Learning Multiple Languages At The Same Time

Hi Donovan! I found your article really inspiring… thank you! I’d love to learn Scots Gaelic and French. It would be awesome to ask some questions of you in this journey! Cheers, Jodi

Hi Donovan! I found your article really inspiring… thank you! I’d love to learn Scots Gaelic and French. It would be awesome to ask some questions of you in this journey! Cheers, Jodi

People say it is tough but, I don’t think it is especially for a guy who loves other cultures and traveling. It depends on whether you can juggle different things at once and whether you have the discipline or not. With this in mind though, I think it would be better to study different languages and not similar languages at once. I.e don’t study spanish and Portugese until you reach some level of proficiency in either languages. I have tried it and it went side ways, since I was mixing up a lot. And then I began to study Korean and spanish: which was a unique and a better experience. And I have put portugese for some time in the future. I am learning this languages because of interest and love I have for the people and Culture.
It is better to study different languages than similar languages.

I’m trying to learn Arabic and Spanish. I can detect plenty of crossover between the two, which I assume is from the Islamic empire’s history in Southern Spain and North Africa.

To start with, I speak fluent English, Italian and Romanian and I’m currently learning German (started to learn it from scratch) and French. I studied French when I was in school 30 years or so ago and even if I speak just a little bit, I remember a lot of things. If I read something in French I’ll understand at least 60 - 70% from the text and this is because I’m not a beginner anymore and French it’s very close to Italian. So, I decided to brush up my French, because I have a very wide vocabulary, but it’s still hidden ;-) I’m studying French for one hour a day and the rest of my time is allocated to German, which I adore. So far so good. This is my approach regarding studying 2 languages at the same time: the primary language 80% of the time and French 20% EVERY DAY. I’m shocked of how easy I pick up French. As for German I make small steps forward, but I am very proud of myself. When I’m too tired, I at least listen or read something in both languages. Since it takes me like an hour to get and come back from work, I read my German phrasebook during my commute, so I cannot even invent any excuse ;-)
Thank you and good luck

I’ve always been bouncing around between different languages. My native language is English and I’ve been learning Arabic since I was a kid but only reading and writing, then got a bit conversational in Korean a few years ago. I dabbled a bit into Russian but it’s hard to remember the alphabet. And I’ve been off and on with ASL. I am nearly fluent in French, and getting into Spanish. I’ve always loved languages but unfortunately, those around me do not share my passion. I’d dedicate myself to learning more languages if I were in a more accommodating environment. YouTube helps though, but it’s not like a real person.

I am currently studying Japanese but will be traveling to Iceland in a a few months. I would like to practice some Icelandic while I am in the country. Is this a good idea? I am shy about practicing languages and I feel more comfortable experimenting with a less known language. Any thoughts or advice?

I’m currently living in Tajikistan. I’m mainly focused on Tajiki but recently started taking the other Persian dialects Farsi and Dari. I found this to be both helpful and motivating as there is much cross-pollination from my lessons. I’m also taking short intervals of Russian to better understand the locals here. They’ve incorporated a lot of Russian into their Tajiki

I have been learning Arabic for the past year or so and only today realised how far i have got when i looked at another website selling their advanced course in Arabic and myself thinking i’ve actually done that at beginner going on to intermediate level. For this academic year (Sept 2016 - June 2017) my goal is to sit the Arabic GCSE & A Level as well as the Persian GCSE & A Level and Latin GCSE. Though i had initially considered the idea of doing the Latin A Level as well as the above, i have had to reconsider for the simple reason that i want to sit the exams to pass and not have to resit any so i must realistically pace myself. Having done a lot of research into different learning methods and in consideration of how many hours of learning the exam boards suggest candidates must commit to per subject it is essential that i commit to memory alot of the rules of grammar and verb conjugations - so this will be my starting point with Persian and Latin. The examiners report gives a pretty good idea of what they are looking for, so for me this has been the starting point. I have started to download all past papers and examiner’s reports for GCSE & A Level Persian and Arabic and for GCSE Latin. I am using Evernote to compile all my online/internet based study materials and links and have purchased the relevant books which are either recommended by the exam boards or have reviews by students who have used them to achieve exam success.

