I’m currently thinking about diving into my third language, German, and I’ve been researching ways to make the process more efficient and rewarding. One concept that really caught my attention is language laddering—learning a new language (German) through another language I already know (Spanish).
I’ve been studying Spanish for a while now and want to not only maintain it but also continue improving while picking up German. I think using Spanish as the foundation for learning German could be a great way to achieve both goals at once.
I’d love to hear from anyone who has tried this approach or something similar:
Did it help reinforce your existing language while learning the new one?
How did you structure your learning routine?
What resources (apps, books, podcasts, etc.) did you find most helpful?
Any challenges or unexpected benefits you encountered?
I’m planning to immerse myself by doing everything in Spanish when learning German—grammar books, apps, videos, you name it. If you’ve got any tips, advice, or experiences to share, I’d really appreciate it!
i’m pretty sure english would be closer to german than spanish. though you can definitely use the skills and tolerance from spanish learning. you’re probably closer than you think
I recall a polyglot woman with a YouTube channel, source forgotten, who kept her previous languages alive by taking notes in them while learning a new target language.
The majority of my learning material is in English, my second language. This includes bilingual textbooks, grammar books, internet sources (including this forum), youtube videos et. al.
As my English is already pretty advanced the usefulness might be reduced, but I guess I pick up new words and phrases along the way nevertheless. However, I’ve used English a lot when I studied at the university, both there and in my free time. My English level was definetely way lower back in the day then it is now.
So long story short. Using a language is always a good idea and a necessity if you want to become better and more confident. In case of learning another language the question you may have to ask yourself is whether your Spanish is sufficient enough that it doesn’t hinder your progress in German. This you can only find out empirically, so by testing. I would assume that if you use bilingual books for example or start with simple texts, you should be able to use Spanish as the translation will be at a low level and therefore comprehensible to you. However, when looking up grammar rules for example you might find using Spanish to be too difficult.
In regards to how close German is to Spanish. As a native German speaker who only knows English apart from that I made the experience that I can easely recognize one third of the Spanish words I came across, as both German and English have a lot of Latin based vocabulary. In German this is more the case in technical or scientifical matters, though. My Spanish isn’t that good (somewhere between A2 and B1, I guess), but I can understand newspaper articles that deal with scientifical matters pretty good, while novels are absolutely unintelligable to me. So if you want to benefit from you English and Spanish skills and get a motivational boost I would suggest that you incorporate a good chunk of such content into your curriculum.
Another suggestion: As English seems to be you mothertongue and German word order is more flexible. Don’t change the word order when translating a German sentence (if you have to for comprehension). Apply the same to seperable words. You may have already noticed that these things give German learners some headache. By not rearranging everything to the order you are used to you force your brain to adopt to the new syntax.
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my question and sharing your insights—I really appreciate it!
I’d say my Spanish is roughly at a B1-B2 level, which is strong enough for everyday use but still leaves plenty of room for improvement. This year, I plan to dedicate all my free time to getting my Spanish to a more advanced level. Next year, I’m planning to start learning German, but I’ll be doing it entirely through Spanish.
My goal is twofold: not only do I want to learn German, but I also want to ensure my Spanish continues to improve. To achieve this, I’ll immerse myself by doing everything I currently do in English—watching YouTube videos, searching online, reading articles, etc.—but through Spanish instead. It’s an approach I hope will strengthen both languages over time.
Your suggestion about testing whether my Spanish is sufficient to support learning German is a great one, and I think starting with simple texts and bilingual resources is a sensible way to ease into the process. I also appreciate the point about German syntax and word order—it’s definitely something I’ll keep in mind as I start learning the language.
Thanks again for your thoughtful response! It’s really motivating to hear from someone with experience in both languages.
I was thinking this when I started swedish, after learning to understand spanish. Firstly there wasn’t that much content to start with, but also the content was very basic (hello, ordering coffee etc) or grammar. Basics are done with week of input and grammar I find more useful once I know a bit of the language. So I’ll rather watch that kind of content once I can understand it in the target language. Suppose I could watch those later in spanish also, but I feel like it’s a zero sum game. As long as you get the input, it’s just as effective whether it’s mixed up or separated.
Interesting idea. Thanks buxey1! If you have started the project, please chime in on how its going.
I think this is the way I’ll go about learning German. I’m not yet ready to leave behind my french studies, but if I use an Assimil course in french, I don’t have to.
This is a ever present conundrum I think. I’m not interested in learning umpteen languages to a low level. At least, I want to be able to read almost everything (the active part isn’t so import for me personally) in that language. But however proficient you become, there is always another writer, with a different style of writing; or another domaine, in which you feel incompetent. But if I want to add a new language, at some point you’ll have to shift your focus. This feels like a very convenient way of dampen the feeling of cheating on your former study object.
I’vve tried laddering to Spanish and French via German on Anki. This is a bit more strenuous than Spanish-English or French-English flashcards, because Anki is constantly quizzing as to whether I remember the gender of German nouns correctly.
If the goal was getting Spanish vocabulary fast, I’d do Spanish to English. On the other hand, the mental workout of reviewing German nouns can be rather satisfying.
Laddering Russian vocabulary via German, Spanish, or French all present a similar level of challenge. Russian to English is noticeably quicker.
I think the brain gets more exercise when attempting to convert between very different grammars and root words.
One approach that has been working for me is reading very short, familiar pieces, like fairy tales or Sherlock Holmes stories, in multiple languages
