When do you add another language?

[tarvos]

I add another language when I can function relatively easily in the other ones I am using or when I am simply dabbling for fun without any particular goals.

[Takra jenai]

Off topic
I like to read emk's and iguanamon's posts. Beautiful English.

On topic
I prefer depth.
I added English when I was already fluent in Polish, both spoken and written. I will do the same with Pashto and then Urdu. I don't want to learn any more languages.

[Stelle]

I added Tagalog after I mentally moved Spanish from the "learning" category to the "using" category. I no longer study Spanish - I just read, watch TV and chat with natives over Skype. I focus my "studying" energy on Tagalog, while simultaneously improving my Spanish through use.

I don't suffer from wanderlust, though. I'm not constantly dreaming of learning new languages. I'm not intoxicated by the beginner phase - if anything, it's something that I'm willing to slog through in order to get to the solid intermediate stage, where I can read and listen to native materials. I love the languages that I'm currently learning, and they're enough for me right now. I think that this question is much more pressing for someone intending to learn half a dozen languages, or someone who has the urge to jump from one thing to another.

Me? I don't feel that urge. I do want to learn one more language, although I haven't yet decided which one it will be. I expect to start studying my "last" language in 2016, but if I don't feel that my Tagalog is ready for another language, then I don't mind waiting. (And who knows? The only constant is change. I may very well learn more than one more language after Tagalog.)

I added Tagalog when my Spanish was somewhere around B2.
I expect to add language #3 when my Tagalog is somewhere around B1.
And then, I intend to just keep working on all three languages until they're all at a B2 level or higher.

[zenmonkey]

1) Whenever you want
2) As long as you are able to dedicate enough time each week (at least 3-4 x20min REAL sessions)

My daughters learnt German, English, Spanish, Latin simultaneously (along with their L1: French) at school and reinforced at home. Not an issue if you have enough time.

YMMV.

Others prefer getting a language down to B1 level - I think it depends on similarities and differences - I see no drift going on for me when I study German / Hebrew / Italian / Portuguese at the same time BUT I've put Portuguese on the back burner as I can't give it enough time - It's a waste of effort to only spend 20 minutes a week.

As I DO suffer from Wanderlust I really now push myself to not touch another language for at least 6 months. I've forgotten so much Ladakhi, Arabic, Italian, etc...

[Expugnator]

It is true that the bridge from B and C levels is longer, but it is also true that learning at this stage becomes more efficient.

In numbers: when I'm starting to learn a language from scratch (i.e. a language I can't understand at all; I'm not talking about Italian or Spanish or Dutch or Swedish here) I struggle to go through even a new Assimil lesson. Also, even when I decide to go for native materials in parallel reading, it takes time till that reading becomes even enjoyable (that was my struggle from early 2014 till now, when I'm finally starting to get the hang of texts in my opaque languages). But then from a B1+ (passively) on, learning becomes independent and more efficient. It used to take me half an hour to read 4 pages in Georgian, struggling to make sense out of the sentences even with a translation - and failing overall. Now it takes me 15 min and I just learn a couple of words each sentence. I still couldn't get by reading extensively, i.e. not looking words up or a translation, but this has to do with Georgian's unique verbal system and syntax - just google for how many books have been published on Georgian's morphosyntax, and this not as manuals, but as works of scholars from whom each is trying to prove that their way of explaining Georgian grammar is the best one. Don't get me wrong, I admire advocating starting with native materials, but this is easy with Italian, Spanish, French. With an opaque language there is a path to climb before you can read more than 1 page in that language a day and see fun happen. And there isn't the variety of n+1 input one would expect usually, even between textbooks you see a huge gap - for example, the bridge between low A2 and high B1 - there are no Georgian textbooks, the intermediate ones assume a high B1 passive level. I'm sure if emk ever took Georgian, with his technical expertise and inventiveness, he would come up with a whole new standard of wisely-graded n+1 resources for Georgian, by picking news and translated novels and making SRS and such - but then subs2SRS would be challenging because there are virtually no Georgian subs and there are limited subs for stuff in Georgian - I'm getting around with Russian transcriptions translated poorly into English while watching voiced-over Georgian, but even this is recent, from late 2014.

