At the beginner stage in a new language we feel satisfaction from obvious progress. This fades as we discover how much remains. At that time, it's sometimes beneficial to do two languages at the same time. FREE Language Learning Resources 10 Secrets of Language Learning ⇢ www.thelinguist.com LingQ Grammar Guides ⇢ www.lingq.com/en/grammar-resource/ My blog ⇢ blog.thelinguist.com/ The LingQ blog ⇢ www.lingq.com/blog/ My Podcast ⇢ soundcloud.com/lingostevepodcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/learn-languages-with-steve-kaufmann/id1437851870 --- Social Media Instagram ⇢ instagram.com/lingosteve_/ TikTok ⇢ www.tiktok.com/@lingosteve Facebook ⇢ facebook.com/lingosteve Twitter ⇢ twitter.com/lingosteve LingQ Discord ⇢ discord.gg/ShPTjyhwTN
I’ve been learning Japanese for 2 years, when last March, I really felt stuck. That was when I, out of nowhere, decided to pick up French again (which I had in school years ago; I was really bad). So I did that for a month, completely ignoring Japanese and the amazing part is, when I returned to Japanese I felt like I improved massively… just by doing nothing and letting my subconscious sort some things out.
Maybe this was because you were feeling really stressed before you stopped. Or could be like you said, your subconscious was working while you were taking a break.
Steve has actually mentioned this phenomenon recently. You push yourself hard in a language. Then maybe hit a road block and back away for awhile. Then try a different language. The first language suddenly seems easier. Noticing it in my Spanish when I started moving over to Mandarin Chinese.
This happend to me with german. My native language is American(californian) english and Mexican Spanish. So i learned German and got stuck at B2 and could not progress at all. My brain was fried. I switched to Italian and Russian, swept through Russian in 4 months and Italian was pretty much a 90% given, I was watching a German show on Netflix and suddenly I could understand like 60% of what was being said and that was much better than when i was studying it and felt like 30% comprehension. It's like all the parts i was stuck in , suddenly came. Maybe it was hearing a certain word and watching the sub clicked the part i was missing and unlcocked the rest. But yeah, i agree taking a break really lets your brain absorb. This exists in muscle weight training too, sometimes your will make gains but you will not see them. On paper you did everything correctly and should be seeing but you dont. Then your body gets exhausted , and then you stop for like 3-4 months. Then you return to the gym and work out for like 2 weeks and suddenly you see the gains that you were not seeing a few months ago. Sometimes it take the body muscles time to adjust to the new gains, same w/ brain muscle.
I’m pretty much in the same boat. I’ve been trying to figure and watching anime for about two years during covid time. It felt like all failed. However i stopped for a while and switched to french. I looked at japanese and it was like it was a bit easier like my subconscious needed time to process it
I totally agree. I have been learning Thai for 1 1/2 years at home and it was getting a little boring, so I picked up Russian 8 months ago ( again, learning at home) and I now switch back and forth during the week and feel the enjoyment coming back into learning Thai. You have to like Mr. Kaufmann said, get past the initial 3- 6 - 12 months with your first language, and probably better if the languages are not too similar as may get confusing. But if you tell someone that you are learning 2 languages at the same time- expect to get some weird looks.
My native language is spanish. I'm learning russian language now, though I'm studying from english to russian, so I'm studying both languages at the same time
Russian grammar is very similar to Spanish.And English vocabulary is similar to Spanish vocabulary. Great job! Good luck. I'm learning English,Spanish and Russian. I'm Uzbek.
I think it depends on goals. If you want to really advance quickly or reach a high level of fluency faster, it’s better to focus on just one (especially if you’re short on time). But I guess if there’s no rush, you have a lot of time, or you REALLY want to learn 2 at the same time and don’t want to choose between them, it’s not bad to do two at once. I hear of people focusing on 2+ and that sounds hard to me, but my main focus now is slowly improving my high level Spanish (which happens almost passively because of my day to day life and work situation) while really trying to progress on Russian as quickly as possible (which has turned out to be VERY difficult for me, haha). Since Russian has been so challenging, I’ve been tabling the other languages that interest me until I reach a decent level of “fluency” (as I define it)
Nice - have been working on my Russian for last 2y (still not high level, but somewhere in intermediate range), about to add in Spanish back in next few months.
i've been learning Japanese and Chinese at the same time.. its honestly fun. My brain functions like that. I tried the one focus method w/ German and it went horrible, it was about 1 year and brain was fried. I can still read and understand the message but can't speak it. But w/ Chinese and Japanese, its so fun, if i get stuck on japanese, can switch to mandarin and then go into japanese.. also it helps learning variants or dialects. But overall if you enjoy a language, you will speed through it, if you cant immerse yourself into the other culture you will struggle. I speak Spanish and French should be easy , but it wasn't i can sort of read it but French is not an enjoyable langauge so i easily quit it within 2 weeks. I think Japanese and Russian for me has been way easier than French. Had i done the 1 method, i would have not figured this out sooner.
Bro I’ve been studying day and night on French for the past almost 2 months and can honestly say I know some much it’s unbelievable. I give all the credit to learning Spanish cause trying to learn Spanish taught me how I should study to study another language and also Spanish and English basically make up a lot of French, but now I will focus on Portuguese maybe in the next 6 months
I’m seriously studying Spanish right now while also dabbling in Norwegian and Japanese to challenge myself and keep it fun. That way once I’m at a level I want to be with Spanish and I move on to the other two I’ll have a head start 🇪🇸 🇳🇴 🇯🇵
@@Caine61 yo realmente aprecio el esfuerzo de la gente en aprender mi idioma se que lo lograras es difícil a veces pero don't quite you will be proud of yourself in the future
I'm learning french and at the same time trying to improve my skills in english, it's weird because he said before, when you learn 2 langueges at the same time, you learn less than when you pay attention just for 1. So, I get it, but I will try to made a strategie to not get into a stagnating process of learn.
j’apprends le français maintenant j’étudie aussi une langue obscure du comté de cornwall, appelée "cornish"la langue "cornouaillaise" a besoin de gens pour l’apprendre et étant donné que c’est une langue basée au Royaume-Uni. je veux vraiment la maîtriser. Je crois qu’il est difficile d’étudier simultanément les deux langues.
Es agradable escucharle con frecuencia :) se siente un ambiente de comunidad y soporte ¡Muchas gracias por compartir continuamente! Es lindo escuchar que otros pasan por lo mismo y leer los comentarios siempre me da mucha esperanza y ánimo de seguir
Yes. I'm a total beginner in arabic (which is a difficult language for me) and I'm missing that excitement in understanding things/ improve quickly that I cannot yet reach in arabic. So I decided to also start studying french (knowing other 3 romance languages gives me a nice head start) to have that feeling of reward, dopamin rush, whatever.... While continuing learning arabic slowly without feeling bad for not learn fast.
I started studying Hebrew three months ago after having spent the previous two years learning Russian. My Russian is by no means perfect, but being quite advanced now in Russian, I continue studying both languages in parallel quite comfortably.
It's exactly what I've trying learning french, meanwhile improve my english skills, you would have some delay on the first one that you're better, but you can adapt into it.
Off topic: have you ever considered doing a bookshelf tour and showing us all the books you have? I look at the bookshelves behind you and I'd like to know more about the book you used for learning languages or simply the ones you read...
