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

[Skynet]

Tastyonions,

I am most impressed that 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.

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.

There's absolute no need to thank me, I actually like haunting this forum during my French study breaks.

Wow! So you essentially pick up a new language every year. That's what I intend to do, and now that I have confirmation that it is possible...I am bouncing off the walls! Thank-you for the inspiration!

What resources did you use for your German and French? How much time (in hours) would you say that you spent on each language?

[tastyonions]

[...duplicate.]

[tastyonions]

What resources did you use for your German and French? How much time (in hours) would you say that you spent on each language?

As far as textbooks and learner books, I mainly used Assimil (both the "With Ease" and "Using" levels) for both languages, plus the French In Action videos for French and the "German Reader" series by Brian Smith (like this one) for German. I also bought various "dual language" collections of short stories in German, like this one.

I don't track hours so it's tough to say how much time I have spent in total. But when I first start a language I try to do at least thirty minutes to an hour every day.

[Skynet]

As far as textbooks and learner books, I mainly used Assimil (both the "With Ease" and "Using" levels) for both languages, plus the French In Action videos for French and the "German Reader" series by Brian Smith (like this one) for German. I also bought various "dual language" collections of short stories in German, like this one.

Thanks for the stellar advice. I had actually asked whether Assimil Using French could be substituted with French native courses by CLE, Didier, Hachette, etc. The consensus has been that it should not.

[tastyonions]

[tastyonions]

The night before last I had my first dream in which I was speaking Dutch. I was having a lot of trouble expressing myself, which is only natural since I'm a beginner, but at least the native speaker conjured up by my brain was friendly and encouraged me to keep trying.

[tastyonions]

I started Dutch on May 29th, so I have been studying it for 85 days, including today.

Today was lesson 78 in Assimil, so that means I have missed about seven days worth of lessons so far. Not terrible. I have been using my usual method of hitting each lesson four times, once every fourteen days. So today I saw lesson 78 for the first time and reviewed lessons 64, 50, and 36.

I'm definitely starting to be able to understand more YouTube videos but I'm still a ways off from complete comprehension.

So far I have hardly done any active study, since I have pretty limited time. My plan is to sweep through Assimil quickly once more in my own version of an "active wave," putting a bunch of things in Anki, once I am done with my passive study. After that I'll probably try a few italki lessons and see where I am.

[tastyonions]

We just signed a big contract in Quebec and I've been asked to serve as my department's translator of e-mails we are sending to our development contacts there. Should be an interesting challenge!

[tastyonions]

Looks like I will be flying up to Quebec on business sometime soon as well! Time to listen to some more Radio Canada.

[tastyonions]

Flying off to Peru tonight! I’ll be there through September 2nd. Time to put my Spanish to work.