All of the above is by far the easiest. the challenge lies in committing time and yes, YOU HAVE TO BE SELFISH not always when it comes to denying the needs of others but yourself as well when you’d rather be out and about than have your head buried in books or having to memorise verb tables. So for this reason i have written out my timetable and scoped an adequate time for work, study, family and resting.

Nice post Donovan. My favourite part is where you write it’s a good sign when a word from a foreign language appears when we struggle for a word in our new target language. Generally I’ve allowed some lapse of at least half a year between starting one language and then adding another one. This year I’m dabbling with both Finnish and Lithuanian simultaneously though.

Donovan, I only need English for work/travel and Spanish to speak with my family. My spouse is Macedonian so I picked up the language over a period of 12 years out of necessity (speak to the in-laws) with no particular course or method...just listen and repeat (very inefficient) only at at B1/2 after all that time...lol. I recently decided (New Years resolution 2016) to learn French (3 months into it) and Egyptian Arabic (3 months now) while continuing to improve my Macedonian (with a method this time). In all my research, you’re the only person (that I follow) who recommends dedicating blocks of time to a language instead of switching throughout the day. I normally dedicate blocks of time throughout the day because I have read that daily exposure is best. But, this is difficult and many times I felt like dropping a language because my time is limited. I wish I could dedicate time to only one language but I feel like I lost so much time over the years and want to make up for it now so not gonna do it. Studying languages is very rewarding but a daily struggle for time (motivation is not an issue). I will try your method/suggestion for a month (June 2016) of block study for a week per language and see how it works out. I personally think all methods work but some are better than others...gonna try it out, thanks for the article.

I am currently living in Tajikistan studying Tajiki. It would also be helpful for me both for work and living here in Central Asia to start learning Russian. However, I am more interested in adding Farsi or Dari. Would you suggest adding Russian first since the other two are too similar to Tajiki? I was also considering adding Farsi or Dari once my Tajiki is more solid.

Currently I’m learning a few languages at the same time (English, Romanian, Spanish and Latin). Three of them are compulsory for me since I study Romanian Philology at university, but soon I’m going to start studying in the UK, so I need English. And what are my thoughts on learning multiple languages at the same time... Well, I don’t mix them up (yet), but I do sometimes have problems with dividing my time properly. It’s getting even harder when I have the tests following tests and don’t know on which one I should focus first. Actually, I’m in such a situation now and doing my best not to freak out. :P
But despite disadenvtages, there are also adventages. I see a lot of similarities between them, common patterns and processes and even English is a Germanic language, and Romanian and Spanish Romance ones (not to mention Latin). The funny thing is I started comparing them unconsciously. When I see similarities, it’s easier to memorise words (Romanian and Spanish for example). But when I notice differences, through opposites, I appreciate their distinctiveness. :)
I have no idea where this way of learning will lead me, but I’m sure what won’t kill me, will make me stronger. :D
Greetings from Poland!

PS. I do like to read your posts. They inspire and I feel like I’m not the only language enthusiast. :)

Right now I speak Spanish fluently and I am currently studying in France. I’m at the B2 level but hope to better my French by the end of the semester. I have also taken two semesters of Brazilian Portuguese, which was very easy to pick up after learning Spanish and French. I’m trying to maintain my Spanish and Portuguese while I’m here, yet still trying to focus on French. I was going to take a break with learning languages to maintain/better the three that I’ve studied, but I saw the opportunity to take a beginner Korean class at the local university where I’m studying and I ended up giving into my temptation. Some people think it’s crazy that I’m learning another language while I’m abroad to better my French, but this class is taught in French. I’m not really sure if I made a mistake or not, but I really love the Korean class!

I enjoy learning languages myself and have dabbled in many over the years, but mostly to the extent of just learning the odd word here and there. Although my dad knows Spanish, I never took up the language fluently. Instead, my main focuses are Japanese and Esperanto. Japanese because I am a nerd since young, so I want to connect with people in those industries like manga, games, j-pop, etc.

