Hey to whom it may concern
Has anybody studied multiple languages in the meantime?
I am Asian I found I just can only learn Eng, Fr, and Es meanwhile, if I add Japanese I can’t remember the Japanese word. Or If I remember Japanese words I forget the Fr and Es words. Does that mean I just choose the same series of languages?
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I’ve tried studying four languages at the same time. I used to have the same problem when I was first learning a new language, but once I got more deeply into that new language, it stopped happening. I think if you just keep learning, the problem will go away.
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I study Latin and Icelandic at the same time, have for a couple of months. It works out great for me but in reality I end up spending most of the time on one of them, and then switching around when I lose interest of the currently prioritized one. I don’t think there are any issues, as Pr0metheus says just keep at it and you’ll eventually learn both/all.
And as Steve points out in many videos, when we learn something, forget it, and then relearn it, it usually sticks better.
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This is a recurring question, if you try to search in the forum you might find other answers as well.
I keep it short, I watched and read many stuff about it, and despite what some people say in the first weeks or months (or for Youtube clicks), in the long run, if you want to be more effective, you should only focus on one language.
We are talking about LEARNING a language seriously, not just saying few sentences here and there, or learn a language in 2 weeks.
When you reach a comfortable level on your target language, you can start a second language. For ME, that comfortable level is between C1/C2. This is because, you need to keep your language for a long time when you start a second, or a third. You are going to lose something, but you can keep them.
If your first target language is not enough strong, you are going to lose a lot, and your brain will struggle too much. After few years, you will realise that it was a mistake and you need to go back to basics.
I currently manage 5 languages, including my own native one. It is not an easy ride when you want to maintain them, because if you don’t, you lose them more and more.
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I’m about six months into doing something daily in four languages, including my mother tongue English, and then French, Japanese, and German. French is B2/C1, Japanese I’m refreshing from its core study years ago, and German is net new at A1.
One of the things I do is study German and Japanese from a forced frame of reference of French. For example, I like to listen to this creator describe things in Japanese, in French.
I think this helps my brain sort things around.
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It’s a huge problem if the languages are similar and it will confuse your brain naturally. It’s doable but the efficiency will drop for each language even if you put equal effort. If you have the patients to wait longer for the results for the languages to suddenly show up then it’s a good route to go. If you have a time frame or you tend to get discouraged easily, it’s better to prioritize the language that you want to learn and need the most. My 2cents. 
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I’m currently studying three languages - Ukrainian, Greek, and Italian. Some thoughts:
I’m probably upper B1/lower B2 in Russian already, so Ukrainian is the easiest of the three. Greek is by far the hardest.
I’m learning about 3-6k new words per year per language. This is slow in each language by itself, but I think that’s a good pace since I don’t have a lot of time each day. I do not usually confuse words between the languages, and I don’t anticipate that I will. I don’t think I forget many words either, but I am also engaging with each language every day.
I have not spent a lot of time speaking any of them other than Russian. I’m only really dabbling with speaking Greek at the moment, I’m not currently interested in trying to speak Italian or Ukrainian. I’m just focused on gaining more vocab for them right now. Trying to speak Ukrainian totally screws me up thanks to Russian, so I don’t try. I speak Greek (with a 4k word vocabulary according to LingQ) better than I do Ukrainian with an 11k word vocabulary.
So based on my experience, I recommend you keep at it consistently if this is what you want to do. Consistency is the key. If you keep at it, you will be ok.
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I previously - 30 years ago - had an intermediate level in Fremch and could understand clear spoken French . A few years ago I started studying French again and after eight months I started German from scratch. My experience is that two languages take a lot of work. Don’t do it if you work full time, unless you can dedicate lots of spare time to study. Three languages must be a nightmare.
French is my primary goal, I aim to reach C1 with fluent comprehension of spoken French. However, learning a language is a marathon. So I decided that I would also spend maybe 30-45 minutes a day getting a basic framework in German, and then after 2-3 years, taking it more seriously. That way a lot of legwork would be out of the way. It also means I don’t have to worry about German, I can just enjoy learning, no pressure.
I have found with French that once I could understand podcasts, the language snowballed. Regular audio input really helps words stick, and aids comprehension. German is not at that stage, it will be in a few years time.
But as I’ve said, language learning takes up a lot of time.
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That seems to make sense.Thx
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Good idea. I’ll try it, I am going to find some video staff and use English as my main language to learn other languages.
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