Currently learning both Japanese and Korean. Both have similarities in sentence patterns, grammar and some vocabulary. I think that, learning 2 languages at once is managing the time for both languages, in which I did in my Boarding School, 2 weeks for English and 2 Weeks for Arabic.
My experience is that once I learn a language, then starting a new language means I'm now learning 2 languages, because otherwise, I'm going to start losing the language I've already learned. To be specific, I currently speak native English, B2 German, and A2 Spanish. So I'm primarily focusing on Spanish, but I have to do a few lessons in German every week. This not only maintains my German, but also gives me the rewards of being fairly fluent in a non-native language, while I continue learning Spanish. Eventually, I'll be engaging in German and Spanish every week, while learning French.
@@dbdgrumpy1521 I'm in California. At present, I'm USING only English. A friend and I sometimes converse in German when we go bicycling. We're both at B2. I'm also currently going through a batch of new German stories in Duolingo. I email a German friend in German. He replies in German. (His English is C2.) I'm working on finishing the Spanish tree in Duolingo. I had planned to do some hiking and bicycling in Europe in 2020, but the covid pandemic nixed that. I wish I were doing more, and I would, if I weren't pursuing so many other activities.
@@alwaysuseless fascinating. I live in utah and really want to learn German. Right now I know a couple phrases and and probably around 270 words. But my listening skills are actually very good. I’m thinking about going to take courses for it but I’m still undecided. Good luck with your language studies and hopefully one day you’ll be able to hike and bike Europe.
@@dbdgrumpy1521 A few years ago, I was taking a Spanish class in Costa Rica with 2 other students. Luckily for me, the instructor noticed right away that my understanding of the grammar was way ahead of the other 2 students, and their vocabularies were way ahead of mine. So the school split the class into two. I stayed with that instructor 1-on-1, and the other 2 got another instructor. I returned home "fluent" in Spanish (confident in speaking, even if I made mistakes or didn't know a word). Then I stupidly didn't seek out anyone to converse with in Spanish. Long story short, I don't recommend classes. Maybe a class would work for you, but polyglots learn on their own and with 1-on-1.
Me encantan tus videos y en especial este, ya que estoy retomando mis estudios del idioma arabe y me gustaria empezar a estudiar farsi. Mi gran motivacion es mi familia politica egipcia con la cual me quiero comunicar.
I totally agree with you Steve. I’m studying Korean and Italian right now but I initially studied each language separately/passively for about 6 months then there was a period that I did three months of dedicated (A) lang. then (B). But this coming month I’m going to be studying both together. I know it’ll take longer to become fluent in one but I’m really enjoying both and the option to take a break from one and study the other. I’m also super interested on how the Egyptian Arabic studying goes for you. That’s some thing I’d thought about learning in the future.
Today I’m on my 59th day of this challenge (in 🇩🇪 ) and this challenge has been teaching me so much about discipline than anything else. It’s not easy, but it’s worthy. Thank you ☺️
I just want to share my experience. At my college (Foreign Languages degree) it's mandatory to pick 2 languages at once. We can choose our native tongue to be one of them but many choose 2 foreign. I decided to choose English and Greek. English was familiar to me but have a hard time with it in college. Greek was also familiar but I had an easier time with it, because I knew the basics well. Nevertheless, it's a roller-coaster. If today I'm doing literature in English, tomorrow is language practice in Greek!
thats really interesting. I too wanted to start with the second foreign langauge. I am learning German but after a point, I lose the motivation to practice it. I feel if I pick up another language, that would make it more fun to keep the flow of practice going. I am thinking of picking up Spanish. Thanks for your comment. :)
@@iezioaudi22 losing motivation is a natural thing in language learning (and not only there). Maybe it would be beneficial to know and remind your reasons why you want to learn German or Spanish. But also remember that discipline will advance you most of the time. Small, incremental progress each day. Good luck!
@@alexandra.v Thanks for your reply :) Yes you are right about reminding myself of the reasons, I too felt its more of matter of consistency than of doing alot in a day! For me its fun to practice 2 langauges simultaneously , if I get bored in one, I pick up the another haha! Btw Did you finish your degree though?
@ashutoshtripathi3817 Oh, if this is fun for you, go for it! I quite struggle with consistency, I hope it's not the case for you. Yes, I finished my degree.
You can not imagine the amount of happiness I feel about this discovery! I've been feeling a mix of emotions for being different because I couldn't find people like me! I felt home finding you and reading the comments. I am from Brazil so I speak Portuguese, I've been learning English for quite some time now and when English became boring I started taking Spanish classes and then it started becoming dull and I started French. Well, now I've been learning Japanese and Russian, ❤loving the process and enjoying your video. Thanks! 🙏🤛
@@anastasia6407 Hi Anastasia! Finding people who enjoy learning languages tgis way! Someone who dedicates their time to learning other cultures! The first thing I hear when I say I like being able to communicate is that it must be really easy for me to speak other languages as if it is something granted. But it is a long And hardworking process Sometimes people say : "it's her thing!", but everyone can speak another language if they are really into it! After some time, We start enjoying the process of learning so much that We always want to kick it off again. That's the beauty of it! Never ready And constantly getting better! Thanks for commenting!
I tried to learn more than one language at the same time, but I found myself stretched thin and taking forever to reach my goals. After taking one language at a time, I started cruising with little to no difficulty.
You've mentioned a thing that's important for me. I'm learning french, and I'm beginner in french, but at the same time I still learn english, and I felt like some improvents that I made was put in a passive way so I'm worried about get into french and put more vocabulary in the passive mind, which was what happens when I begin to study french. My idea was to use the english material to learn french, which works quiet bit, but at the, you really need to immerse ourselfs into the language to make sure that you have some kind knowledge of the idiom. What I really find interesting about it, is that I can undertand most of the french because I have many words in my vocabulary that is similar with the french, so I will keep trying to improve my english and learn french at the same time.
Thanks, I was looking for some direction with this issue. I'm study Korean for a while and I'm stuck on this platoon where I can understand what I listen, I understand the vocabulary, the reading and writing is okay, but I can't speak properly, so I decided to start German to challenge myself while I looking for some tutor , or a friend to have small conversations in Korean. Thanks for the advice. 😁
Loved the video, Steve! Could you make another video on how to immerse yourself in learning a language? It’s be much appreciated. Thanks and always take care. ❤️
I'm doing two langauges right now, I keep Spanish as my main one and do quite a bit of french on the side and have almost completely put off German for now, instead of doing all 3 equally. This way my spanish is getting better conversationally pretty quickly since it's the easiest one. I'll maybe change up the priorities in the future who knows.
Hey. thanks for the tips. I'm a native persian speaker and right now i'm learning swedish but my english is still intermediate so I thought I can improve my english while learning svenska. I hope it works. Your video made me feel better and I think I can keep doing it :) my next goal is Japanese and maybe spanish afterward.
Steve can you do a video on learning two languages at the same time that are similar (Arabic/Persian) (Japanese/Korean) and the difference compared to learning languages that are different (French/Chinese) (Spanish/Russian) and mainly how you would go about learning in each situation? I think it would help not just me but anyone whose trying to learn more than one language.
