Learning Multiple Languages at the Same Time
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- Опубліковано 18 чер 2024
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CC subtitles available in: English, Russian, Spanish and Urdu.
I'd like to thank the volunteers who created this video's translations:
Algazhan / @algazhan
Fake Polyglot / @algazhan
Muniza
Elizabeth Gomez
Can we learn several languages at the same time? Are we better off to focus on one? It all depends on your goals and personal preferences. You will progress faster if you focus on one language, however you will give up the chance to explore other languages during that same period.
0:00 The advantages of learning multiple languages at the same time.
3:00 My progress has suffered since I decided to study multiple languages.
5:44 Brushing up on my Korean.
7:56 Should you study one language or multiple languages at once?
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Have you tried learning more than line one language at the same time? What was your experience?
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No, but I want to learn (in adittion to English) a language called mapuche. Your culture is amazing and I am learn old of they.
Learning multiple languages takes the fun out of it and puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on oneself
I study many at once but some I am just learning some extra technical vocabulary once in a while and maintaining my already high level of fluency, some others I just learn here and there for fun, and like 6 of them I actually study study and am somewhere in the spectrum between upper elementary and upper intermediate levels.
You can do it but of course as you (Steve) mentioned, you will progress much faster if you focus on one. One thing I did that helped me a lot is I kinda do what Laoshu used to do: when I start a new language spend a good month to a few months exclusively studying the language using one or more good grammar books for the language and listen to the language constantly to get a good foundation that I wont forget unless I were to fully quit the language for years and years.
Then I can go on to brushing up or advancing in another language and studying the newer language with less intensity but still making progress in it slowly but surely.
Yes( I was studying five languages), in addition to my academic year so I was overwhelmed, and I've decided to focus on one (French) and review the other (English).
I'm originally from syria!
It's easy for me learning 4 or more languages at the same time and I still learn by using a few apps, 2 smartphones for that....I've been looking for some methods and I created my own. Obviously to sudy many languages at the same time it's not easy but you'll need a good method and you'll take more time to learn those languages. For me I can't learn a single language cause I think it's boring for me.
I started learning German a few months ago, and although I was feeling the progress the daily grind was definitely wearing me down. I then started Spanish and I must say, while my brain sometimes has difficulty switching from one to the other, my motivation is way up! When I get bored of one language, I just switch to the other.
Hi chienbanane, I was curious, and I am assuming you are a native English-speaking person, I would like to hear about your experiences. You mentioned you are learning both Spanish and German. Do you find since you already know English that learning German since it is a part of the Germanic family of language just like English. Do you find learning German easier to learn compared to learning Spanish? Or is this false? I would love to hear your personal thoughts if you can share them, thank you.
@@DevlogBill I'm actually French, which does make Spanish a breeze to learn since they are very similar. So much so that I ended up pausing my Spanish learning to focus on German as I found my progress to slow.
Concerning languages similarity and how they affect the ease of learning them, Spanish and French are way closer than I first imagined. When speaking Spanish, it really does feel to me like speaking French pronounced in a Spanish way, and swapping the common verbs and prepositions for Spanish ones.
German and English are actually quite different, and while you can see how they are part of the same language family, they differ enough that I can only rarely rely on my prior knowledge of English to help me in my German.
To try to answer you question, I think Spanish would be slightly easier to learn than German for a native English speaker, though I may be underestimating the difficulty of learning romance languages for English speakers.
@@chienbanane3168 Thats a very interesting perspective. I had never considered several points you mentioned before. Especially when you compared German to English. I naturally assumed it would be much easier, I guess I was wrong. I am actually considering either French or Greek as a third language. There is an excellent utility in knowing one of these languages, I find it very difficult to decide between the two. Thank you for reaching out. The things you've mentioned actually helped me out a great deal in seeing some things differently.
I miss Laoshu. He proved that there is great value in learning a language even at a basic level. You don't need to become "fluent" in order to communicate and connect with people who speak a different language.
Yes you do!
Otherwise the only thing you can really talk about is the weather, what you do for a living etc.
You can't have a meaningful conversation whatsoever
@@adriandiaz4624 if we're talking about Laoshu that isn't entirely true. I saw him have a conversation with some fellows in Cantonese and Mandarin and it was a little deeper than just how's the weather. I remember liking the fact that they discussed the difference between the languages.
It really just depends on why you want to learn the languages in the first place.
@@alphonsoelm5652 chinese was the language he knew best... just check the others
@@adriandiaz4624 ah, I didn't know that. It was that video that got me interested in attempting Chinese. I saw a few videos of his but for me, if you're willing to put yourself out there to speak to people on the street in their own language, do you really need to be able to have conversations about anything of real depth? When I come across Spanish speakers for example, our conversations never truly go in depth. There never is any real time for that.
@@alphonsoelm5652 Well in my case I used to follow mose's approach and as a result
I can speak turkish, polish, russian and others at a basic level.
I'm working with poles for instance
And even though I know a lot of words I can't understand much, I can't say much either etc
I can greet people talk about the weather and even order in a shop but I can't get any further than that...
