4 languages X 5 families

[leosmith]

This is a question aimed at polyglots and aspiring polyglots, but all are welcome to answer. Let’s say one wants to learn 20 languages in their lifetime to a level of B2 or higher. There are 5 language families that are quite distinct from each other, one of which contains one’s native language, and 4 languages in each family. In order to simplify this discussion, I don’t want to consider any other factors. In what order would you learn these languages in and why?

I write this question because I see time and time again that the “path of least resistance”, that is, always learning the most similar or “easiest” remaining language first is the best or quickest path. I disagree. Imo, there are advantages and disadvantages to it, and for a large number of languages at least, it doesn’t really matter. Here are some examples:

Advantages
1) similar languages can be learned faster, and increase one’s language count quickly
2) one can increase their general language knowledge which will allow one to learn even the dissimilar languages faster
etc
Disadvantages
1) keeping similar languages separated can be problematic
2) one has a harder time finding out which techniques are most effective for their self
etc

Note: this is just supposed to be a fun mental exercise. I doubt if anyone would let this dissimilar/similar thing decide what order they would learn 20 languages in. I wanted to bring it up because I've seen quite a few posts theorising about it over the years.

[Xenops]

I feel like, to even do this question any justice, I would need to research about the difficulty and relatedness of several languages.

[tarvos]

None. That's not how this thing works.

[Theodisce]

Alone in the Indo-European language family there are many branches that differ significantly from each other. It is virtually impossible to confuse Russian with Spanish or Greek with German.

[jeff_lindqvist]

Forum member EU23 once planned to learn all EU languages:
Learn all 24 EU languages
24 in 12 years (this post explained the planned study order)

I have no idea what I would do. Arguelles once presented his suggestion for FIGS (or rather, SFIG), and also an approach for the Slavic family. Maybe there are some suggestions in Directions/advice for 10+ aimers?.

[Xenops]

Upon further reflexion, I realized that if I had the ideal situation where I could learn 20 languages (enough time, money, energy, no competing hobbies, etc), I would most likely pick ones that span a wide range of families rather than pick ones that are similar to another. I realize that my interest in languages is highly dependent on my interest in the culture, and the "strangeness" of the language. A new language is like a puzzle, where I slowly put together the pieces and finally get a picture of the whole thing, and I gain the command of the skill. Learning another Romance language just because I get a "discount" isn't enough motivation for me. In fact, it would remove some of the allure or appeal.

I suppose I do not qualify as an aspiring polyglot, because my goal isn't to learn a large number of languages, and have that be the goal in itself. If that was the case, I'd easily become fluent in Spanish, because I had lots of schooling in it, and it's solidly in my brain: but I don't study it anymore, because the desire to better understand the culture is gone, and the language itself isn't that intriguing to me. It's a language that comes to my mind as "it would be convenient if I was fluent already", but I don't have the enthusiasm to study it to get to that point. Rather, I would want to pick odd-ball languages that are unique from the rest in my "collection".

Just for funsies, my ideal list of languages to learn are (in rough families): Japanese, Classical Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Modern Hebrew, Arabic, Amharic, Swahili, Persian, Turkish, Finnish, Manchu, Norwegian, Swedish, German, Old English, Irish.

Summary: if I wanted to be a polyglot, I would want a variety of languages and features.

Edited to condense post.

[basica]

When we're talking about language families, are we counting all indo-european languages under the one branch, or not? That said, there's a few languages I would like to learn (whether or not that'll actually happen is a different story) and I guess the way I've been thinking of going about them could be applied to this 20 language challenge. The languages I would like to learn are: Serbian, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Spanish, Mandarin, Portuguese, Arabic, Latin and Ancient Greek.

I've written them in about the order I would learn them in. As you can see they somewhat go from new to familiar languages. I did this because I've noticed from polyglots whose logs I follow they sometimes have issues with mixing vocabulary and rules when learning say multiple romance languages close together. I think by separating my languages apart this will help solidify the languages in my brain and prevent future interference. Another benefit is I think that taking a break with "easier" languages every now and again will also reduce any strain and probably help with motivation.

[IronMike]

I guess I could do this if the requirement were to learn the languages to B2 level in the receptive skills, or maybe only reading. Despite my lack of effort, use, practice, or anything with BCS, I still routinely score at the B1 to B2 level in the reading test. I think I can maintain a consistent level in Slavic languages with some dedicated long-term study. In fact I wrote my thesis on the subject.

If I had to pick the families and languages, maybe these:

Slavic: Russian, BCS, Bulgarian, Czech;
Siouan: Lakota, Crow, another two that I could find resources for;
Germanic: German, Dutch, Danish, Old English
Celtic: Cornish, Irish, Welsh, Breton
Pidgins & Creoles (yes, I'm calling it a family and I don't care): Tok Pisin, Papiamento, Sranan Tongo, Chinook Jargon

[nooj]

Word of warning, these language families are in no way meant to be comparable in depth of age. I just picked some language families that interest me more.


Malay-Austronesian:

Malay
Javanese
Maori
Samoan
Malagasy

Honorary mention: Cebuano.

Start with Malay and Javanese first, in situ in Indonesia. Then, move to NZ and learn Maori. There are substantial Samoan immigrant communities in NZ, so I can profit and learn Samoan at the same time. That leaves Malagasy for last. I've always wanted to live in Madagascar.

Slavic:

Russian
Bulgarian
Polish
Serbian
Czech

In order simply of languages that I am interested in and countries I'd like to live in. Bulgarian in particular is lovely. No Ukranian, surprisingly, but I just don't know anything about Ukraine.

Pama-Nyungan:

Warlpiri
Upper Arrernte
Western Desert
Yolŋu (I don't mind which one)
Guugu Yimithirr

Home sweet home! It's a bit of a shame because there are other languages I would like to learn from other Australian families.

Honorary mention: Australian Kriol, although it is not technically genetically related to any language.

Just with these three language families, I will have my entire life cut out for me! The next family will probably be Oto-Manguean, so I can finally travel to the Americas, and the last family I'm not sure yet. Sino-Tibetan? Bantu? Afro-Asiatic?

[tiia]

Forum member EU23 once planned to learn all EU languages:
Learn all 24 EU languages
24 in 12 years (this post explained the planned study order)

When I look at his newest post on the blog, he may have changed his study order. It seems that the next language pair is German+Italian. Unfortunately there are no news since April, except for one post on twitter in November. So who knows what he's doing right now.

Anyway, I think in the first link there were a lot of advices given regarding the order of the languages.