@@yasmine8041 how's it going now? Personally, I speak Spanish and started French a few years ago (I'm now intermediate) and I think mixing vocab from two very simmilar languages is a part of it, even if you start them at different times. Once my French became more "solid" in my brain, when it kinda sunk in, the mixing stopped or at least became less frequent. It's like if your brain needed to build a "new language compartment" so, while you build it, the words are just kinda hanging around with the other languages you already know haha
Totally agree. I’d say get to at least a lower intermediate level in one language before you start the next one, since that steep hockey stick part is more draining, and if you were doing two by at a time you might get burnt out. Also, when you get to a lower intermediate level I feel like you can get more out of passive immersion like watching TV or being around people who speak the language which can help you learn without studying so you have more energy for the other language
My mother tongue is Arabic and now Im studying English and korean at the same time my level in English is advanced I mean I know the basics of the language but I'm confused because I dont know how to balance between both of them but I have fun especially with korean .
Just a thought, add the lingq dictionary for language 2. So when you click on new words (in my case spanish) in linq you see your native language (english) translation and the other language (e.g portuguese).
What do you think about learning language B using language A? I would say I'm intermediate in Spanish. I still struggle speaking at times, but I can read and understand it well. Initially, I started learning Spanish in English as that's my native language, but now I'm at a level where I can learn Spanish in Spanish. So what do you think about reading, watching, and listening to material in Spanish that is teaching my language B?
Bro, that's what you have to do. You have much more progress when you immerse yourself with a native teacher, so I find it really better than you use your native languange to learn other languange.
By following your method you will increase the time with both foreign languages you are working on, so you will see improvements through exposure and problem solving. But since you are not a proficient speaker of the first foreign language, the smaller vocabulary will slow down the progress. I'd recommend you try it for a week and judge for yourself which alternative is more beneficial for your personal goals. It may work for you or it may not, or perhaps it will work for you a year from now, when your abilities have improved. It's good to experiment.
@@noname_whatsoever I may not be a proficient speaker, but since I'll be mostly listening and reading, which I'm very good at, it shouldn't really be an issue. My Colombian friend reckons I'm fluent in Spanish since we only ever communicate in Spanish and have had many conversations. Although I wouldn't consider myself fluent, she has made me realise that I'm probably better than I give myself credit for.
I went to grammar school (in Austria) which specialises on languages. I had Latin for 6 years, 4 years of French and 3 years of Spanish. So, the last 3 years of school I had all three languages at once. I went down this route because I've been thinking to myself that I am a studious person and also, I just loved the whole thing about learning languages. But it was a big disappointment for me when it didn't go the way as I thought. I just really sucked at getting information into my brain and remembering. That was very discouraging since I would always try my best to learn but my brain didn't play it's part so I sort of gave up on that and was always behind in class - never understood what teachers were trying to tell me (especially the French one). With this comprehension weakness of mine I came to the conclusion that I am just not cut out for learning languages. After school I took a gap year and went to Spain and took an intensive Spanish course for 3 months (since I just loved languages and wanted to retry - I went to the Colegio de España in Salamanca and can only recommend it). This time around it was way better! It's most likely because I was totally immersed in the language and that was the only thing I focused on (unlike when I was at school-). Now I have to see to it that I practise regularly so that I don't end up "loosing" it. Knowing that I am actually capable of learning languages I got so motivated that I have a whole bucket list of languages. I want to relearn French (but learn it in Spanish so that I still have more Spanish around me - treat it like my native language) and I want to pick up Latin again. During school I have also tried learning Japanese on my own but that failed miserably because I didn't pull through with regular study sessions because of my lack of discipline and motivation. So I am wondering how all of this will look in a few years. Will I have actually reached the level of fluency in Spanish? What's with French and Japanese? Did I actually do Latin again?
I've been learning English For over a year now and I'm at the intermediate stage. I stopped feeling progress at all maybe because most of the time I'm learning passively. Anyway, out of nowhere I started getting interested in learning Korean. Now I'm learning English and Korean. A bit hard to keep up with now 2 language when I was already having a hard time with English. Korean pronunciation especially gets me but I look forward to learn them and hope to achieve my goal.
I don’t know if this is a good idea but I have 3 semesters worth of experience with French so I’m somewhat familiar with vocabulary, expressions, numbers etc. My goal is to be conversational level to where I don’t have to always think about what to say. However, I also really want to learn Japanese as well and I’m very new to it so I’d like to study both at the same time since it’s my dream to visit both places. So I plan on polishing my French for 3 months and then for introducing and consuming and learning Japanese for 3 months and thus repeating the 3 month learning cycle.
I can say with 100% certainty that LingQ is quickly helping me with Portuguese. I've been learning for about a year and 8 months (my first language I've tried learning) by myself, I might add. And a lot of this time was/is learning what's good for me (in terms of how to learn). For instance if I started another language now.. lets say Italian. I'd have an idea of how to learn faster and better. But I'm still not even on the shaft of the hockey stick. But LingQ is helping sooo much. I love being able to see progress.. in 1 month I'm at 3,000 known words, with many lingQs. Roughly going up 110 known words minimum a day in 1-2 hours of working at it throughout the day. Really trying hard to focus on my listening comprehension because it's very lack luster. Glad I discovered LingQ and can learn in a fun way 😊. It's not just forcing myself to do this or that, I'm actually ENJOYING the process now.
@@innw2303sorry I never got this notification . But here I am over a year later responding lol. Yes, I am learning Brazilian Portuguese. Or I was.. now I'm learning European Portuguese. Not on purpose, it's just that the series I'm reading is translated into European so I got no choice lol. But I'm learning Brazilian Portuguese on purpose.. I just started Italian and I think I will try Spanish also. Doing 3 at the same time tho. Idk 😅
I'm working on my Chinese but I'm also in my fifth year of Spanish at school and I legitimately forgot how to say "horse" in Spanish the other day and my brain went to French and Chinese before I overheard someone say caballo.
My personal experience in dutch "grammar school" (=VWO) says there is nothing wrong with learning 3 or 4 languages simultaneously - if you have the time and good teachers. Having access to movies/TV-series in English and German with great dutch subtitles helped a lot. I probably would have enjoyed it even more if I had had some *Esperanto* first, instead of phrase-analysis. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaedeutic_value_of_Esperanto
Im studying Latin at the moment but in my heart i also want to learn Japanese and Russian. But i also said to myself that Russian is out in my list for now as it was time consuming as i also have real life obligations. I just don't know how to time manage to these languages. Also sometimes my body is exhausted at work so i sometimes skip self studying. Hopefully this will help so i can acquire my 3rd and 4th Language.
I think how many languages you learn at a time has more to do with how you can manage your time and how much time you want to put into studying. I am currently learning Mandarin, Russian, and Mongolian while working on my Master's degree so time management is necessary.
Time and energy. The more effort you put into these activities, the less energy you have to do other things, even when you have time. It feels like your willpower is being drained.
@@paulocmsantos YES!!!!! I don't know if I'm the only one but often sitting down and spending time learning languages recharges my batteries when I'm feeling drained from other activities. I don't know if it is because I am an introvert or because languages make me happy and I'm a weirdo. But there are times when I have so much going on I don't even want to think about using my brain for anything.
4:56 "donde todos, confiados en la venta para, para la navegación." ??? ¿Eso lo ha hecho el traductor automático? Yo pensaba que los traducían personas.
