I suspected the same thing a few years ago. I'm a coder, and I've learned a number of programming languages over the years, but always one at a time. Then I started going back and forth between two a few years ago, one of them pretty complicated, and I kept having all of these realizations about each language that I wouldn't have had without learning both simultaneously. The relationships formed by those thoughts caused me to learn things a lot faster, and more deeply and long-lastingly. Being able to compare and contrast as I went was surprisingly helpful. It was an eye-opener. It made me think about how brains are relational engines, and feeding in more data gives them more handholds to grab onto and create connections and understanding through. I had a feeling it would probably work well for natural languages, too, and probably lots of other things, like mathematics.
I think the conventional advice to study one language at a time was a response to people who had a strong desire for more than one language, but had not yet learned how to teach themselves a language and/or were underestimating the time and work involved. If you’re a little ADD and not in a rush, there is a strong case to work on a few at the same time. however, if spending 30 minutes or one hour each on two different languages feels just as natural as 1 or 2 hours on the same language , it likely makes sense to beeline to the B2/C1 level in one before switching. The problem is that you’re not advanced enough to access the content you actually want yet when you are still a learner , so it’s plausible to have a certain amount of net stamina across languages that you wouldn’t have for only one, which could get boring past a certain point per day.
I’m wondering how much of a headstart you recommend giving a language before starting another? Back when I was in college I visited Germany and fell in love with the language and studied it a lot. I then decided to study Spanish and French and tackled them together. I never mixed anything up but my progress was pretty slow so I gave up on French and Spanish. Years later I started Japanese. It was so hard for me I decided to pretend I had never studied any other languages and ignore them completely. Years later I finally became conversational in Japanese. But there was a cost. I didn’t forget German, Spanish, and French but they were no longer part of my identity. They had no part of my life. I haven’t been able to incorporate them back into my life. For this reason I think it’s good for people who are really interested in multiple languages to go ahead and just study all of them. If it’s too much they will adjust and maybe just focus on one. I agree learning your first language is challenging and confusing because you’re probably learning the grammar of your native language for real for the first time too. The head start approach makes sense here but maybe not too much of a headstart is needed. After learning Japanese for 8 years I decided to learn Korean. I liked Asia. Everyone said my Japanese would make it easier. But it’s not. Unlike when I studied Japanese, I am not giving the new language 100% of my attention but I’m keeping in touch with Japanese even if I’m not improving it. And now I’m mixing the languages up. Mostly when I try to speak Korean but sometimes when I speak Japanese too. I have a couple theories on why. I’m middle aged now and my brain isn’t what it used to be maybe. Or the danger of mixing up languages isn’t so much about how similar they are to other languages but how distant they are from your native language. I think this might be the problem in my case. Anyway, I think the bigger problem with becoming a polyglot isn’t mixing up languages but losing interest or the habit of using some of them. For this reason I think studying several at once is a good idea.
Sometimes when I have to speak a language that is a bit rusty all the languages I am more familiar with come to my mind when I open my mouth, maybe the language connections in the brain get stressed😂 but this is never a problem after the warm up phase
Really appreciate your presentation👏🏻 and you really hit it off!! I think the US and Eurooe are really different in this regard and I think it's about the monolingualism of English speakers, it is much harder to convince native English speakers to learn a 2nd or even 3rd language, being bilingual either because you are born to parents with different mother tongues or because you belong to a minority is in my experience a very different thing: I was born monolingual and my daughter bilingual she has a different attitude especially when she speaks other languages, no shyness, no shame, which I always felt when learning langusges😅 I think you rightly pointed out that the languages shouldn't be too similar: I study Czech now and want to study Ukrainian but am afraid that I will mix the vocabulary I hope the Cyrillic alphabet will prohibit this!!Best wishes to you on your language journey😊
I suspected the same thing a few years ago. I'm a coder, and I've learned a number of programming languages over the years, but always one at a time. Then I started going back and forth between two a few years ago, one of them pretty complicated, and I kept having all of these realizations about each language that I wouldn't have had without learning both simultaneously. The relationships formed by those thoughts caused me to learn things a lot faster, and more deeply and long-lastingly. Being able to compare and contrast as I went was surprisingly helpful. It was an eye-opener. It made me think about how brains are relational engines, and feeding in more data gives them more handholds to grab onto and create connections and understanding through. I had a feeling it would probably work well for natural languages, too, and probably lots of other things, like mathematics.