For Esperanto, it’s mostly just for fun and to have another outlet through which to understand how a language different from my own (and a latin-influenced one to boot) works in comparison to English.

I am sort of goal-oriented so a language that I am not going to use in the real world is kind of pointless to me, which makes Esperanto somewhat ideal in this case because it was meant to be a universal language for international users. Otherwise, my only dealing with any other languages is purely for fun, like to say a random word that catches my ear.

Two languages is for wimps!!! I’m learning seven every day!!!

I’m just kidding, about the wimps. But not about the seven. My language goals are:
Hebrew - from advanced to a level of educated fluency - several hours a day covering all four language competencies
French - was once advanced, now rusty, so brushing up and would like to be advanced again - one hour a day mainly reading and listening, occasionally speaking and writing
Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, German - from beginner to being able to read, listen to music, etc, having a general idea of the language and being able to make connections between them: 3 min each of duolingo. As they are all IE languages, at the beginner stage it’s not that hard given their lexical overlap with each other and with English and French. If at some point I want to take any of them further, from just a few minutes a day I’ll already have some background. I want to add Russian and Turkish too once they are available on duolingo.

The only languages that are important to me to connect with the target communities are Hebrew and French. The other languages are really for passive enjoyment and for linguistic knowledge. For example there is an overlap between Swedish and Scottish vocabulary, and a claimed overlap between Scots and Yiddish. Hopefully I’ll get round to studying Scots and Yiddish one day too.

So back to the subject, I think it’s all about setting goals, which may be different for each language, and having a plan that includes periodic review to ensure long-term retention. And while it’s best to be consistent, sometimes life happens and you go off track. That is why I try to summarise what I’m learning for easy review.

Ah, a woman after my own heart! I too am practicing my German and Spanish daily and my Portuguese, Italian, and Swedish (along with French) near-daily on Duolingo and Clozemaster. The other language I’ve been trying to review at least a couple of times a week is American Sign Language, but that’s harder to do online; at least I have a good video dictionary.

Hello from Korea! I was about to start two languages at the same time now and found this. Cheers!

This is something I have recently started doing, every site advises against two languages which is why I am so curious and stumbled across your post.
I am learning Romanian and Esperanto, Romanian for personal reasons to communicate with my friends, and Esperanto because I have found a love for the language.

I am using this love for Esperanto as a carrot on a stick. I spend the morning and afternoon studying Romanian, and as long as I feel I have succeeded in learning that day, at least 80% of my new vocab, and I have not slacked off at all, then I am allowed to study Esperanto in the evening. If I “forgot” to do my Romanian, or have not remembered much at all, then I am not allowed to do any Esperanto.

I do wish to be fluent in both one day, but I am using the easier language I enjoy, to make sure I am slugging through the harder lol.

i think you have to ask yourself do i need language in the few years or future,,,, i speak chinese and learning german but i love spanish because of the popularity and soft tone,,,,, am learning german because i will need next few years for my doctorate degree in switzerland but i don’t know what the future will say to learn spanish ,,, please tell me something or an advice before i get myself fire,,,,,,

한국어 화이팅!

Very cool article, I’ve been bilingual all my life but am now trying to learn Russian , French and German. I must say I respect your dedication to learning the language of your heritage. Gaelic is a very beautiful language to hear when it is spoken. I hope more people in Ireland and Scotland begin studying it as well, revitalizing and upholding your culture is a sacred tradition. It inspires me to see that there are still people who maintain their distinction from the Anglo-Saxons and retain their own cultural values. Irish books and poetry are among the oldest and most important works of art in Europe after all.

So great to know Im not the only nutter who studies 2-3 languages at once!!! Yay!
I did Japanese for 3 years at highschool but that skill has been hibernating (although I still remember well the first two alphabets:).
So I studied Spanish as a major at university with French as the minor and German as an extra in the early 2000s.
I studied German during 2004/2005 alongside Russian (on my own) before I went overseas and got it to an intermediate level. Russian was very elementary then.
Then I went to Russia for two years in 2005 and 2007 and studied with a Russian teacher (I taught English and a bit of Spanish). ( I was in Spain in 2006).
I started Brazilian Portuguese in 2008 and have been dabbling at it on and off (my spanish helped) since.