I'm currently studying 4 languages but to be fair two of them I have intermediate proficiency(I was studying them non-simultaneously before) and the other two are absolute beginner(just light studying them for fun). I think it just depends on the individual and their current circumstances. I just alternate languages between days(immersion in only specific language for the entire day). I would have to disagree on your point about the tutor. Talking with tutors who are native speakers or just native speakers in general in the early stages of language learning(no matter how awkward and humiliating) will get your accustom to the language(specifically it's phonetics) a lot faster. Furthermore, they can better assist in correcting mistakes a lot of beginners make.
Always to the point at first, hahaha. Learn two languanges at once? Wow challenging so much for me. Greatest learner in the world is you, you, you. Mr. Kaumfirman! the greatest learner is you, you, is you🎶 The orginal song: The secret to the formula is you.( Spongebob movie sponge on the run)😊
What would you recommend for those studying an endangered language where tutors aren’t easily available or aren’t around at all? I imagine maximizing input and pushing one’s self analysis would help; but the lack of a native or fluent speaker’s input makes the task incredibly daunting.
I'm learning Māori the native language of New Zealand. Only about 3% of the NZ population speak the language at a fluent level. Over the last 3 1/2 years I've improved to a B2 level in the language. One thing that helped me a lot over that time was to find listening and reading resources. In regards to practicing speaking, I'm lucky that I work with other fluent speakers, and I also have a familly member who's at an intermediate level in the language. If I didn't, I would probably have to find & join community 'meet ups' to interact with others in the language.
Hi Steve, I came to this video to hear your tips about learning two languages at the same time, because I want to pick my German back up after not using it for the last 5 years while I have been studying Italian. Now that I'm fluent in Italian, I think it's a safe time to add some German into my language routine. But now you've made me curious about your experience learning Farsi. I made Iranian friends while studying in Italy, and I really want to learn Farsi, but it seems so difficult without the right materials. I've tried to search for them but wasn't sure where to start in terms of books, audio programs, etc. Do you have a video in which you talk about the resources you use for Farsi? As a self-learner I appreciate this advice!
I started learning English years ago and stopped studying at some point, im trying to keep it alive by reading books and watching movies in English. However i recently started learning French just for fun and realized that learning languages are my true passion therefore i want to learn German as well but im afraid it might influence my vocubulary in French and English in a negative way. I already started mixing up some words in French and German. Also, i'll start to university soon. My major will be either medicine or dentistry and these are both tough majors. I do not know how i'll manage to learn 2 languages actively at the same time while studying in a difficult faculty. Maybe I should just postpone German until I become B2 level in French. Any advices?
A big thank you for sharing this pricesless infromation Steve. I have got one question which how do polyglots practise the langauges that they now?? for exampl, I know 5 langauges fluently but I still have problem practising them in order to not decrease my fluency level.
Hi, Steve ! I´m Armando from Spain, I have a medium level of English and I have been thinking about starting to study German. Do you think it is a good idea? Thankss
I speak German and English and I guess that learning German is a good idea as both languages are very similar. I recommend you to focuse on German while being passive in English like watch Movies in English, hear podcasts... I did the same with English and Turkish, now Im fluent in English and medium in Turkish and French.
Great advice. I'm improving my Russian skills and have started learning Ancient Greek. They're pretty dissimilar but I feel motivated knowing it's possible. Just wish there were more shows in Ancient Greek...
@stevekaufmann How do I avoid words "leaking" from one language to another. Especially when these languages are quite equal. For example I found myself speaking Spanish, using the word insieme (Italian) instead of guntos (Spanish) for together.
As a language tutor (and a long time language learner) I agree that teachers (especially tutors) are much more useful at a second stage of learning. A good thing would be to have a good video course for the basics, especially for correct pronunciation and those languages with a different script and for those learners who are not used to self teaching and then continue practicing with a tutor once the basics are assimilated. As for 2 languages together, I have tried only with sister languages and with one at an advanced level. But your strategy is also good, I do this with everything. I keep searching new inspiration by switching between a few activities
Coming from a more or less bilingual family, I've been wondering whether an adult can acquire two languages at the same time just like a child in a bilingual family. I think it's possible, but you need to have regular comprehensible input in both languages.
Learning Japanese for me is a big struggle and I never feel I progress as I reach a point of burning out and the next time I try, I've forgotten what I've already learnt. So it would actually be a bit tempting to give a European language a try just to experience the joy of much faster progress. Without ever spending any time learning any Spanish, I as a Norwegian speaker can understand more of a Spanish Wikipedia article than a Japanese one. Mostly due to how many words are similar to English. But I've no real interest in actually learning the language.
I find it very difficult to stick to 1 language. I feel that I am wasting time if I'm not studying at least 2 languages. The problem is that something gets put off on the back burner.
It depends on the language. 5 or 10,000 words in some languages maybe 20,000 words in some other languages. It depends how similar the languages are to languages you know and how many easily recognizable words there are
@@erenparla3869 thank you so much! How do you know when you reached that level? I’m doing Spanish right now… but I am learning from living in the country…
@@eddieaugustin3811 oh you're living in Spain? That's cool! According to the book "Fluent Forever" by Gabiel Wyner, he'd say to forget about translating into English and just immerse yourself in the language. This is why family's who learn a language together, and only speak that language in their home, end up learning it a lot quicker. So in my opinion use Spanish subtitles, or none.
@@eddieaugustin3811 as Spanish native speaker who's learning English, I'd recommend you listen to Spanish content as possible as you can. I do that at English, and i consider that works. Step by step you're gonna reach that level you want to.
Which language suits best with German? I am learning German and I want to learn those too ; French , Chinese, Russian , Sweedish , Spanish , Italien, Polish, Dutch, Japanese, Korean
I am learning Spanish currently. I need to learn French as well, but i am afraid to learn two latin based language's together. Does anyone have anything to say about this
Any suggestions for good tutors in Japanese I'm now at a state where I dont really feel like I'm progressing as much as I did in the beginning so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated thank you!
Спасибо за видео, хочу выучить одновременно английский и японский, не знаю как это сделать, разрываюсь между этими двумя языками, ещё изучаю react, redux, typescript. Очень сложно пока.
First time here, how old are you? How old when you started to learn languages? How long on average does it take you to learn a language in order to be able to converse with someone enough to "get by" ?
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At the beginner stage in a new language we feel satisfaction from obvious progress. This fades as we discover how much remains. At that time, it's sometimes beneficial to do two languages at the same time.
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What about Mindfullness in language learning? Have you tried it?
EXACTLY
I can help u become fluent in both arabic and persian.im a master of both .just let me know
Im learning English and German at the same time..it become my daily routine
thanks More dear bro you make trust my self for take my decision
Tell me you’re Canadian without saying you’re Canadian - “Language learning is like an upside down hockey stick”
Why is that 😂
Though non-Canadian this is a perfect picture for me😂😊
Other countries also have hockey, just NORMAL hockey
I like this comment 😂
I’ve been learning Japanese for 2 years, when last March, I really felt stuck. That was when I, out of nowhere, decided to pick up French again (which I had in school years ago; I was really bad).
So I did that for a month, completely ignoring Japanese and the amazing part is, when I returned to Japanese I felt like I improved massively… just by doing nothing and letting my subconscious sort some things out.
Maybe this was because you were feeling really stressed before you stopped. Or could be like you said, your subconscious was working while you were taking a break.