It's quite frustrating therefore I'm not doing that anymore
Like you, I love learning languages so much that I cannot keep myself from learning several at a time. My goal is polyliteracy (not speaking), and my tools are pretty much just a ton of extensive reading (with an English translation at hand) and a bit of intensive reading. In reference to your video, I know (mostly Classical) Persian very well, can have fun reading (Medieval ) Arabic (as in the original 1001 Nights), and have made some minor forays into Turkish. And I am a long-time juggler! I now spend about 15-30 minutes per day each reading Spanish, French, Dutch, Italian, Polish, and Norwegian. I do Classical Persian twice a week with a friend (we've been at it for 17 years), and now we're going through Rumi's quatrains. Of those languages, only Polish is hard for me, since it's my first Slavic language. I think it's best to do only one "hard" language at a time, but I'd probably violate that rule in a heartbeat. However, it would be better to get Polish to a higher level before adding another hard (for me) language. My favored reading material is almost always fiction, usually novels, and usually novels written for adults. I rarely use graded readers or children's materials, though I've used a few young adult novels. Mostly it's classics, mysteries, best-selling literary fiction, swashbuckling adventures, and the like; the books have to be interesting so that I keep coming back to find out what happens. My theory is that the biggest obstacle to language learning is a failure to grasp how hard it is. I've learned patience with myself and the process, knowing that it will take a few years to get good at learning a language that is hard for me. But I also know that progress is always happening, improvement is guaranteed, and that the only requirement is that I remain excited every time I open a book and glimpse all of the words I don't know...and how many ever I do know!
I've run into a lot of problems doing German and Latin at the same time. I don't regret it, but I wouldn't do it again. I have found you can make progress in a lot of languages solely by studying a language with a lot of relatives. I can read the news in French now, *partly* due to my Latin study.
this is true, now that I have a sizable mandarin vocabulary there are so many "freebie" words in Korean. its not that they sound overtly similar like english/spanish cognates for example, but you can pick up a general phonetic impression of the Chinese words a lot of those vocab words originate from which makes them much easier to remember. It's changing my perspective away from thinking that learning related languages simultaneously is as bad of a thing as many say it is
Congratulor tibi, amice, quia linguas pulchras discis.
I would say study languages in Pairs or close. I am learning French and Portuguese or Danish and German. I want to get real good with French so I can learn other language with it like French to German. Maybe someday I can use German to learn Turkish maybe.
this is where I find myself today wanting to learn French or German but wanting to get really good at my Portuguese and Russian. Thank you for this video, I realized that in the end I just have to enjoy what I'm doing and the fact that time spent with a language is the only way I could continuously improve
This came at the perfect time Steve. Thanks.
Thanks a lot Mr. kaufmann for sharing with us those advices.
Steve🤩 another video! Thanks a lot, I love listening to your videos. You are just Great!
Thank you for your "ponderings" here on You Tube--they reflect what many others of us are thinking about--you help to clarify some of the issues.
My brother studied languages at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in California. The pace of study was intense. Students had to master the language course in 36-64 weeks. Psychologically it was very difficult, but fortunately he was helped by Yuriy Ivantsiv's book "Polyglot Notes. Practical tips for learning foreign languages”. The book " Polyglot Notes" became a desk book for my brother, because it has answers to all the problems that any student of a foreign language has to face. Thanks to the author of the channel for this interesting video! Good luck to everyone who studies a foreign language and wants to realize their full potential!
Great recommendation!
Personally, I prefer to know extremely well two or at most three foreign languages. But let's tell the truth, if we actually master two foreign languages to the level that they can be used to get to know the world around us with ease, it's already "unbelievable". The effort required is big and overwhelming.
I can't see any advantage learning multiple languages at the same time. Focus is key! I think we should speak about passing the time in that respect, not studying. The brain needs variety, so while you seriously study the language A four hours per day, you're allowed to jazz up your time playing twenty minutes with the language B. Or you can just go out for a walk if it isn't too cold.
Let's be honest, the egotistical trend wants us to be the best of all and learn 10 languages at the same time. But like every ego-related thing, it just turns out to be a silly show-off and a fraud which leads to nothing but mediocrity.
When we reach a level around C1/C2 in whatever language, we can really begin to leverage that new skill for jobs. It's the pay-off of focus.
Then you don't recommend learn two languages at same time?
@@agiota-san1085 , I recommend learning one language and "Just Playing" with another one of your choice in your spare time if you want to, and if you think it is really necessary and important for your future, because only such motivation will keep you on the track.
If focus is key, motivation is essential, because it isn't a simple task. You'll have to deal with a lot of frustration along the way.
When you are close to advanced (C1/C2) with your first choice, you'll be optimistically a beginner (A2/B1) in the second, depending on the familiarity you have with it.
After reaching A2/B1, you stop playing and get serious. In two years of serious training and hard work, you can get to C1/C2 with language two and still keep the first in very good shape.
