interested in the list.
I speak "only" 5 languages, but I set to myself the goal to learn at least 10 languages

[@OGmaximilian]

I meant name every language*
Ich habe die Frage mit der Deutschen Grammatik verwechselt, ups

[@RogerRamos1993]

Yes, he does.

[@elainer8288]

Congratulations! I speak 2 and understand 4, but I want to speak 6. Do you have any videos with your tips? What do you recommend? 😊

[@Carmen.lrj24]

I'm trying to learn brazilian portuguese, but it's a little bit difficult cuz I dont have any friend to pratice with:'( I' m Panamenian

[@polyglotdreams]

Great... maybe try language exchange groups in Facebook

[@chrisbunka]

You might also try italki.

[@emy_alc]

Hey! Im brazilian;) I'd love to help youu

[@lbfaith]

I’m trying to learn Korean it’s been almost a year actually. And not very far. But then again I’m not disciplined enough. I’m a mom and I work full time. It’s a bit difficult when you have a codependent as well. 😂😂I’m determined though…. I’ll get it.

[@polyglotdreams]

I understand... be sure to enjoy the process even when it is tough

[@TimMcNamara-sh2cg]

I am learning Spanis, French, and I just achieved a B1 in German. Shall I go on? I am learning Ukrainian, Dutch, and Latin, and I have 4 years of Russian at Univ of Michigan.

[@pohlpiano]

Oh, and how was the trip to Prague? Great to hear you took a trip to our capital.

[@polyglotdreams]

I always enjoy Prague

[@dracarysz10]

Hi, Im Brazilian, Im about to keep studyng franch due to another language.
It would be a good idea to learn french with japanese? about french, I know the Basic, I can get it, but with japanese, would work? Both language I will study by myself. is that possible?

[@polyglotdreams]

Go for it! Sure it's possible if you make the effort.

[@BeautyGirl-e9c]

Amazing!

[@polyglotdreams]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@aekr7496]

Liar! @mariatereza7022

[@creatiingc0lleen]

Do you advise studying Chinese and Japanese at the same time? I really want to learn both but am torn which one to study first.

[@aypibar3478]

In terms of CEFR what level would you consider to learn a language up to? I mean the point you decide to move into learning a new language

[@todesque]

Good question!

[@polyglotdreams]

Maybe B1 or B2, but I tend to study more than one language at a time.

[@athomas9661]

Long video for Ling app.😊

[@ihatekillerclowns]

Long Ad

[@erturtemirbaev5207]

Было интересно

[@polyglotdreams]

THANKS

[@AltaroRitmerZaxmer]

But in fact, it is impossible to learn multiple languages at the same time. As for me, I am not apt in learning a new language. So I still use translation machine like Google Translate or Immersive Translate to help me

[@polyglotdreams]

It is possible.

[@lucasvandekerkhof2719]

Болшои медведь🐻🐻🐻

[@polyglotdreams]

Thanks

[@MrMojo271]

Wow, must be nice being rich. Going to schools all over the world.

[@athomas9661]

Lol

[@ihatekillerclowns]

Sounded like an episode of "This is your life" more than a video about giving tips

[@polyglotdreams]

It actually wasn't so expensive in some countries.

[@lbfaith]

Also gotta think this was before (probably) most of us were even born. So the value of the dollar was actually a lot better and COL was actually lower than it is today.

[@aekr7496]

Successfully or sucks as fully ?

[@polyglotdreams]

You mean you successfully suck at overcoming your lack of self-esteem?

[@aekr7496]

@@polyglotdreams how did u know it

[@norahassan2372]

Wow I'm learnig English but what was that ?! 😮​@@aekr7496