Steve has actually mentioned this phenomenon recently. You push yourself hard in a language. Then maybe hit a road block and back away for awhile. Then try a different language. The first language suddenly seems easier.
Noticing it in my Spanish when I started moving over to Mandarin Chinese.
This happend to me with german. My native language is American(californian) english and Mexican Spanish.
So i learned German and got stuck at B2 and could not progress at all. My brain was fried.
I switched to Italian and Russian, swept through Russian in 4 months and Italian was pretty much a 90% given,
I was watching a German show on Netflix and suddenly I could understand like 60% of what was being said and that was much better than when i was studying it and felt like 30% comprehension. It's like all the parts i was stuck in , suddenly came. Maybe it was hearing a certain word and watching the sub clicked the part i was missing and unlcocked the rest.
But yeah, i agree taking a break really lets your brain absorb.
This exists in muscle weight training too, sometimes your will make gains but you will not see them.
On paper you did everything correctly and should be seeing but you dont.
Then your body gets exhausted , and then you stop for like 3-4 months.
Then you return to the gym and work out for like 2 weeks and suddenly you see the gains that you were not seeing a few months ago.
Sometimes it take the body muscles time to adjust to the new gains, same w/ brain muscle.
I’m pretty much in the same boat. I’ve been trying to figure and watching anime for about two years during covid time. It felt like all failed. However i stopped for a while and switched to french. I looked at japanese and it was like it was a bit easier like my subconscious needed time to process it
Very interesting. Thank you for your comment.
I totally agree. I have been learning Thai for 1 1/2 years at home and it was getting a little boring, so I picked up Russian 8 months ago ( again, learning at home) and I now switch back and forth during the week and feel the enjoyment coming back into learning Thai. You have to like Mr. Kaufmann said, get past the initial 3- 6 - 12 months with your first language, and probably better if the languages are not too similar as may get confusing. But if you tell someone that you are learning 2 languages at the same time- expect to get some weird looks.
I was literally just searching around for more info on this exact topic. You’re a hero!
What languages are you learning?
My native language is spanish. I'm learning russian language now, though I'm studying from english to russian, so I'm studying both languages at the same time
Russian grammar is very similar to Spanish.And English vocabulary is similar to Spanish vocabulary.
Great job!
Good luck.
I'm learning English,Spanish and Russian.
I'm Uzbek.
@@mixlab7243 лучше чем раньше
Nice! I’m a native English speaker who has learned Spanish and I’m now focusing on Russian 🙂
Hahaha genius!! I'm doing the same thing, but from english to italian. My native language is portuguese.
@@Varallisuus If you think so, then it is. But if you want to learn because you need or even to have fun, it's not.
I think it depends on goals. If you want to really advance quickly or reach a high level of fluency faster, it’s better to focus on just one (especially if you’re short on time). But I guess if there’s no rush, you have a lot of time, or you REALLY want to learn 2 at the same time and don’t want to choose between them, it’s not bad to do two at once. I hear of people focusing on 2+ and that sounds hard to me, but my main focus now is slowly improving my high level Spanish (which happens almost passively because of my day to day life and work situation) while really trying to progress on Russian as quickly as possible (which has turned out to be VERY difficult for me, haha). Since Russian has been so challenging, I’ve been tabling the other languages that interest me until I reach a decent level of “fluency” (as I define it)
Nice - have been working on my Russian for last 2y (still not high level, but somewhere in intermediate range), about to add in Spanish back in next few months.
i've been learning Japanese and Chinese at the same time.. its honestly fun. My brain functions like that.
I tried the one focus method w/ German and it went horrible, it was about 1 year and brain was fried. I can still read and understand the message but can't speak it. But w/ Chinese and Japanese, its so fun, if i get stuck on japanese, can switch to mandarin and then go into japanese.. also it helps learning variants or dialects.
But overall if you enjoy a language, you will speed through it, if you cant immerse yourself into the other culture you will struggle. I speak Spanish and French should be easy , but it wasn't i can sort of read it but French is not an enjoyable langauge so i easily quit it within 2 weeks. I think Japanese and Russian for me has been way easier than French.
Had i done the 1 method, i would have not figured this out sooner.
Bro I’ve been studying day and night on French for the past almost 2 months and can honestly say I know some much it’s unbelievable. I give all the credit to learning Spanish cause trying to learn Spanish taught me how I should study to study another language and also Spanish and English basically make up a lot of French, but now I will focus on Portuguese maybe in the next 6 months
I’m seriously studying Spanish right now while also dabbling in Norwegian and Japanese to challenge myself and keep it fun. That way once I’m at a level I want to be with Spanish and I move on to the other two I’ll have a head start 🇪🇸 🇳🇴 🇯🇵
¡Mucha suerte en tu aprendizaje del español! 🎉👌
@@HappyFeliz2020 Muchas gracias!
@@Caine61 yo realmente aprecio el esfuerzo de la gente en aprender mi idioma se que lo lograras es difícil a veces pero don't quite you will be proud of yourself in the future
I'm learning french and at the same time trying to improve my skills in english, it's weird because he said before, when you learn 2 langueges at the same time, you learn less than when you pay attention just for 1. So, I get it, but I will try to made a strategie to not get into a stagnating process of learn.
j’apprends le français maintenant j’étudie aussi une langue obscure du comté de cornwall, appelée "cornish"la langue "cornouaillaise" a besoin de gens pour l’apprendre et étant donné que c’est une langue basée au Royaume-Uni. je veux vraiment la maîtriser. Je crois qu’il est difficile d’étudier simultanément les deux langues.
Es agradable escucharle con frecuencia :) se siente un ambiente de comunidad y soporte ¡Muchas gracias por compartir continuamente! Es lindo escuchar que otros pasan por lo mismo y leer los comentarios siempre me da mucha esperanza y ánimo de seguir
This is exactly the content I was looking for thank you for these videos Steve!
Watching from Brazil. I really love your channel, you can learn a lot in one single video. Such a wisdom.
Yes. I'm a total beginner in arabic (which is a difficult language for me) and I'm missing that excitement in understanding things/ improve quickly that I cannot yet reach in arabic. So I decided to also start studying french (knowing other 3 romance languages gives me a nice head start) to have that feeling of reward, dopamin rush, whatever.... While continuing learning arabic slowly without feeling bad for not learn fast.
I started studying Hebrew three months ago after having spent the previous two years learning Russian. My Russian is by no means perfect, but being quite advanced now in Russian, I continue studying both languages in parallel quite comfortably.
It's exactly what I've trying learning french, meanwhile improve my english skills, you would have some delay on the first one that you're better, but you can adapt into it.
That was what I was looking for! Thanks for the video, Steve! Really appreciate your videos!
Off topic: have you ever considered doing a bookshelf tour and showing us all the books you have? I look at the bookshelves behind you and I'd like to know more about the book you used for learning languages or simply the ones you read...
It'd be really cool. I think that he has many books in a lot of different languages.
Sameee. I always wanted him to show those books too. I hope he does!
Currently learning both Japanese and Korean. Both have similarities in sentence patterns, grammar and some vocabulary. I think that, learning 2 languages at once is managing the time for both languages, in which I did in my Boarding School, 2 weeks for English and 2 Weeks for Arabic.
Steve, you are my favourite polyglot because of your views about learning languages. You give more importance on input.
