Zweitausendachtzehn (DE, FR, ES, IT, PT, NL)

[tastyonions]

Nice selection of German materials you've got there, hiding behind the new Dutch goodies.

Yeah, my desk tends to be covered with language stuff. On the top of that pile is an Italian literature book, one of the German books is covering a Portuguese book, and the two bottom books (green and purple) are French, though it's not obvious from the picture.

[tastyonions]

Ab und zu gibt es auch eine Katze:

[tastyonions]

New (to me) podcasts that seem promising:

Conta-me tudo (PT [Portugal]): http://contametudo.libsyn.com/
Así como suena (ES [Mexico]): http://asicomosuena.mx/#/shows/1
Scientificast (IT): https://www.scientificast.it/

[tastyonions]

[tastyonions]

Conta-me tudo (PT [Portugal]): http://contametudo.libsyn.com/

This one turned out to be too advanced for me. I’ll go back to it later.

Right now I’m listening to this: É apenas fumaça: http://apenasfumaca.pt (also PT [Portugal])

[tastyonions]

My German session this morning left me with the impression that I’m making a lot of progress even without really trying to “push” the language into activity. There were some stretches of a couple minutes where I even (I thought) seemed pretty close to “fluent!”

[tastyonions]

All of my languages are going well.

I actually heard a couple from the Netherlands speaking Dutch (!) while out at a restaurant tonight. I was too sheepish to use my couple months worth of almost-entirely passive Dutch knowledge but told them in English that I had been learning the language for a short time. Of course they asked, "Why?!" and I told them that it was just for fun. When they left the guy said, "Tot ziens!"

[Skynet]

Tastyonions,

I am most impressedthat you have the sheer determination and discipline to study SIX languages simultaneously!

Of the languages on your list, I am currently sprinting towards the French B1/2 finish line in 575 hours over nine weeks, and German and Spanish are slated for 2019 and 2020 respectively. If I may ask, at what level were you at before you would start the next language, or did you start them all simultaneously?

Here's my plan: I will only look at German once I have a DELF B2 Pro certificate in my hand. After that, I will work my French up to C1 and German to B2 in 2019. I will sit the GI Zertifikat B2 and then start on Spanish up to DELE B2 in 2020. I am OK with Spanish staying at B2+ until I have C2 in both French and German as I intend to use them for academic purposes, whilst Spanish is predominately for tourism.

I would love to hear from you soon.

[tastyonions]

Tastyonions,

I am most impressed that you have the sheer determination and discipline to study SIX languages simultaneously! 8-)

Of the languages on your list, I am currently sprinting towards the French B1/2 finish line in 575 hours over nine weeks, and German and Spanish are slated for 2019 and 2020 respectively. If I may ask, at what level were you at before you would start the next language, or did you start them all simultaneously?

Here's my plan: I will only look at German once I have a DELF B2 Pro certificate in my hand. After that, I will work my French up to C1 and German to B2 in 2019. I will sit the GI Zertifikat B2 and then start on Spanish up to DELE B2 in 2020. I am OK with Spanish staying at B2+ until I have C2 in both French and German as I intend to use them for academic purposes, whilst Spanish is predominately for tourism.

I would love to hear from you soon.

Thanks for posting, Skynet.

I started my languages in the following order: French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Dutch. I started French in early 2012 and there has been about roughly a year of time between picking up each new language since then. I would say my most consistent yardstick for when I allow myself to start a new language is whether I feel confident listening to the radio and speaking with natives in my "latest" one. I have no idea what my CEFR levels are because I've never taken any tests. I mean, I could take a guess based on what I've read about the different levels, but I don't know how useful that would be.

I wouldn't say that I'm really "studying" French, Spanish, or Italian anymore. I simply "use" these languages to read books, listen to podcasts, watch movies, and talk to people.

[David27]

We had a similar pattern of language learning. I started with French: 2002-2008 then Spanish 2009, russian in 2010-2011, Italian added in 2010-2011, german, 2011-2013, Portuguese 2012-2013. So subtract Dutch and throw russian in but otherwise a similar pattern.