This is a great insight!!
Well, similar concept if you learn/play different musical instruments :)
I agree. I learn languages better when studying two at a time.
What amazing!
I think the conventional advice to study one language at a time was a response to people who had a strong desire for more than one language, but had not yet learned how to teach themselves a language and/or were underestimating the time and work involved. If you’re a little ADD and not in a rush, there is a strong case to work on a few at the same time. however, if spending 30 minutes or one hour each on two different languages feels just as natural as 1 or 2 hours on the same language , it likely makes sense to beeline to the B2/C1 level in one before switching. The problem is that you’re not advanced enough to access the content you actually want yet when you are still a learner , so it’s plausible to have a certain amount of net stamina across languages that you wouldn’t have for only one, which could get boring past a certain point per day.
I’m wondering how much of a headstart you recommend giving a language before starting another?
Back when I was in college I visited Germany and fell in love with the language and studied it a lot. I then decided to study Spanish and French and tackled them together. I never mixed anything up but my progress was pretty slow so I gave up on French and Spanish.
Years later I started Japanese. It was so hard for me I decided to pretend I had never studied any other languages and ignore them completely. Years later I finally became conversational in Japanese. But there was a cost. I didn’t forget German, Spanish, and French but they were no longer part of my identity. They had no part of my life. I haven’t been able to incorporate them back into my life. For this reason I think it’s good for people who are really interested in multiple languages to go ahead and just study all of them. If it’s too much they will adjust and maybe just focus on one. I agree learning your first language is challenging and confusing because you’re probably learning the grammar of your native language for real for the first time too. The head start approach makes sense here but maybe not too much of a headstart is needed.
After learning Japanese for 8 years I decided to learn Korean. I liked Asia. Everyone said my Japanese would make it easier. But it’s not. Unlike when I studied Japanese, I am not giving the new language 100% of my attention but I’m keeping in touch with Japanese even if I’m not improving it. And now I’m mixing the languages up. Mostly when I try to speak Korean but sometimes when I speak Japanese too.
I have a couple theories on why. I’m middle aged now and my brain isn’t what it used to be maybe. Or the danger of mixing up languages isn’t so much about how similar they are to other languages but how distant they are from your native language. I think this might be the problem in my case.
Anyway, I think the bigger problem with becoming a polyglot isn’t mixing up languages but losing interest or the habit of using some of them. For this reason I think studying several at once is a good idea.
Sometimes when I have to speak a language that is a bit rusty all the languages I am more familiar with come to my mind when I open my mouth, maybe the language connections in the brain get stressed😂 but this is never a problem after the warm up phase
Really appreciate your presentation👏🏻 and you really hit it off!! I think the US and Eurooe are really different in this regard and I think it's about the monolingualism of English speakers, it is much harder to convince native English speakers to learn a 2nd or even 3rd language, being bilingual either because you are born to parents with different mother tongues or because you belong to a minority is in my experience a very different thing: I was born monolingual and my daughter bilingual she has a different attitude especially when she speaks other languages, no shyness, no shame, which I always felt when learning langusges😅
I think you rightly pointed out that the languages shouldn't be too similar: I study Czech now and want to study Ukrainian but am afraid that I will mix the vocabulary I hope the Cyrillic alphabet will prohibit this!!Best wishes to you on your language journey😊
How can an inspiring language learner become learn Albanian? It regional variations and is not a commonly taught language.
Yeah, there are some few textbooks for Albanian but not much in reality.