At that point, you'll have employed at least four or five years for two languages that you can now really use to catch a job opportunity.
I learned languages for money/jobs, not for glory, and I know that a level which is not close to mastery, is just useless in that respect.
Finallly someone with common sense 👌
@@andrew38617 Your opinion seems logical and Im definitely with you on whats the point of doing something just to get supposed glory or impress people. But you also assume people learn languages for jobs. Some do, but most people who study more than one at once or would like to do so out of pure interest (if not sometimes an ego trip as you pointed out.)
@@adriandiaz4624 I always love seeing precisely this exclamation.
There are many who would never ask for such a useless thing as common sense, rather than to have curiosity and possess a much rarer kind of "brilliance"
Thank you! That's the video that I needed hahaha just in time! I'm learning Japanese, French and trying to become fluent in english at the "same time" and it is difficult. That's why I'm focusing most of my time in japanese and english and letting French to the last occasion.
Thanks for your honesty Steve!
Currently learning four languages: Spanish, French, German, and Arabic. But I divide them up where 70% is spent on Spanish, 20% on French, 5% on German, and 5% on Arabic. Found this works for me, because when I start to get frustrated with Spanish, I’ll immediately jump into French for a while and the frustration goes away. Once I hit a wall in French, jump back to the same spot in Spanish and continue on with renewed energy. Once frustration strikes again, go to either German or Arabic to clean the slate again.
Great point! Im thinking about instead of just focusing 100% on my russian, i think imma add a germanic language to the mix. Ill do 80% russian and 20% the other language
Similar strategy here, french and korean at the same time.
@@nwandydoris1758 which one you focusing on mostly?
@@jacobs3848 …what is your native language?
@@jbhann english. I now speak spanish, low intermediate russian, and beginners dutch
Thanks for this video, I feel much better after hearing that many if not all polyglots feel unsatisfied with their skills. We must remember all the people who only speak one. In comparison we are so lucky to be able to complain about our meager skills in this, that and the other. Thanks Steve
Hello Steve just came to this video to comment that i'm loving this new interface on lingq from the most recent update. Now i'm even more motivated to continue my Japanese. Thank you
Thank you. The new LingQ is not just a new interface, but a number of new functions that make it easier, more motivating to learn, and the ability to continue to add more things to help people learn. It's been a long road, and there are still a few glitches but I'm very excited about it.
Thank you so much, Mr.Steve !!
❤❤You're such a huge inspiration. 😇🙏🏻🙏🏻
Wishing you good health.😇😇
Thank you. Your ideas and insights are very useful to others. And thank you for "telling it like it is". It takes time and effort, to learn a language, even for Steve. People have different levels of fluency in different languages. even Steve. When students see a world-famous polyglot being imperfect, that helps.
Have your main language you want to learn and have a secondary language to dabble in on the side. A few hrs a WK on secondary language and the rest of the time on your main language. It helps
Yeah I do that too, focus hard on Indonesian, dabble in German, train comprehension in Italian.
جناب شما واقعا خیلی فوق العاده هستید و البته باعث افتخار .
Thank you so much for your advices that helps me a lot ,especially that im learning tow languages in the same time😊
Very cool. I am loving just devoting my time to learning French, but Spanish, Portuguese and Italian are always on my mind. It certainly makes life fun to have a goal and a project that doesn't take much (or any) money to progress in.
you are the best!👍🏻😃big fan
Thank you Steve,
I loved this perspective. It include both ways' advantages and disadvantages and has no 'solution', you dont tell what to do.
I deal with that problem: i love languages and enjoy study a lot (i get boring studying only one at the same time), but i cant really manage all of them, and the progress is so, so poor....
So i dont know what to do yet but i like how you put things clearly on the table and also give slower progress as an option too.
The way my life is set up right now (and has been set up the past year and a half), I have an immense amount of "free" time to dedicate to multiple languages. I'm "studying" Italian, Korean, and ASL mainly, but venturing into KSL, Mandarin and Thai quite frequently. Even with the amount of time I have with my TLs, I am acutely aware that I would be leagues further in each of them if I only focused on one XD. What keeps me encouraged however, is the progress I have been making in all of them precisely because I have so much time to feed them. And, to further facilitate immersion, I seek to completely integrate these languages in my life, to the point where English isn't used as often. For example, I'll use Italian to learn Korean concepts.
Once my Korean and Italian reach a level where I am focused on refinement rather than comprehension, I will focus only on one new language at a time (so I say). At least for the first year or 2, just to see how fast I can pick up things. While it's fun to do, learning 3+ languages simultaneously can be incredibly draining and isolating. Ultimately, however, I am grateful to be here and to be able to indulge myself in such a way!
To anyone reading this, I am rooting for your language learning success! Follow what feels good to you, and remember to be kind to yourself!!!
I definitely see how if I had focused on my main language (French) I'd probably be at an advanced or borderline advanced level right now! It''s why I have prioritized it now. With my other two languages, I do my best to maintain and advance in some ways. I think if you are eager to attain a certain level, certainly focusing on one language would be ideal, but if you are in no rush and just want to do more than one for the hell of it, that's okay, too!
