I was just wondering if anyone had any advice for learning more than one language at once?
Nathan
Just go for it. Some times you feel more like doing one language, and then for a while you want to the other. I think 2 main ones at a time is max for me, with the occasional dabbling in a few others, but we have learners who regularly learn more than two. Just follow your inclinations.
What makes you think it might be hard Nathan?
What makes you think it might be hard Nathan?
What makes you think it might be hard Nathan?
Ah. Learning point. Don’t hit the post button twice when your computer’s running slow!
I’m not sure really. I thought that I might have trouble with too many different types of vocab/grammar points ect. in my head at once and would get myself confused.
It shouldn’t be a problem to study several languages if your main activities are reading and listening (i.e. semi-passive skills).
My main advice is to do what you want and not feel any pressure. Here at LingQ I devote time on German, Russian and Chinese. I’d probably be “better” in any of them if just one studied one. But I’m not in a hurry.
And more important, I have fun.
That’s really helpful. Thank you!
Also alcohol helps… call me crazy…
Haha I find it much easier to speak after a bit of vodka… Works a treat
Do one until you start to feel ever so slightly bored, then switch to the other one. Unless you prefer to work to some sort of structure. I like not having to structure my studies.
Yeah, structure is great for buildings and raising children and writing symphonies… It makes language learning sort of boring though…
Personally I do like a little bit of structure. It helps me to organise my learning, at least at the beginning.
Well there has to be a bit a structure, especially if you’re setting clear goals, which should be part of any serious endeavor.
LingQ sets your goals for you, if you choose to use them. They are the daily, weekly, monthly and er…level-ly objectives on your profile page. I work to them. When I have hit all the goals for Intermediate 1 then I will consider myself to have reached that level and will work to the Intermediate 2 goals. In a year I have reached nearly the Intermediate 1 goals in 3 languages. Every day I have a look at my goals, see what I have achieved, what I still have to do and I plan my learning for that day. I don’t plan further ahead than that.
I do find those useful as well. I think they are quite reasonable weekly ect. goals. Having a tutor also helps a lot to keep motivated
I keep an eye on the goals on my profile too but on a strictly per seven days basis. Some days I’m ready to do two or three times the daily goals and other days I’m busy and can’t get to any reading or lingqing so I find the 7 day category for at least to be the best to follow how well I’m keeping up over all…
I don’t want to bum you out or anything Nathan, but if you’re starting from scratch with Russian it’s going to be a while before you’re reading War and Peace. When you start thinking “Have I really achieved anything here?” it’s really good to be able to look at your stats and answer yourself “Yes! I’ve learned all these new words and and ready to go up to the next proficiency level.”
I still can’t read War and Peace and I’m far from fluent in spoken or written Russian yet. But I know that I’m a lot better than I was a year ago!
If you know French reading War and Peace (especially the peace part) is a little bit easier :))) While reading it in school I always had to read all these half-page-sized foot-notes of translation into Russian gg