My experience is that once I learn a language, then starting a new language means I'm now learning 2 languages, because otherwise, I'm going to start losing the language I've already learned. To be specific, I currently speak native English, B2 German, and A2 Spanish. So I'm primarily focusing on Spanish, but I have to do a few lessons in German every week. This not only maintains my German, but also gives me the rewards of being fairly fluent in a non-native language, while I continue learning Spanish. Eventually, I'll be engaging in German and Spanish every week, while learning French.
How do you use those languages as often as you do? Where do you live or do you travel for work?
@@dbdgrumpy1521 I'm in California. At present, I'm USING only English. A friend and I sometimes converse in German when we go bicycling. We're both at B2. I'm also currently going through a batch of new German stories in Duolingo. I email a German friend in German. He replies in German. (His English is C2.) I'm working on finishing the Spanish tree in Duolingo. I had planned to do some hiking and bicycling in Europe in 2020, but the covid pandemic nixed that. I wish I were doing more, and I would, if I weren't pursuing so many other activities.
@@alwaysuseless fascinating. I live in utah and really want to learn German. Right now I know a couple phrases and and probably around 270 words. But my listening skills are actually very good. I’m thinking about going to take courses for it but I’m still undecided. Good luck with your language studies and hopefully one day you’ll be able to hike and bike Europe.
@@dbdgrumpy1521 A few years ago, I was taking a Spanish class in Costa Rica with 2 other students. Luckily for me, the instructor noticed right away that my understanding of the grammar was way ahead of the other 2 students, and their vocabularies were way ahead of mine. So the school split the class into two. I stayed with that instructor 1-on-1, and the other 2 got another instructor. I returned home "fluent" in Spanish (confident in speaking, even if I made mistakes or didn't know a word). Then I stupidly didn't seek out anyone to converse with in Spanish. Long story short, I don't recommend classes. Maybe a class would work for you, but polyglots learn on their own and with 1-on-1.
Me encantan tus videos y en especial este, ya que estoy retomando mis estudios del idioma arabe y me gustaria empezar a estudiar farsi. Mi gran motivacion es mi familia politica egipcia con la cual me quiero comunicar.
I totally agree with you Steve. I’m studying Korean and Italian right now but I initially studied each language separately/passively for about 6 months then there was a period that I did three months of dedicated (A) lang. then (B). But this coming month I’m going to be studying both together. I know it’ll take longer to become fluent in one but I’m really enjoying both and the option to take a break from one and study the other. I’m also super interested on how the Egyptian Arabic studying goes for you. That’s some thing I’d thought about learning in the future.
I can't wait to do it.. I can't wait time when I will have the same knowledge of languages as you have...
Thanks, Steve!
But, don't forget to enjoy the process or you may get too upset along the way. One step at a time.
Today I’m on my 59th day of this challenge (in 🇩🇪 ) and this challenge has been teaching me so much about discipline than anything else. It’s not easy, but it’s worthy.
Thank you ☺️
100%
I just want to share my experience.
At my college (Foreign Languages degree) it's mandatory to pick 2 languages at once. We can choose our native tongue to be one of them but many choose 2 foreign. I decided to choose English and Greek. English was familiar to me but have a hard time with it in college. Greek was also familiar but I had an easier time with it, because I knew the basics well. Nevertheless, it's a roller-coaster. If today I'm doing literature in English, tomorrow is language practice in Greek!
thats really interesting.
I too wanted to start with the second foreign langauge.
I am learning German but after a point, I lose the motivation to practice it. I feel if I pick up another language, that would make it more fun to keep the flow of practice going. I am thinking of picking up Spanish.
Thanks for your comment. :)
@@iezioaudi22 losing motivation is a natural thing in language learning (and not only there). Maybe it would be beneficial to know and remind your reasons why you want to learn German or Spanish. But also remember that discipline will advance you most of the time. Small, incremental progress each day. Good luck!
@@alexandra.v Thanks for your reply :)
Yes you are right about reminding myself of the reasons, I too felt its more of matter of consistency than of doing alot in a day!
For me its fun to practice 2 langauges simultaneously , if I get bored in one, I pick up the another haha!
Btw Did you finish your degree though?
@ashutoshtripathi3817 Oh, if this is fun for you, go for it! I quite struggle with consistency, I hope it's not the case for you. Yes, I finished my degree.
You can not imagine the amount of happiness I feel about this discovery! I've been feeling a mix of emotions for being different because I couldn't find people like me! I felt home finding you and reading the comments. I am from Brazil so I speak Portuguese, I've been learning English for quite some time now and when English became boring I started taking Spanish classes and then it started becoming dull and I started French. Well, now I've been learning Japanese and Russian, ❤loving the process and enjoying your video. Thanks! 🙏🤛
What exactly do you mean by being different and not being able to find people like you?
@@anastasia6407 Hi Anastasia! Finding people who enjoy learning languages tgis way! Someone who dedicates their time to learning other cultures!
The first thing I hear when I say I like being able to communicate is that it must be really easy for me to speak other languages as if it is something granted. But it is a long And hardworking process Sometimes people say : "it's her thing!", but everyone can speak another language if they are really into it!
After some time, We start enjoying the process of learning so much that We always want to kick it off again. That's the beauty of it! Never ready And constantly getting better! Thanks for commenting!
I am seriously studying Japanese, causally studying French, and dabbling in Russian.
I tried to learn more than one language at the same time, but I found myself stretched thin and taking forever to reach my goals.
After taking one language at a time, I started cruising with little to no difficulty.
Merci Steve ! I really needed to hear this because I am learning French but the Haitian Creole language is calling my name! LOL
مشكور يا شيخ ستيف كوفمان .. أنا من الهند ، والآن أنا أدرس ٣ اللغات ، الاماينة، العربية والإسبانية ❤
كفو
You've mentioned a thing that's important for me. I'm learning french, and I'm beginner in french, but at the same time I still learn english, and I felt like some improvents that I made was put in a passive way so I'm worried about get into french and put more vocabulary in the passive mind, which was what happens when I begin to study french. My idea was to use the english material to learn french, which works quiet bit, but at the, you really need to immerse ourselfs into the language to make sure that you have some kind knowledge of the idiom. What I really find interesting about it, is that I can undertand most of the french because I have many words in my vocabulary that is similar with the french, so I will keep trying to improve my english and learn french at the same time.
Is that working well? What is your mother tongue? I'm a beginner at English and I want to start French 😢
Thanks, I was looking for some direction with this issue. I'm study Korean for a while and I'm stuck on this platoon where I can understand what I listen, I understand the vocabulary, the reading and writing is okay, but I can't speak properly, so I decided to start German to challenge myself while I looking for some tutor , or a friend to have small conversations in Korean.
Thanks for the advice. 😁
Loved the video, Steve! Could you make another video on how to immerse yourself in learning a language? It’s be much appreciated. Thanks and always take care. ❤️
I'm doing two langauges right now, I keep Spanish as my main one and do quite a bit of french on the side and have almost completely put off German for now, instead of doing all 3 equally. This way my spanish is getting better conversationally pretty quickly since it's the easiest one. I'll maybe change up the priorities in the future who knows.
What are you doing to improve your conversational skill? I got interested, cause i'm really struggling to get better at it.
Hago la misma cosa. Uso español como mi primera lengua y francés como secundario.
