Hello all, I’m looking for some advice and was wondering if there are any language learners out there who could help me
I have just returned from a
French language course in France, a final part of my degree which has consolidated all what I learnt and left me more or less fluent. It has fired my passion for language learning so much so that I am not only considering languages as a career but also considering learning another language. But this is what worries me, I don’t know whether it really is a good idea or not. I certainly don’t want to lose my French level! Considering one of my main interests is Italy, I thought about learning Italian - but slowly and steadily, whilst keeping up the French too. For this I was considering taking a which would basically be going to an Italian school but in a French speaking city. So though the main focus on my language learning trip would be Italian (given that it is the new, target language), I would be mixing with French people (and so practising French) outside of class hours. Furthermore, I was considering giving to French (or Italian!) speaking people as a way to earn money and a way to meet and mix with people.
What worries me is that the two languages are relatively similar and so I don’t know if this would be a help or a hindrance
If anyone has experience of learning two languages simultaneously, please do let me know how you manage and differentiate between the two! I’d hate to try for both and end up with none!
Reply to this Hello Agnes 😊
I learned Spanish and German for a while at school.
I am not good with languages so still dont speak either of them well.
For a person who is more talanted in this direction than I am, I think Spanish and German are a good two to learn simulataneously because they are not similiar. Makes for less confusion.
Mel
Reply to this I was doing Japanese and Spanish at the same time, with Japanese ability about a year ahead of Spanish at the time.
The way my schedule was I would run from a business Japanese class directly to a Spanish class, and a few times when asked a question in Spanish I answered in Japanese :-)
Generally from the experience of doing 2 foreign languages I found having done one helped the other by broadening your thinking, if that makes sense.
If you're living in France I doubt you'll lose the language, and given you're fluent you're less likely to mix them up.
Reply to this Aishia, if your level in one of the two foreign languages is high enough you shouldn't have any problem at all. Confusion arises when both languages are studied at beginner/lower intermediate level. Also, you might have done some mixing up in case you were going to live in the country which language you are less proficient in, Italy in this case, but if you are fluent in french, learning italian while living in France is gonna be no extra work than doing it while staying in your home country.
Marco
Reply to this Good day everyone!
Thanks for all your answers and for all your advice. I'm very glad to be part on this site. Thanks and regards to everyone.
Reply to this I took on both Russian and Chinese this year, at the beginner's level. As it turned out, I've come quite far in Chinese but still struggle with Russian. More specifically, picking up the vocabulary is where I had the most problems. Ironically I know more about Russian grammar than how to simply say "hello". I think this can mainly be attributed to the way the classes were taught, as the Chinese classes were highly interactive while Russian was taught in more of a self-study fashion. As long as you have a good way of learning while at the same time keeping your French a bit up to date it shouldn't really be a problem for you. Of course there will be some mix ups from time to time, but at the same time you will also get valuable clues for learning since the languages have a lot in common. It'll come in handy when you decide to pick up Russian too; as there are surprisingly many words borrowed from French. 😊
Reply to this Good day JOhan!
Thanks for your reply and sharing your experience in learning more than two languages.
See yah later.
Reply to this Spanish, my native language, italian and a little english! :P
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