I did very little language study for the two years after that. (I got married and had a child:)))

At the moment am reading Dan Brown in Spanish. Im not doing anything with my French but it definitely needs a push sometime in the near future. ( I have done the odd maintenance on it over the years so have not lost what I know).
Im also increasing my Russian by beginning to read unabridged books (thats all I do with it and write up vocab lists and watch movies - I already covered the grammar pretty much in Russia). I also started Arabic a couple of months ago and have almost got the alphabet down, And last week I started Hindi. My partner is Indian so theres a special motivation with Hindi.

I love the idea of learning two languages every two years! I am going to try it - although to be honest I really am studying three (not including my spanish which is really advanced).

How am I finding it?

My Russian does not get in the way of the other two (Arabic and Hindi) because it is so far ahead. I dont struggle with grammar anymore as I hit it hard for one year full blast ( while in Russia) studying no other languages at the same time. I get no word confusion with the other two.

Arabic script and Hindi script dont pose any problems either. I consider it no different to learning both hirigana and katakana and kanji - the three Japanese alphabets at the same time or in the same period of time.

I dont , however, like studying Italian (which I have dabbled at within the last 5 years) alongside Portuguese, since my Portuguese doesnt feel well cemented enough in my mind to not confuse it with my Italian - which is not total beginners but pretty weak.

So thats it. Hope you found that interesting and of use!

I am currently learning Croatian, Italian and Japanese (I know a bit of Chinese and German as well) and I am considering picking up Bengali as well.
I have found that if I don’t use a language for a few days it goes backwards ALOT (if you are not up to a certain stage with it).
I know the article writer is a linguist, but if anyone is learning more than one language, (or even one) spend time on each of them EVERY DAY, if only for 20 min or so. Make sure you break them up though. I found Croatian and italian to be a little confusing at times (As they are similar). Non similar languages like japanese/chinese to european languages are easy to cope with though. (Although I keep reading the japanese kanji as chinese characters which is slightly annoying.)
I will also soon add indonesian and brazilian portuguese (once I am fluent in italian - not far off yay! :) ) in the next few years.
Has anyone successfully learnt more than three languages at once? Many people I have talked to have never gone for a 4th language to learn at one time (Of course starting in different years. E.g. my languages are at university, I was already proficient at italian so last year I added Croatian, this year I added Japanese. (I studied in China over the summer holidays 2012/13 to learn a bit of chinese which I will continue once my japanese is good enough and then learn cantonese too...)

I am learning Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, Russian, and Arabic. I just started Hindi, Russian, and Arabic yesterday. I love languages and couldn’t choose one over the other. If for no other reason, I am learning them because I enjoy it.
I do have another reason though. I want to be connected with people all around the world. Hear their story and tell mine. We as a race should stick together and talk to others out of our country. These languages, including English, are the top 6 languages spoken in the world according to a few sources. That means that I will be able to conmunicate with a very large portion of people, which is what I truly want.

That\’s a big challenge you\’ve set yourself there. Good on you. :)

All the best!

I couldnt agree with you more! It is exactly how I feel about languages. It is such an adventure starting and going through the process of learning a new language. And then moving onto the media like books, films and TV shows. And the kick you get when you can ditch the subtitiles!

Hey Donovan!
How nice it was to find a polyglot who believes that learning two languages at the same time can be done! There is so much discouragement online among other multiple language speakers who warn that attempting more than one language will spell disastrous failure, especially if you dare to attempt two similar languages. It astounds me to hear them pooh-pooh the idea. I was studying spanish on my own for several years for personal reasons (my sister-in-law is Colombian). When I acquired a job two years ago that required me to learn some italian, I found that my spanish was invaluable. Even before I began to study the language, I could already understand a bit of what my italian colleagues were saying, and they could understand me as well. It has accelerated my study of italian, not hindered it. You are absolutely correct. Children from bilingual families commonly learn two languages the same time. If you are going to make mistakes as you learn (which we all do) then accidentally transferring one language word into another is hardly a crime! In fact, its a sign of progress. It means you have retained something, even if you do apply it incorrectly. Certainly, it does take time, a great deal of patience and determination, as does any skill you wish to acquire. I would never advise someone against learning two languages at once, if they really felt compelled to do it. Just because some polyglots dont have the temerity to do it, doesn’t mean that no one should. It has been done. Successfully. By people all over the world.

