My personal problems with learning more than one language (at the same time).

General discussion about learning languages
drp9341
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My personal problems with learning more than one language (at the same time).

Postby drp9341 » Sat Aug 26, 2017 6:16 pm

Hello everyone!

As I have been writing about in my log, I started intensively studying Polish for the past 4 months. I took a month off when I was in Italy, and now that I'm back in Poland I am back to studying Polish intensively. I would like to improve my French, (which is at a B1-B2 level) and my Portuguese, however when I tried to study French alongside Polish for 2 weeks in June/July I noticed some things which made me believe it might not be a good idea.

When I'm learning a language, that language is always in my brain all day long. I'm always thinking about how to say things, and looking up stuff randomly on my smartphone even if I'm out doing something else. I also pay very close attention to phonology and spelling when I learn a new language, and when I'm alone I practice making the new sounds or rhythms of that language, (without even noticing most of the time.)

When I throw in a second language, like French in this example, I feel like my learning slows down considerably. If I study Polish, (when I say study I mean formal study such as doing lessons of Assimil, reviewing grammar, shadowing, doing Anki etc.) for an average of 1.5 hours a day and don't study any other language, everything I learned that day bounces around in my head all day. This "bouncing around in my head" is how my skills in a language actually develop.

When I added in French, however, I noticed that my progress in Polish slowed down - even though I didn't subtract anytime from my Polish studies to study French instead; I simply spent an extra half hour a day on language learning.

If I wasn't living in Poland, and I wasn't in such a rush to improve my Polish, this wouldn't be a big deal, but I find that trying to polish up on (no pun intended) my French while learning Polish slowed down my learning noticeably. This sucks, because I am afraid that by the end of next year my skills in French and Portuguese are going to diminish big time.

Am I the only one with this experience? I hear of lots of polyglots who study more than one language at a time, but for me, it doesn't seem to work. Am I deceiving myself because I'm too lazy to work with 2 languages? Or is this something other language learners have experienced?
Last edited by drp9341 on Sun Aug 27, 2017 8:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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tarvos
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Re: The problem with learning more than one language (at the same time).

Postby tarvos » Sat Aug 26, 2017 6:52 pm

You can maintain a language once you are comfortable in it, else it will slip. I don't mind my German slipping a little bit, because once I get back into it, it takes me a few hours to get up to speed. Even my parents' French which is nothing worth writing home about will see improvement once they spend time in France.

If it slips a little bit, that's okay - you can refresh it later on. If you're not comfortable in no. 1, and you don't have a compelling reason to do two at the same time (work forces you to, for example), leave it until you can just do anything you want in no. 1 and then move on.

My French and German slip too. That's okay - I learned them to such a level they can take a hit. I can use them again when I need them.
Last edited by tarvos on Sun Aug 27, 2017 9:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The problem with learning more than one language (at the same time).

Postby DaveBee » Sat Aug 26, 2017 6:54 pm

drp9341 wrote:When I throw in a second language, like French in this example, I feel like my learning slows down considerably. If I study Polish, (when I say study I mean formal study such as doing lessons of Assimil, reviewing grammar, shadowing, doing Anki etc.) for an average of 1.5 hours a day and don't study any other language, everything I learned that day bounces around in my head all day. This "bouncing around in my head" is how my skills in a language actually develop.

When I added in French, however, I noticed that my progress in Polish slowed down - even though I didn't subtract anytime from my Polish studies to study French instead; I simply spent an extra half hour a day on language learning.

If I wasn't living in Poland, and I wasn't in such a rush to improve my Polish, this wouldn't be a big deal, but I find that trying to polish up on (no pun intended) my French while learning Polish slowed down my learning noticeably. This sucks, because I am afraid that by the end of next year my skills in French and Portuguese are going to diminish big time.

Am I the only one with this experience? I hear of lots of polyglots who study more than one language at a time, but for me, it doesn't seem to work. Am I deceiving myself because I'm too lazy to work with 2 languages? Or is this something other language learners have experienced?
I was watching a LangFocus video yesterday, where he described the exact same experience.
By learning two languages at the same time, you are telling your brain that neither one is of central importance
I think Mr Kaufmann (lingosteve on YouTube) had more success by alternating languages, Russian one week, Czech the next. You could try that.
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Re: The problem with learning more than one language (at the same time).

Postby Serpent » Sat Aug 26, 2017 9:16 pm

We have this wikia page too :)

To increase the language's presence in my mind, I find music very useful. Also, if I choose a focus language for a challenge, this also helps.

Ultimately it's about finding the balance. You've added French without cutting down on Polish, but you can't create an extra half an hour out of... thin air ;) What has changed? The time has to come from somewhere.
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LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
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