Hey. thanks for the tips. I'm a native persian speaker and right now i'm learning swedish but my english is still intermediate so I thought I can improve my english while learning svenska. I hope it works. Your video made me feel better and I think I can keep doing it :)
my next goal is Japanese and maybe spanish afterward.
Steve can you do a video on learning two languages at the same time that are similar (Arabic/Persian) (Japanese/Korean) and the difference compared to learning languages that are different (French/Chinese) (Spanish/Russian) and mainly how you would go about learning in each situation? I think it would help not just me but anyone whose trying to learn more than one language.
same! I've been actively learning Korean for a year and a half and when I tried to learn Japanese at the same time, I kept mixing the vocabularies :P
@@yasmine8041 how's it going now? Personally, I speak Spanish and started French a few years ago (I'm now intermediate) and I think mixing vocab from two very simmilar languages is a part of it, even if you start them at different times. Once my French became more "solid" in my brain, when it kinda sunk in, the mixing stopped or at least became less frequent. It's like if your brain needed to build a "new language compartment" so, while you build it, the words are just kinda hanging around with the other languages you already know haha
Good luck, Steve!
Totally agree. I’d say get to at least a lower intermediate level in one language before you start the next one, since that steep hockey stick part is more draining, and if you were doing two by at a time you might get burnt out.
Also, when you get to a lower intermediate level I feel like you can get more out of passive immersion like watching TV or being around people who speak the language which can help you learn without studying so you have more energy for the other language
I must have seen this video before, because I started to learn two languages at the same time and it was as you say ..
My mother tongue is Arabic and now Im studying English and korean at the same time my level in English is advanced I mean I know the basics of the language but I'm confused because I dont know how to balance between both of them but I have fun especially with korean .
Just a thought, add the lingq dictionary for language 2. So when you click on new words (in my case spanish) in linq you see your native language (english) translation and the other language (e.g portuguese).
Nice, enthusiastic gentlemen. Very inspiring.
What do you think about learning language B using language A? I would say I'm intermediate in Spanish. I still struggle speaking at times, but I can read and understand it well. Initially, I started learning Spanish in English as that's my native language, but now I'm at a level where I can learn Spanish in Spanish. So what do you think about reading, watching, and listening to material in Spanish that is teaching my language B?
Bro, that's what you have to do. You have much more progress when you immerse yourself with a native teacher, so I find it really better than you use your native languange to learn other languange.
@@renanvinicius6036 That's not what I'm talking about, though. I'm talking about using my second language to start learning my third.
@@TomRNZ I would say that it works, but only if you have a vast vocabulary to associate with your third.
By following your method you will increase the time with both foreign languages you are working on, so you will see improvements through exposure and problem solving. But since you are not a proficient speaker of the first foreign language, the smaller vocabulary will slow down the progress.
I'd recommend you try it for a week and judge for yourself which alternative is more beneficial for your personal goals. It may work for you or it may not, or perhaps it will work for you a year from now, when your abilities have improved. It's good to experiment.
@@noname_whatsoever I may not be a proficient speaker, but since I'll be mostly listening and reading, which I'm very good at, it shouldn't really be an issue. My Colombian friend reckons I'm fluent in Spanish since we only ever communicate in Spanish and have had many conversations. Although I wouldn't consider myself fluent, she has made me realise that I'm probably better than I give myself credit for.
I went to grammar school (in Austria) which specialises on languages. I had Latin for 6 years, 4 years of French and 3 years of Spanish. So, the last 3 years of school I had all three languages at once. I went down this route because I've been thinking to myself that I am a studious person and also, I just loved the whole thing about learning languages. But it was a big disappointment for me when it didn't go the way as I thought. I just really sucked at getting information into my brain and remembering. That was very discouraging since I would always try my best to learn but my brain didn't play it's part so I sort of gave up on that and was always behind in class - never understood what teachers were trying to tell me (especially the French one). With this comprehension weakness of mine I came to the conclusion that I am just not cut out for learning languages. After school I took a gap year and went to Spain and took an intensive Spanish course for 3 months (since I just loved languages and wanted to retry - I went to the Colegio de España in Salamanca and can only recommend it). This time around it was way better! It's most likely because I was totally immersed in the language and that was the only thing I focused on (unlike when I was at school-). Now I have to see to it that I practise regularly so that I don't end up "loosing" it. Knowing that I am actually capable of learning languages I got so motivated that I have a whole bucket list of languages. I want to relearn French (but learn it in Spanish so that I still have more Spanish around me - treat it like my native language) and I want to pick up Latin again. During school I have also tried learning Japanese on my own but that failed miserably because I didn't pull through with regular study sessions because of my lack of discipline and motivation. So I am wondering how all of this will look in a few years. Will I have actually reached the level of fluency in Spanish? What's with French and Japanese? Did I actually do Latin again?
Thank you very much for this videos! It helps me a lot and I'm learning a lot with it.
I've been learning English For over a year now and I'm at the intermediate stage. I stopped feeling progress at all maybe because most of the time I'm learning passively. Anyway, out of nowhere I started getting interested in learning Korean. Now I'm learning English and Korean. A bit hard to keep up with now 2 language when I was already having a hard time with English. Korean pronunciation especially gets me but I look forward to learn them and hope to achieve my goal.
Same!!
Your English is quite good, how do you go with speaking it?
FYI, at around 06:14 the video skips a little and the subtitles get out of sync
I don’t know if this is a good idea but I have 3 semesters worth of experience with French so I’m somewhat familiar with vocabulary, expressions, numbers etc. My goal is to be conversational level to where I don’t have to always think about what to say. However, I also really want to learn Japanese as well and I’m very new to it so I’d like to study both at the same time since it’s my dream to visit both places. So I plan on polishing my French for 3 months and then for introducing and consuming and learning Japanese for 3 months and thus repeating the 3 month learning cycle.
I can say with 100% certainty that LingQ is quickly helping me with Portuguese. I've been learning for about a year and 8 months (my first language I've tried learning) by myself, I might add. And a lot of this time was/is learning what's good for me (in terms of how to learn). For instance if I started another language now.. lets say Italian. I'd have an idea of how to learn faster and better. But I'm still not even on the shaft of the hockey stick. But LingQ is helping sooo much. I love being able to see progress.. in 1 month I'm at 3,000 known words, with many lingQs. Roughly going up 110 known words minimum a day in 1-2 hours of working at it throughout the day. Really trying hard to focus on my listening comprehension because it's very lack luster. Glad I discovered LingQ and can learn in a fun way 😊. It's not just forcing myself to do this or that, I'm actually ENJOYING the process now.
R u learning brazilian portuguese?
@@innw2303 yes
@@innw2303sorry I never got this notification . But here I am over a year later responding lol. Yes, I am learning Brazilian Portuguese. Or I was.. now I'm learning European Portuguese. Not on purpose, it's just that the series I'm reading is translated into European so I got no choice lol. But I'm learning Brazilian Portuguese on purpose.. I just started Italian and I think I will try Spanish also. Doing 3 at the same time tho. Idk 😅
I'm working on my Chinese but I'm also in my fifth year of Spanish at school and I legitimately forgot how to say "horse" in Spanish the other day and my brain went to French and Chinese before I overheard someone say caballo.
MANY THANKS! VERY INSPIRING! I will try to learn Turkish and German
I think I'm addicted now. Wow!