Love your content Steve, I would listen to you talk about paint dry!
I love your videos, I use them to improve my english, but olso for enjoy me as well
Hi Steve, I'm French, learning English and Spanish at a similar level, I also learn Russian but I still consider myself as a beginner. And I think I'll start to learn German in a few years. I think that learning different languages at the same time can be confusing. But the most important thing is to not start your learning of all those languages at the same time and to choose quite different languages (which is actually the case with English, Spanish and Russian).
I speak Spanish (my tongue mother) and I want to learn more languages. Seeing your videos motivated me a learn more and more, therefore, I can speak a little English and I can read french and I want to learn more languages.
Much respect for your accomplishments. Given the amount of time you out in each day (if I understand correctly that’s 90-120 minutes) I think it’s going to take quite a while to make much headway with the four languages you mentioned given their difficulty, but you seem to be enjoying the journey. I’ve been working with mostly four languages off and on since 2004 (Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, and Spanish) and I’m far from satisfied with my progress in Cantonese, Vietnamese, and Spanish. Mandarin I had already been working on for years before then and I lived in Taiwan (plus I use it in my job) so I feel better about
I’d like daughter to learn at least 4 languages😊 this video is helpful
Bravo Steve Excelente video
I've been learning up to five languages at one time. Though they were all completely different to each other.
I'm trying to learn about 5 languages at the same time now as a hobby, it's amazing how you speak so many languages and i want to be like you.
I'm learning Russian, German, and Polish right now. I also threw in Norwegian recently. My son learned German, Russian, and Armenian at the same time and for him, which I know is an exception, has had no problem differentiating from them. I stick to the languages in which the script isn't too alien to English. On the other hand my son studies Arabic, Hindi, and Armenian, where the script is totally different from English. He is fluent in 8 languages(read, speak, write). By no means am I fluent in any of the languages I study, but I hope to be some day. I find I can read the languages than I can speak, maybe that is just self-confidence. I think it just depends on the person and their abilities.
What does your son do for work or study for school, if I may ask?
@@tubeuser2222 He is a unique case and has a strange ability to pick up languages. He is almost entirely self-taught. He uses books and sometimes Duolingo, but you would not believe the amount of notebooks he has with writings in it. He repetitively writes the alphabet, words, and sentences to train himself. That works for him. Me, I'm still struggling with my studies. I estimate he can learn a new language in a few months. Read, write, and speak. Right now he is learning Hindi.
@@westernwanderer8397 amazing, sounds like he has a bright future, all the best.
@@tubeuser2222 Thanks, I keep telling him he needs to find a job where he can exploit his language skills. Right now he is in school and is focusing on that. He may just do what I suggested and work anywhere in the world.
@@westernwanderer8397 how old is your son?
I’ve been acquiring Turkish for a while but still at a low A2 level. I’m currently immersed in Spanish at work. I tried to dabble in Russian but my brain can’t handle 3 languages at once right now. Turkish is my preference still even though it is extremely challenging!
Hey! I am a Turkish here! If you like I would help you in Turkish practice, I think that would be fun:) If so, let me know so that I can create a Discord channel and share it:)
Как молодец) мне рад что ты ещё хочешь учить турецкий язык🇷🇺🇹🇷
Для меня, я учу русский и нидерландский язык😁
4:40 so true! I had to leave French in order to really focus in on German and make progress.
Hi Steve, thanks for giving these tips and sharing with us your experience! 👍🙋♂️ At the current time of my life, I'm dedicated to study only one foreign language - English 🙂😊 I believe that I can give my followers and viewers maximum of value if I focus only on one foreign language 😄 But anyway, I admire your polyglot skills, they're fantastic! 👏🔥 I wish you guys all the best! 🙌😊 Let's boost our English speaking skills together! 💪🤩
It was a hard decision but, I decided just to stick with Swedish and Russian for the next couple of years. Maybe not so much with Russian but eventually, with Swedish, I can slowly transition more to back to the French again. Also, I think, I have a bit of an advantage because being Canadian, I was exposed to English and French growing up. The French did end up coming back fairly quickly.
I agree that the strategy for how one approaches language learning depends on your ultimate goal and that if you would like to get to a very high level, it's best to focus on one language at a time. I love the process of learning languages, but my goal for each language is completely different, which dictates my strategy for which languages to learn and when. In my most advanced language, French, I would like to become "fluent". However, for other languages, German, Greek, Spanish, Russian, Japanese (and Farsi?), my goal is to understand enough to read books, watch films, and communicate at a very basic level. For a third group of languages, Danish, Norwegian, Catalan (and maybe Swedish and Dutch), my focus is comparative linguistics. I don't necessarily want to attain a high level in all of the languages, and it makes sense to learn some simultaneously, e.g. Norwegian and Danish, as the two are extremely close to each other. I just enjoy the process and don't worry as much about the goal.
Thank you very much.
Very good video!