Now getting back to topic: as my learning becomes more efficient, not only in terms of time but also of mental energy usage, I decide it may be time to add another language. I will repeat myself: starting 4 opaque languages at once was insane indeed and I wouldn't recommend that to others. So, what do I do now? I try to alternate transparent and opaque languages. Right now, the only opaque language I have is Estonian, with my Russian still somehow opaque but almost catching up with Georgian and Mandarin, all these intermediate languages. Plus I have Norwegian and German at which I'm close to becoming an independent user, and then French and Papiamento where I'm independent. Estonian is the only language I'm relying just on textbooks for, getting used to the vocabulary and grammar, and I've been doing this for 14 months. After 1 year I felt I could tackle native material, but I decided to postpone it because it is still tiresome to read in Georgian, Russian and Mandarin. Now I'm managing time and mental energy. When I actually run out of new textbooks for Estonian and/or notice they've become repetitive (like, learning only 1, 2 new words per lesson and totally understanding grammar at least passively) I will consider starting a new language from scratch (either Turkish, Indonesian, Arabic or Modern Greek, have to decide yet). I'll have to find time to squeeze in my early native-material activities in Estonian, while replacing Estonian's "textbook slot" with that new language.

For more familiar languages I follow the same rule: I only started Italian because I had already turned German into native-material only. When I decide I no longer need Italian textbooks, I will start reading and watching films in Italian and may start another Romance language or Esperanto. I could already be taking native materials in Italian but it's a matter of time constraints now, and I'm learning a lot from Perfectionnement Italien.

Depending on the stage you see yourself in, some activities are quite productive. The Assimil Perfectionnement Italien takes me less than 5 minutes, but I learn a lot of words in Italian. I can face more new words in Italian than I could do in Georgian even now, because words are similar to French or Portuguese or English and so is grammar. You develop an eye and an ear for how a language expresses some collocations, you don't need to explicitly learn about them, even though at a consolidating stage it helps a lot to use a grammar like Routledge's Modern {Language} Grammar: a Practical Guide. Papiamento studies also only take 5 minutes a day but are also quite efficient. With other intermediate languages I spend around 20 minutes on reading. When I reach B2 in those languages, I will be able to keep going by reading faster - I can read 10 pages in Norwegian (B2) in about the time I'd read 4 in Georgian (B1) and so I not only read faster but also more efficiently in Norwegian, because those 10 pages have more than 2x as much words. So, when I reach B2 in Georgian I can either decide to keep reading, say, 5 pages in 10 minutes instead of 20 - thus saving up 10 minutes for reading in Italian, for example, or I can read more in Georgian. Given the initially opaque nature of the language, I more or less accept the fact I will indeed progress slowly in Georgian, so I think I'd prefer to keep some mental sanity and keep the Georgian reading at an amount that wouldn't cause me to feel tiresome and approaching burn-out. This is by the way the individual chriterium I use the most for deciding how much I'm doing for each language. As time goes by, I deal with specificities of each language in what I call 'post-schedule' activities, the activities I do after my main daily study for each language - listening and reading - has been taken care off, and the moment when I allow some flexibility. Usually I alocate 1'30 hour for this post-schedule, but it varies a lot according to how busy I am with other things. Right now it consists of studying Assimil Perfectionnement Italien, dabbling in Uzbek and watching more German and Georgian video - as a post-schedule activity I choose a different audio+subs combo than at the normal schedule. While I watch a Georgian soap opera without subtitles in my 'normal' schedule, I go for dubbed Kuxnya in Georgian with subtitles in English during post-schedule time.

