Post: #1

I am really serious on my language quest to learn multiple languages. I have my duolingo fired up to about four right now but I'm pretty serious on two of them and I have language partners via apps and skype that I used to practise speaking. I want to acquire Spanish and Portuguese (Brasillian). I am also learning French and German although my German participation is not as aggressive as the Spanish and Portuguese participation.

I use Duolingo for Spanish every day and will switch it to Portuguese at time. My average practise is about 1 hour a day or though some days depending on my focus and workload, I may bump it up to 2 hours and keep riding. I have taken quite a few trips to DR now and my listening comprehension is quite good now. I don't care how crap I sound when I speak Spanish because the most important thing about language acquisition is to SPEAK IT!

Pitt told me that the best way is to move to the country for about 3 months but this is not realistic for me at this point.

My question is, is it optimal to learn multiple languages at the same time or is it a bad idea? I want to learn the languages in an optimal time fashion. This means I don't have years to dick around with audio tapes etc. I have a pretty keen memory. I have heard mixed views on it.

Post: #2

I have always badly confused myself when trying to learn multiple languages at the same time. For example, accidentally mashing completely unrelated languages into my sentences. I've been forced to admit that I can only learn one language at a time.

However, there seem to be some people that thrive on learning multiple languages at the same time. More power to them. It seems like some part of their brain wakes up and they see

I guess you won't know if you can handle learning multiple languages until you actually try.

I've mentioned this in another thread, but I highly recommend memrise.com for vocabulary acquisition. I'm the kind of person, that once I have the vocabulary, then the grammar slowly starts falling into place. I find it useless to learn grammar before I know the vocabulary.

For your convenience, here are the Portuguese memrise courses (you can also easily make your own course on memrise too, which is nice if you want to make a personal course of words that you struggle with or for words you need to urgently master):
http://www.memrise.com/courses/english/?q=portuguese

I'm sure there are other members on the forum with more experience with this sort of thing though, hopefully they will also chime in.

Good luck!

Post: #3

It definitely can be done, this guy laoshu is learning around 7 at the same time, however that's his job.
I'm no expert but you have the correct approach, however if you want to learn more languages at the same time you need more time, 2 hours a day is sufficient for learning a couple but not four.
also i read that you have a good listening comprehension of spanish, which is awesome. Personally, when i learned english, once my listening comprehension was good, it was over, i didn't need to open a book again. now if i have a doubt i just spend a couple of seconds on google and that's it.
so i would suggest to tone down your spanish learning and make more time for other languages.
edit: but keep on listening to spanish! check out the app tunein, it streams every radio around the world

Post: #4

From a lot of the things I've read most people don't recommend learning similar languages at the same time because of confusing the two, Spanish and Portuguese are obviously similar but if you were learning Spanish and Russian at the same time it there shouldn't be a problem.

Post: #5

The ability to pull this off depends on how much free time you have. I've tried to learn 4 languages at the same time. The problem with this approach is your time becomes divided. The most important factor for learning a foreign language is consistency.

Another issue to be aware of when learning multiple languages at the time is spacial learning and scheduling. You cannot study two languages back to back. They need to have a fair deal of spacing from each other, at least 1 hour. To solidify your memory of the language you just studied, you need to reflect on what you had just learned by trying to recall it. You need to schedule time apart from each language to make a solid effort. You need different places to study each language. You'll need a different room or desk to study each language. For some people, a different computer.

It can be done. But it should only be done if you have time to spare. It could also be advantageous. Some people can't study a single language with a lot intensity in one day and need to chunk their learning over days than just one day. I myself cannot see myself studying Spanish for more than 1 hour a day.

Also, don't worry about mixing languages up. A lot of languages have common roots and share the same words with a different pronunciation. That is why spacing is important. Learning an additional language is a skill set of its own. Learning multiple languages at the same requires a different skill set as well.

Post: #6

Especially if it is your first foreign language and especially if they are closely related, it would be far better and faster to learn one language at a time. All it does it add confusion and will thus require more total time to learn both languages.

Even if you assume that there is no disadvantage of learning languages in parallel, you have to ask yourself what are the advantages to learning languages in parallel? I can't think of any.

Say it takes you 800 hours to learn Spanish or Portuguese fluently. Also say you can spend 20 hours/wk learning a language. Wouldn't it be far better to speak fluent Spanish in a year instead of bad Spanish and bad Portuguese in a year?

Post: #7

Spanish and Portuguese are so closely related that you're going to get confused. If you were already advanced in one of these two, or if the two languages were unrelated, or if one were closely related to your native language, then this would be more doable.

(07-02-2016 12:25 AM)Moma Wrote:  I have a pretty keen memory.

Language learning is not really about memory. It's about developing a skill, like swimming or boxing or playing an instrument. There usually isn't time to access your memory consciously when you are speaking and listening. (It's more possible with reading and writing, certainly.)

Post: #8

ElFaco, I think language is definitely about memory. I know it helps as I've visited an all spanish speaking country and the local that I roll with has been very impressed with my recollection and ability to follow along for most of the conversation.

Post: #9

Moma you should keep learning multiple languages at the same time, if its too confusing you can always stop

Im learning portuguese, along with danish and norwegian, I'm on a 30 day streak for all three at the moment

Norwegian and danish are very similar when writing/reading, but quite different when spoken, I thought learning both at the same time would confuse me, but it hasn't, so I may pick up spanish as well.

I commute for 4 hours a day in total, so I'm able to spend a lot of time on all 3 , and within 12-18 months, I'm going to stop working for 3 months and move to portugal to really ramp up the learning

Post: #10

I've been learning both Russian and Polish for the past couple of years. It was a bit confusing initially as my Russian was stronger due to Polish grammar is being more complicated but now I'm finally approaching fluency in both. I used to use Russian words when speaking Polish but that doesn't happen anymore and I can even switch languages quite comfortably. This being said, Spanish and Portuguese are more closely related than Russian and Polish (which I would compare with Spanish and French). Overall, I think it can definitely be done, but 2 languages are probably the maximum that most people can handle, at least at a beginner's level. If you keep yourself motivated you'll eventually achieve fluency but I wouldn't say it's "optimal".

Post: #11

I previously had taken multiple language classes, to the point I find it easier to learn multiple languages with the exact same (ideal) grammatical structure.

Most Romance languages have the standard Subject-->Verb-->Object basic grammatical structure, to the point I find it objectively easier to learn French and Italian simultaneously.

Post: #12

I'm not exactly learning two new languages at the same time. Rather, I want to maintain my skills in one language (Russian), while learning another (Spanish).

I'm curious if you all can recommend how much time to spend on a language you just want to retain (e.g. 2 hours per week). Also, how you would go about doing this. Thanks.

Post: #13

What is the point of learning multiple languages at once rather waiting to move on until you've gained conversational fluency in one? Spanish is an order of magnitude more useful in the US (though not sure where you are now OP) vs. those other languages so it would seem ideal to just get good at that first.