Hello Donovan,
just stumbled onto your blog minutes ago and the first thing I found was what I was looking for all this time. Great article,though intimidating at first. Everyone here seems to be on 5+ languages. I appreciate all the wonderful advice you’ve given us,they’re all really helpful. I am currently learning German (for work), Russian (for pleasure) and writing my thesis, so I would say my main problem would actually be, what you said in the beginning, TIME MANAGEMENT! Maybe I should take your example and view the thesis as and 8-hour days work, and the rest use for languages, a couple of day at a time each.
So, no questions here,just had to say,I happy to have found your blog.
Regards from Serbia

Great advice for most people, but shutting out the world doesn’t work well for parents, and even less so for single parents - we do not have much time to ourselves, and evening study time is often full of interruptions. However...

Rather than let this be discouraging, I have accepted that my progress will be slower than I would like, and I make sure to study at least a little every day. I have sought out language partners in my age group because they also usually have kids or are otherwise at similar places in their lives. It really helps to keep motivated when I’m doing language exchange with someone else who is also getting interrupted by family needs. We can be understanding and supportive of each other in this way and also encourage each other in our studies.

I have met all my language exchange partners on italki.com, and all my speaking practice is done via Skype, which I highly recommend for people like me who live in small towns with out a population of native speakers of their target language.

Hi Donovan,
I am sharing your point of view in learning more than one language at the time. Just focusing on the first one and then switching to the second one once one feels confortable enough to do that. Years ago I have been learning Swedish, Danish and Norwegian together; it worked very good, even though I concentrated on Swedish. I believe that it woks better if one’s learning to languages of two different genetic branches (Korean and Spanish, Mongolian and Dutch...); the risks to mix them up reduce considerably.
I am going deeper into Korean..it works, but the fact of not having many opportunities to speak it makes the efforts of learning it harder and harder.... Keep in touch!
Raffaele

This is just the article I needed to read! I am currently working on two languages and I was beginning to wonder if I was crazy for doing so. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one and that someone else thinks it is manageable to do!

Donovan - Fair play for taking on the Gaeilge! I’m going back to it soon, after a break of forty years myself. I did it in National school and three years of secondary to 1972 for my Inter Cert exam and that was the end of it. In those days we associated it with the church and the old conservatives. It just wasn’t cool back then.
I’ve learned a few languages since then and find myself feeling sad that I don’t speak my own native tongue, so I’m planning on taking it up as an extra subject when I go to university this year.
The key to a people’s psyche is in their language, and you will understand the Irish at a much deeper level than any other visitors, and in some ways you will get a sense of what we are that some of us who have lost it don’t even get any more. It’s not so much what you will say or hear in the language, although I’m sure that will be a wonderful experience, but what you will sense about what lies beneath that distinctive English we speak, and the glimpse you’ll get into what we really mean. I probably don’t sound like I’m making too much sense, but that’s probably because I’m an Irishman, speaking English. Adh mor ort! Sorry, not very computer savvy- don’t know how to put fada’s/ accents, etc! Good Luck.

I think there are hidden strengths to learning several new languages together, although I understand peoples reluctance. I haven’t used this strategy to a great degree but found a strange sense of my language muscles limbering up nicely while staying in a Mayan village and making lists of vocabulary and basic phrases in Yucatec Maya through Spanish. I had a similar experience with learning very basic Romanian occasionally during a period of learning Hungarian. I would like to try this strategy while learning two languages properly. Keeping them in separate chunks is certainly a good idea but I feel that switching to a different language without just returning to your native tongue is a great workout.