[aabram]

For me it's a question of time as well. When I have enough time and something has sparked my interest, I hit the internet for basics and later to bookstore. But that's the joy of being an adult and all. Back in school we weren't asked if we have time or whether we want to learn two languages simultaneously. There were two foreign languages in curriculum and you had to pass. It was not very successful strategy for most people so many still formally passed but didn't really learn much but at least something stuck.

That being said while I still advance several languages in parallel and may think of adding a new one - which, in fact, I'll shortly be doing because I need to - there are exceptions though. I tried taking Mandarin and Korean at the same time and quickly ran dry. The mental cost of starting up with Korean while still struggling with basic Mandarin was just too much. It's way easier to sideload another language in which you can at least read from day one. That's almost like cheating, looking at page and reading what's written, even if with bad pronunciation.

[Via Diva]

I do that just when I want. The problem is that when you do things in that way, you also find it easier to stop studying. One thing though - I wouldn't really worry about the level of the other languages. My English was pretty messed up when I decided to study German, I did some formal studies in my university afterwards, but I'd say that I managed to improve English through learning German from English. I guess if I added any language and tried to study it from German, plus to describe my experience in German, it would work too.

[hp230]

Despite some opinions, I don't think the system of two foreign languages at schools damages the results, there are many much more important factors. People who learn one language well at school, usually learn them both.

In some countries a third foreign language is added as an option for students, and that's totally ok. Well-motivated students can excel in the three.
For me it's all about "how badly you want to add that language". I think adding a new language to your time table is like putting a new furniture in your room. Your room may seem to be totally full of staff, but in the end you'll make some space for it.
It's obvious that beeing well-organised is the most important thing in order achieve your goals. The same thing applies with languages. You don't need to neglect the other languages you're currently studying, you just have to make enough space for the new one(s).
It's like when someone wants to fix his body and get rid of some fats, for that he'll need to go to the gym or lose hours practicing sports etc.. After few weeks, he'll obviously check his body and ask himself: am I progressing?, how did this affect my life? Is there anything wrong about what I'm doing? what do I have to do more or less?
So, as it was mentioned in Serpent's article( which is very informative by the way), learning languages is a lifestyle, as it is for practicing sport, playing a music instrument, or doing any other activity.
In the end, as HTLAL'ers always say, learning languages is a marathon, and everyone of us has his own pace and stamina, you'll never now yours unless you try, and trust me you won't regret it. From a personal experience, I quit studying German after 2 months in high-school. (it was optional and I did't quit voluntary). 2 years later, I decided to go back where I stopped and regain the road, and after almost 1 year, I'm fully satisfied with the progress I've made. I struggled to make time and will to do it, but in the end, I did it. The road is still very long I Know, but every language learner should realise that, WHERE THERE IS A WILL,THERE IS A WAY. I may seem to fantasise the subject a little bit, however, that's what is keeping me learning languages, and not beeing afraid to go for new ones.

[aabram]

Awfully sorry for offtopic remark, I know, this was just an inspiring example not to be taken literally, but I have to get this straight.

It's like when someone wants to fix his body and get rid of some fats, for that he'll need to go to the gym or lose hours practicing sports etc..

There is important distinction. To lose weight you need to eat less, not necessarily excercise more. Important thing is to have negative calorific balance for a while. Excercise is just the part of solution and often an excuse to eat more. People usually grossly overestimate their calorie consumption in gym and understimate it when they eat. There are plenty of people who excercise, but don't lose weight and there are plenty of people who've lost loads of weight without excercising (yours truly included).

PS. Will we have offtopic/rant/random musings forum?

[Cavesa]

Yes, you can add third here as well but it is not a universally available choice in the educational main stream. There are learners of more languages than usual anywhere, I was just trying to demonstrate the difference compared to the anglophone world, where people take 0 or 1 foreign language at school as the standard.

I agree it is the most important part to find out how badly you want it. I should have learnt basics of Hungarian before travelling there, at least asking for directions and understanding answers... But most times, such a desire is wanderlust or rather an escape from reality. Most people dream like "if only I'd win a million euros", htlalers dream like "if only I knew ten more languages"