I found it comes and goes when it comes to simultaneous language learning. My main target language is French and sometimes I learn Spanish to maintain motivation, sometimes I have to pause Spanish as it starts to mess up my French.
here in finland we routinely learn at school at least 2 (english+swedish) and often 3 (french or english) languages simultaneously, but the pace is very leisurely (3 lectures a week each) and it's spread out over much longer time. it's probably very different when you cram it all into 2 years, but on the other hand you'll also have actual motivation unlike most of us had at school.
anyway, at that leisurely pace I never felt any burnout or cross-talk between them. even when I was tired of one language I could be totally fine with another. it didn't seem to exhaust the same part of my brain, at least not enough to feel it.
would be interesting to hear how it went for someone who's doing 2 or 3 languages mixed daily, instead of separating them into longer chunks. (today I've been learning cantonese and portuguese, but it's more playing around than trying to get serious. I'm not intending to mix them all the time.)
I'm just maintaining my Mandarin Chinese at a lower intermediate with about 15 minutes a day while focusing on French for about 1 to 2 hours a day where I'm about an advanced beginner. Seems to work great for me. I dropped Spanish though because it was too close to French and I was mixing them up.
From a travel perspective I anchor myself in a language/country that doesn't have too many English speakers. Then I dabble in two other languages/countries that do with vocabulary study and passive learning.
Felt that comment about reading different scripts, I have been living in Japan for 13 years, I work in Japanese and teach Japanese and use kanji every day. I have never once felt like I could curl up and relax with a book in Japanese. My Italian skill is lower, but I read Italian for fun all the time. Hangul is the world’s “most sensible” writing system and yet every time I read, I have to sound every word out like a 2 year old. After just 3 months of study, 6 years less than Korean, my Greek reading sounds relatively natural. The same (or same-ish) characters is a blessing.
Totally agree on the pull towards different languages...it's irresistable! How would you compare the degree of difference or difficulty for an English speaker between Arabic and Korean? Which do think is the more challenging?
An interesting topic. Clearly people can study more than one languages and do so at university. I studied both German and French at school in the 70s and that was standard. My take is that it depends upon your goals. I'm retired so I don't have to do it for career purposes. However travelling around you meet a lot of different nationalities, and people of my age don't necessarily have the English language skills of younger people. So I'm focusing on trying to get my French and German up to a high level but at the same time doing some basic Dutch to assist with travel and to communicate with people I meet on holiday. Once I have a basic level of Dutch l will focus on improving my Spanish to a b1/B2 level alongside working on German and French.
I focused on French, the language I learned through all the years of my schooling, including getting my degree in it and then studying French literature in a master's program.
The arrangement I prefer, as you can see, is focus on one, and I can always get to a rudimentary yet practical level for others.
For example, I took 4 semesters of Spanish and 3 semesters of German, and I could get by in these languages.
Knowing grammar is a plus. It allows me to be pretty independent in constructing sentences with new words. For example, if in German I see a masculine noun, knowing my declensions, I know DER nominative becomes DEN accusative, DEM dative and DES genitive.
Trivia: The verb HOPE in Spanish requires the subjunctive mood, whereas in French it requires the indicative mood. So, the grammar may change in these slight ways from language to language.
Right now i'm trying to learn spanish, korean, and japanese :) My spanish is already decent and i'm in a Spanish 3 class at school and planning to take AP Spanish by my senior year lol. I've learned most of hiragana and katakana but now I don't know how to proceed with Japanese.
I'm currently studying Cebuano and Tagalog (2 Filipino languages) and German. The only issue I have is that sometimes I might think of the wrong word in one of the Filipino languages, but I can immediately sense it, and then correct myself, or look it up to see if I'm using the word from the correct Filipino language. I'm still at upper beginner level in German, but it's going along really well.
I started with Korean because I love the language but then Mandarin was being offered at the novice level for cheap. But then I figured the learning was so slow so why not pick up Spanish because that'll be easier lol. Then I gave up Korean because it was difficult. Then I picked up Japanese because I may get an opportunity for better work. Suffice it to say that I have only been focusing on Japanese for 2 months because learning too much at once is not for me.
So u tried learning 3 of the hardest languages in the world at the same time and came to a tough conclusion that learning too much at once isn’t for u?😂😂
@@John-ei1uh lmao....ikr. Experience is the best teacher I guess. Now I know what to do and what to expect in the future.
Just watched your old video on that topic (well this one ain't perfectly new either but still), it's interesting to see how you changed your point of view as years passed. I'm not so much into "as many as possible", I would be absolutly fine with three foreign languages, but I want to be able to speak them at a decent level (B2 at least), because that's where I become comfortable using them and I really prefer to have some real conversation instead of some smalltalk only. I rather study 3 languages to C level than 15 to B1 I think. 😊
Thank's
I prefer to have one main language I'm studying and maybe one or two dabbling languages. I mainly go to my dabbling languages if I need a break or more novelty. I also don't expect any progress in my dabbling languages, so I don't think my dabbling languages slow down my progress in my main language. I can see how it would be frustrating to try to make progress at multiple languages at once. I also find when I'm really focused on my main language I don't really care about my dabbling languages either. I often hear my own mind trying to make sense of my main language and I don't want other languages to interrupt it.