I’ve tried this before and basically came to the conclusion of “forget it”. It’s not realistically do-able unless you’ve got not only good time management skills but also a lot of spare time in which to manage :)

Cheers,
Andrew

This will be my life in September. As an American who is living in The Netherlands, I am required to do what is called Inburgering. Which means that starting in June, I will be taking 9 hours of Dutch classes, every week, for a year and a half. I’ll be going back to University here in September and Spanish is required for my degree.

Hey Kaitlin.

Sounds intense!
Best of luck with your Dutch and Spanish. You must be loving life in the Netherlands :)

An interesting topic to be sure. I definitely agree that learning multiple languages at once is possible.

A related topic, which I’ve not seen discussed much, is learning another language in a foreign language you already know, or are in the process of learning. This must be a common task for ESL speakers who learn other languages with English tools.

For me it was a daunting task starting Quechua classes completely in Spanish w/ Spanish/Quechua materials when my level of Spanish is only B1 or B2. If nothing else, my Spanish has improved immensely.

Best of luck with the Korean.. looks like in only a few days you learned the alphabet, quite an achievement :)

I am learning German,Mandarin and will start Spanish this week. I was really only going for German ( my mom speaks it) , but now we are adopting children who speak Spanish only, and I have fallen in love with Mandarin. I am a language fanatic,and love the challenge. Hardest thing though would be 1: not reverting back to English with my family and 2:, It is very hard to find immersion places in my town outside of Rosetta Stone in my study ! And I worry of it’s all too much. But, I love what you said about it being a skill.

Thanks.

Sounds like a fun challenge! Luckily you’ve got people there to practice with each day.

BTW is that your real name? :)

I’ve been studying two languages this year - Turkish and Georgian. Well, actually three for the next six weeks because I’m taking on Piedmontese for HTLAL’s 6 week challenge.

They’re at very different levels, though, so I’ve not seen a problem with any of them, other than Georgian going very slowly and I tend to get impatient with it. But that’s the nature of the beast. Turkish is steady-as-she-goes and gets the most exposure, by far.

Honestly, Piedmontese has been a real joy. Because of my background, it’s been the most relaxing language activity I think I’ve ever done, speaking aside. It’s a good place to fall back to when I get frustrated with Georgian.

R.
==

G’day, Rick.

Piedmontese is an interesting choice. Any particular reason why you wanted to learn it? Did you find good material?

I have a love-hate relationship with Georgian. Absolutely love the beauty and uniqueness of it but hate how difficult it is. Even living in the country with private lessons I struggled with it more than any other language. I’m going to maintain it until I get some more time to devote to it.

I’m currently doing an experiment with my language studies. I LOVE the Turkish language and I greatly look forward to speaking it fluently. However, I don’t have anyone to practice with really and I wish that I had something other than youtube videos for listening practice. But hey, I have to make do for now. Anyway, in my experiment I’m trying to learn some Brazilian Portuguese (hopefully to a B1 level by August). I live in Orlando, Florida of the U.S. and there is a very large Brazilian population here and I am looking for more work. I figure that learning some Brazilian Portuguese could potentially increase my prospects of finding work. I speak Spanish (C2) and luckily I don’t have to worry about grammatical aspects too much which is nice.

I can conclude so far that Brazilian Portuguese is by far the most difficult language I’ve looked at (well, maybe aside from Northern Sami) because I AM NOT PASSIONATE ABOUT THE LANGUAGE and therefore don’t feel as motivated to learn it. I’m now back to Turkish full time but still want to see if I can work on some Portuguese pronunciation (which sounds like coastal Spanish with a strange vocabulary, a lot of lazy and nasal pronunciation) and vocabulary now and again.

To me it all comes down to need and passion.

It’s tough not having people to speak to. I’m craving for more opportunities to speak Irish with native speakers.

How’s your Turkish coming along anyway? Do you feel like you’re making plenty of progress?

Go to conversationexchange.com There are ENDLESS amounts of Turkish people that want to practice English in exchange for Turkish. No joke, I feel like a hot girl on a dating website. You will get emails every day from people wanting to practice.