Learning a Living Language and a Dead One Concurrently

[Michael204351]

Hello All,

I know that it is generally common advice not to learn two languages at the same time. My question is, however, in regards to learning a living language (in my case Spanish) and a dead one (Attic Greek) concurrently. I am at an intermediate level in Spanish, using Baselang.com tutoring several hours per week and reading regularly on my own. Regarding Greek, I can read it quite easily (I am a Greek Orthodox Christian) and know a little bit, but am still in the beginner stages. Obviously, I will be learning Greek passively for the most part. Any advice?

Thanks,

[Ezra]

I do not think there will be any problems because of interference. The only thing is that you will need to allocate enough time for both of them.

[Brun Ugle]

I think the advice about not learning two languages at the same time is given for two reasons which are not always applicable. One is the matter of time and flow. If you are only studying one language, you can devote all your language time to it and it is much easier to get into the flow and start thinking in it or at least have the words reverberating in your mind. This state is harder to achieve if you are switching between several languages. However, if you have several hours a day it’s not that big a problem. The second reason applies to monolinguals learning their first foreign language. It takes time to learn how to learn a language and so your first foreign language will be relatively harder and take relatively longer than subsequent languages. Once you’ve learned one language to a high level, you know a lot about how to learn and can do so more efficiently.

I don’t think it makes any difference if the languages are living or dead, the problem is one of organization and time. There are several earlier threads on the topic of learning several languages at once, so you might like to read them. My suggestion is that you need to figure out how much time you have and how you are going to divide it between languages. Make sure you study both fairly regularly. You can study both every day or alternate days. I would suggest not going right from one language to the other because it can be a little hard to switch gears especially at the lower levels. If you only have one block of time per day and want to study both languages each day, at least take a small break between. I keep one log on the forum, but I also have a paper notebook for each language where I write down what I’ve done and make notes on grammar and stuff, and those are separate. This helps me keep track of what I’m working on and keep things separated in my mind.

[Michael204351]

Thank you both for your replies!

I think I have decided to wait a little while before starting Greek. I should be sitting at a good conversational level in my Spanish by October/November. So perhaps I will make Greek a project for 2020 (while continuing to improve my Spanish).

Thanks again!