Hi, I am Greek. I have a decent understanding of the English language at C2 level. I already know some basics of German and French and I need to improve them at the same time. At least one of them at B2 level. Any advice?
Basic Level (general idea of the language)
3 to 6 months
Intermediate
It's slow going anyhow. (You can now remember, forget, learn)
Memory
Good just to start.
Learning (difficult parts of a language and words) takes time.
Plan (multiple languages)
Know (where you are) and (what you need to do) the next lessons or other resources.
Time
Having the time and the next language resource (technology) ready to go.
Benefits (many)
Time wasting
Avoid over training (the same words and phrases)
Spaced repetition (naturally)
Fresh ears / eyes (less time spent on mindless training)
Variety (choice)
Interest (new, inspired, renewed)
Random (situations to use your knowledge)
Language experience (learning from your other languages)
etc...
I need a reason to learn a language. Not necessarily a job, but just some compelling reason like wanting to spend time in that culture.
I haven't tried to learn english and other languanges, for me to entertain ourself while we learning the languange do research about the culture in languange that you're learning it'so blast guys.😊
Learning a few different languages at the same time isn't a problem if the languages are sufficiently different between them. For example, if you're learning Mandarin Chinese and Russian at the same time, for both of them that will take you twice the time than if you learn one by one, but you will don't confuse them.
Learning different languages have some advantages so. If you're learning Mandarin Chinese and Russian, you will be practising both of them sufficiently to stay familiar with the language and still improve your pronunciation and vocabulary. In the end, you will be able to speak both of these languages at a similar level. Whereas one by one, you have to "re-actualised" every language you learned before.
Anyway, this is a really good video to stay motivated and interested in languages and their learning methods. Thanks !
I would say my main focus is on Turkish; Coptic is a close second. I do study Persian and Tamazight too; however, I study Tamazight solely in Turkish, no English involved.
Best is to get a language to at least decent ability to consume native content before starting a new one. Better if you can language-ladder with your L2/L3 to learn your next language.
Personally, I think studying two languages at once is fine, but it's better to stagger them (start the easiest one and get a good foundation of the language, and then begin the next one while also studying the first). Or, alternately, having one language that you're really interested in, and studying other languages on the side.
I don't study languages, I simply dive into them and start to read them. Then I begin to listen to the language and I gradually gain better and better understanding of it. Lately I have been absorbing five languages at the same time without any problem. If I need to write and speak the language I do some grammar study and pronunciation training.
9:19 thank you for mentioning this.
Hello. When I began my hard English studies (ten months ago) , I wanted to study Spanish too, but I left this idea behind. When I to learn English, I will stydy Spanish. Thanks. Ps.: Sorry for my poor write.
I have been studying English for 02 years and 03 months (B2) and I have been studying Russian just for 03 months. I know just 130 Russian words, but I can speak some things like: моя мама хочет виноград. Я хочу иметь самолет. Я ношу кроссовки.
I know those things are very very simple. Hahaha
I have studied this language in the same time because I have a lot of free time and I was studying English for much time a day and it was boring. Russian and English are very different and it helps.
I wouldn't start two languages in the same time.
Вы откуда? Вы из США?
Привет
@@erturtemirbaev5207, I'm from Brazil.
@@ethanclark4116, Hi.
❤I'm Learning , English, Arabic, Russian, German at the same time. next 6 month i will come back to give my update to you, if you are interesting. see you then😎
Rest in peace Moses
Thank you for this video
What's your opinion of not (trying to learn) multiple languages but to do an hour or two of just listening to audio books or pimsleur in multiple languages just to get a feeling for the flow and sound of languages. Sort of as a primer to learn it later.
In Finland we Finnish speaking people must learn English and Swedish at school. English at the age of 9, Swedish at the age of 13. We continue studing these languages until the end of high school and then again in universities. I've also learned German from the age of 11. I started taking Russian classes when I was 15. I had to study these all languages often at the same time. I kept mixing Swedish and German a lot. I wonder how I should keep up with all these languages now when I'm an adult and working full time? Any tips?
I'm at an intermediate level of Spanish and live in Latin America, but recently started to learn the Arabic alphabet, since I know I want to study that more in-depth in the future, and since it's a whole new alphabet, it'll take me a lot more time to learn. Then I decided, what the heck, and added Chinese, Swahili, and Hebrew. The Hebrew alphabet was too similar to Arabic for my beginner brain, so I've abandoned that for now, and added in Russian, instead. I spend most of my time on Spanish, but it's nice to take a break from it when I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'm at that point where I'm not seeing much progress, so it's discouraging. I need to seriously amp up my Spanish television watching and reading, and reduce the English!
1:54 - Any tips around this? I'm trying to learn Hebrew - my first time learning a language that uses a different writing system. And yes, I can name all the letters and know what sounds they make but I'm struggling a lot with training my brain to see the meaning rather than the sounds, if that makes sense? Would love more specific tips/advice around this. :)
You just have to recognize that it takes time. I found it much easier to study one sentence at a time on LingQ, sentence mode as we call it. Lot's of text to speech, or listening to the audio for individual sentences.
I'd like to learn english and spanish but, first of all I'm focused on english for 5 months. Actually I'm talking to myself on the street as a crazy 😂.. it's funniest. By the way I'm so proud of myself because isn't easy to learn another language.. mainly alone. Nowadays i can share my emotions at least a little while day by day. I few days ago i wrote on the notebook my thoughts totally in english. It's cool because back in the time i didn't anything about another language. To be honest i have no clue about my dreams.. perhaps to visit several countries around the world. I do like to watch daily vlog on UA-cam, i usually spend my time watching a bunch of series in english at home on my day off. Make mistakes a lot in this language, but i don't mind, i just wanna practice english every day even though it hard. I'll never give up cause i really appreciate it, i intend to talk with people and also could express my feelings, my ideas with a lot of strangers in the world. Besides, in the future it can helps me with my job, i would have more opportunities to work. Yeah. My bad for this text, i need to write. Have a nice day everyone!
A few randomw thoughts: My guess is that it's easier to study two languages at a time if they're closely related. The overlap can be confusing but also helpful. Also, it seems to be widely accepted that it's easier to learn a given language if you already know a related one. And unless you stop learning language A when you start learning language B, there will always be some overlap (unless you decide to learn only one other language).
My guess -- and I'm not basing this on any research -- is that it makes sense to focus on one language to the point of some reasonably level of competence (which is dependent on one's own needs and goals), and then continue to learn and use that language while shifting primary focus to a new one, which I think is that most polyglots tend to do in practice. (Am I right about that?)
I think u r right that learning languages at different levels simultaneously is easier. The alternative is to start several at once, just deep in beginner status all over the show!
Sometimes some Czech words comes to my mouth when I try to speak German.
I'm Brazilian and when I was 17 I did an exchange program in Czech Republic, I didn't learn the language the way I wanted, I'm still in A2 level. But there I studied a bit of German, and kept studying after coming back to Brazil. Now there are some Czech expressions and words that suddenly appear in my mind when I try to think in German.
Do not lose your Czech, keep maintaining this language
@@arieltineo1605 I actually need to learn it decently, hahahaha. My priority now is German, because my fiancée's family speak it on a daily basis, but after having acquired a good amount of it, I intend to go back to Czech.
@@davidthegoldsmith4195 I'm jealous of you,I love Slavic countries I find these languages and it's people very interesting
Trying to learn most of the languages from which English is composed. Or approximately...French, Frisian, Danish, Italian ( in lieu of Latin cos Italian has towns full of living speakers ) , Greek , Welsh.... all good fun
Is it good to lean a new language using english? my native language is spanish but I do not know if it's good to lean a new language using english
You can learn 2 languages as long as they arn't from the same Family Branch ie Spanish and French etc. I'm learning Polish and Spanish ...4 days a week Polish 3 days Spanish
How is Shadowing technique going?
I am a native English-speaking American from New York. As well, I come from a Hispanic background and my Spanish is at an intermediate level. Where I am able to carry conversations proficiently but don't understand complex conversations at a high level and if it is spoken to quickly. At the moment I began learning Spanish once again and I am very curious and interested in learning Greek for a couple of good reasons. Greek is tricky though from what it appears. Due to the Alphabet system being completely different from the Standard Alphabet system used by the English language and even some of the romance languages.
As well, I am hesitant to learn Spanish and Greek at the same time due to the fact that maybe I would be over whelmed?
My question to you is from your own personal opinion. Is it much easier to maintain a third language if there are similarities between the languages you are learning? Or it doesn't really matter? I would love to hear your personal point of view. Thank you for the excellent video!
now i am strengthening to learn English and Japanese. so let me guideline to study the Languages and how to solved your problem and I don't know any languages because of i am a Myanmar nationality.
i was studying just eng but two years ago I added four languages to my study schedule and I need to say I feel like my improvement goes pretty slow in each language. so I'm seeking answer whether I am doing right or wrong
You said getting a language to a good level first before introducing another. What is a good level to you for that? B1? B2? Being able to read and listen comprehensively? I am learning Greek and want to learn Japanese at some point, but not at the sacrifice of Greek. Thanks for your help.
Now I choose to learn Podcast application.
When I retired about 6 months ago, I wanted to re-learn German, which I had learned in high school and university about 40 years ago. I also wanted to learn a little French so that I could travel there also. I’m loving learning both languages at the same time. I’m at very different stages of learning each language, which I think makes it easier. If both languages were brand new for me, I think that would be harder.
What language level is your German and French?
@@Tehui1974 Forty years ago, my German was probably around B2/C1. When I resumed learning about 6 months ago, it was more like A2/B1. I started learning French at the same time and was a complete beginner. I’ve made significant progress with both languages. Focusing on input while learning a little grammar to help me notice things about each language has made learning fun for meI’ve recently started meeting with a French tutor for speaking, and occasionally German words will slip out☺️!
@@michaelhargrove9076 Good on you. When I eventually retire (about 20 years from now if all goes well), I plan to dedicate myself more to language learning as well.
My question is this
I basically have a C1 level in Spanish now, does it still count as a language that I am learning?
I do a few language exchanges a week and watch some videos or tv shows every week in Spanish.
I started learning Greek in September, and I am terrible, but I want to begin with Portuguese for travel purposes.
What do people think?
Id recommend going with Portuguese because the motive is more clear from what youre saying here. You're motivated to learn Portuguese for travel purposes, also you never stop learning a language, you cant ever learn every single word of a language, i think the word you're looking for is "studying" instead of learning.
imo you never stop learning any language, arguably even your native one. That's why it's important to have a reason to know a language. If you always just study, you'll never achieve your goals. (Knowing your native language to converse with people, Japanese to consume media, German for traveling etc.)
Hello Dylan,
The work you do for spanish is amazing!! I believe you don't stop learning languages, even if you're a C2 or even your mother-tongue. You will always learn something new :)
I also started greek 2 months ago and it's hard, but I'm motivated and it's fun as well. The Easy Languages channel helps a lot!
If you want to learn portuguese, I teach it online, since it's my mother-tongue :) If you need help, let me know! And if you want a Greek learning partner I can also help you!
Portuguese is very very similar to Spanish so it should be easier for you to learn
Portuguese! Someone to learn my mother language! 😊👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
I have always wanted to leave my country and but I am undecided about which country to go. English is the obvious choice and I have a solid foundation of it but I would rather not living in UK/AU/US because of my own reasons. Nonetheless, it is very useful to know English so English is on the list. I have attended German lesson and has A1 level so it is easier to work on that too. I love Norway and is thinking of living there ( if it is possible ) so I might as well learn Norwegian. It probably is less difficult than what Mr Kaufmann did because these languages are all Germanic languages.
Thanks for your thoughts Steve. There are two different things at play here: learning multiple languages at once; and language maintenance once you've learnt a language well. I speak fluent English and Spanish, but started intensive Italian 2 years ago (25-35 hours a week) and Finnish 2 months ago. There is no clash. My Italian is B2-C1. I won't lose it, but while I am studying Finnish intensively, I need to continue my Italian, so I do that through italki chats twice a week, a bit of radio and reading novels and UA-cam videos. In the end, for me, it is a question of devoting a "lot" of time to your studies and having a system that works.
Hi Steve. I appreciate your great content. I would love to see you learning a very small language. A language that is about to extinct. For instance, Breton, Karelian or Kashubian. That would be awesome. These languages should not disappear.
I think from what I have understood about his motives one reason to get into a language is the ability to access compelling content from said language. I think the likelihood of one of those languages having lots of interesting books/movies etc is unfortunately lower and therefore more difficult for him to learn and keep learning
I don't think it's a problem to learn multiple languages at the same time. But it has to be different enough. For instance, italian and spanish at the same time is not a great idea :-D It may be different if there is a big difference in level.
Tons of listening is indeed a good way to learn a language , but I've got a bit abstract question here ,when you are listening to a paragraph ,are you concentrating your focus on every word itself to hear clearly or trying to imagine the illustrations and feelings about it .I know it's not a problem for a master speaker ,but I just wanna know which way you tend to be . the answer of you guys won't interference me instead it'll be just a reference .thank you all. by the way ,I'm not a native speaker who is learning English. a little shy to ask.
English, Deutsch, Español and Nihongo. Quadlingual 👍
Currently learning 6 languages at a time. Spanish, german, russian, Turkish, Greek and Arabic. I’m sure I’d make faster progress if I did fewer in one go but I went stir crazy because I wanted to challenge myself!
Wow, what's your native language and did you are arrange resources for all these languages
Best regards
I study Russian (A1), Spanish (B1), and Italian (C1) everyday. Mostly through reading and listening. When I have the chance to speak, I speak. I plan on studying these languages for the rest of my life, so the slow progress doesn't bother me.
The new Lingq reader is awesome!
Я люблю русскую язык
I am currently learning Korean, Mandarin, Japanese, Russian, and Arabic currently. For me, I appear to be learning well. The thing I realized, is that languages follow some sort of pattern. And the interesting thing, is that many of them have the same underlying principle behind them. I am not sure what it is, but sometimes you can understand what is being referred to, without understanding the words. I don't think that learning multiple languages is the best approach if you are in a time crunch. If you just want to learn due to a thirst of knowledge, then learning many languages could be a fun thing to do. Especially, if you already speak three or more languages.
Yeah, no, you aren’t learning well doing 5 of the hardest languages at the same time. Focus on 1 or 2 and cut the bullshit.
Personally, I can't learn only one language at a time, I'd get bored. However, most of my learning is reading and listening to podcasts in languages I am already at an intermediate level at, while I learn the basics usually one language at a time.