My personal experience in dutch "grammar school" (=VWO) says there is nothing wrong with learning 3 or 4 languages simultaneously - if you have the time and good teachers. Having access to movies/TV-series in English and German with great dutch subtitles helped a lot.
I probably would have enjoyed it even more if I had had some *Esperanto* first, instead of phrase-analysis.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaedeutic_value_of_Esperanto
Im studying Latin at the moment but in my heart i also want to learn Japanese and Russian. But i also said to myself that Russian is out in my list for now as it was time consuming as i also have real life obligations. I just don't know how to time manage to these languages. Also sometimes my body is exhausted at work so i sometimes skip self studying. Hopefully this will help so i can acquire my 3rd and 4th Language.
I think how many languages you learn at a time has more to do with how you can manage your time and how much time you want to put into studying. I am currently learning Mandarin, Russian, and Mongolian while working on my Master's degree so time management is necessary.
Time and energy. The more effort you put into these activities, the less energy you have to do other things, even when you have time. It feels like your willpower is being drained.
@@paulocmsantos YES!!!!! I don't know if I'm the only one but often sitting down and spending time learning languages recharges my batteries when I'm feeling drained from other activities. I don't know if it is because I am an introvert or because languages make me happy and I'm a weirdo. But there are times when I have so much going on I don't even want to think about using my brain for anything.
4:56 "donde todos, confiados en la venta para, para la navegación." ??? ¿Eso lo ha hecho el traductor automático? Yo pensaba que los traducían personas.
I'm currently studying 4 languages but to be fair two of them I have intermediate proficiency(I was studying them non-simultaneously before) and the other two are absolute beginner(just light studying them for fun). I think it just depends on the individual and their current circumstances. I just alternate languages between days(immersion in only specific language for the entire day).
I would have to disagree on your point about the tutor. Talking with tutors who are native speakers or just native speakers in general in the early stages of language learning(no matter how awkward and humiliating) will get your accustom to the language(specifically it's phonetics) a lot faster. Furthermore, they can better assist in correcting mistakes a lot of beginners make.
Yep I am starting a 90 day challenge in Greek and Latin in the new year.
How is it going?
Thanks for the tips. Best wishes 😍😍😍
Always to the point at first, hahaha. Learn two languanges at once? Wow challenging so much for me. Greatest learner in the world is you, you, you. Mr. Kaumfirman! the greatest learner is you, you, is you🎶
The orginal song: The secret to the formula is you.( Spongebob movie sponge on the run)😊
I'm learning two languages the same time 😁 Korean and English
aw , me too .
3:50 would you say that first ledge would be your first 10,000 words on LingQ?
That depends on the language but typically a lot less
Right now I am learning Chinese for business reasons and Spanish as a hobby because well, it’s fun. 😅
What would you recommend for those studying an endangered language where tutors aren’t easily available or aren’t around at all? I imagine maximizing input and pushing one’s self analysis would help; but the lack of a native or fluent speaker’s input makes the task incredibly daunting.
I am encountering this with Hawaiian, which is the current language I am Working on
I'm learning Māori the native language of New Zealand. Only about 3% of the NZ population speak the language at a fluent level. Over the last 3 1/2 years I've improved to a B2 level in the language.
One thing that helped me a lot over that time was to find listening and reading resources. In regards to practicing speaking, I'm lucky that I work with other fluent speakers, and I also have a familly member who's at an intermediate level in the language. If I didn't, I would probably have to find & join community 'meet ups' to interact with others in the language.
@@lj2070 Stick at it my cousin.
English,Duetch, Español,and Nihongo,Quadlingual
I enjoyed. Good to see you sir :)
Hi Steve, I came to this video to hear your tips about learning two languages at the same time, because I want to pick my German back up after not using it for the last 5 years while I have been studying Italian. Now that I'm fluent in Italian, I think it's a safe time to add some German into my language routine.
But now you've made me curious about your experience learning Farsi. I made Iranian friends while studying in Italy, and I really want to learn Farsi, but it seems so difficult without the right materials. I've tried to search for them but wasn't sure where to start in terms of books, audio programs, etc. Do you have a video in which you talk about the resources you use for Farsi? As a self-learner I appreciate this advice!
I started learning English years ago and stopped studying at some point, im trying to keep it alive by reading books and watching movies in English. However i recently started learning French just for fun and realized that learning languages are my true passion therefore i want to learn German as well but im afraid it might influence my vocubulary in French and English in a negative way. I already started mixing up some words in French and German. Also, i'll start to university soon. My major will be either medicine or dentistry and these are both tough majors. I do not know how i'll manage to learn 2 languages actively at the same time while studying in a difficult faculty. Maybe I should just postpone German until I become B2 level in French. Any advices?
oh i see you adviced "dont learn 2 languages at once if you are a beginner." That makes sense, i got my answer. You are a true inspiration, thanks!
Eso fue un excelente histórico. Estoy estudiando programa y Liendo español.
A big thank you for sharing this pricesless infromation Steve.
I have got one question which how do polyglots practise the langauges that they now??
for exampl, I know 5 langauges fluently but I still have problem practising them in order to not decrease my fluency level.
Did you get a chance to chek out حي المطار? By the way many of us would appreciate recommendations from the Persian songs you're hearing!
Yeah, absolutely. I would appreciate Steve's recommendations for some Persian songs
You can check Googoosh she is the most famous singer in Iran
Hi, Steve ! I´m Armando from Spain, I have a medium level of English and I have been thinking about starting to study German. Do you think it is a good idea? Thankss
I speak German and English and I guess that learning German is a good idea as both languages are very similar. I recommend you to focuse on German while being passive in English like watch Movies in English, hear podcasts... I did the same with English and Turkish, now Im fluent in English and medium in Turkish and French.
yes arabic felt so easy for me after i started studying Japanese
Amazing video!!!
Спасибо что добавили субтитры.
Субтитрлерге Рахмет!
Thanks for subtittles!
Thank you everytime
Great advice. I'm improving my Russian skills and have started learning Ancient Greek. They're pretty dissimilar but I feel motivated knowing it's possible.
Just wish there were more shows in Ancient Greek...
@stevekaufmann How do I avoid words "leaking" from one language to another. Especially when these languages are quite equal. For example I found myself speaking Spanish, using the word insieme (Italian) instead of guntos (Spanish) for together.
Difficult to avoid, doesn't create a communication problem, and if you spend more time with one or the other, there is less leakage.
Can I dedicate a week to each language? Or study them day by day?
As a language tutor (and a long time language learner) I agree that teachers (especially tutors) are much more useful at a second stage of learning. A good thing would be to have a good video course for the basics, especially for correct pronunciation and those languages with a different script and for those learners who are not used to self teaching and then continue practicing with a tutor once the basics are assimilated. As for 2 languages together, I have tried only with sister languages and with one at an advanced level. But your strategy is also good, I do this with everything. I keep searching new inspiration by switching between a few activities
I am a spamiard learning german. When I reaxh my C1 level i'll go for italian and portuguese at the same time.
درود بر شما. من سطح C1 زبان انگلیسی و A2 فرانسوی و A1 ایتالیایی هستم و ویدیوی شما برای ادامه ی مسیر به من کمک کرد. سپاسگزارم :)
I try to start this challenge today💪👧
Thank you, Steve. Do you believe there is a list of more important words for any language that we would learn first?
'doldrum' new word today.
Coming from a more or less bilingual family, I've been wondering whether an adult can acquire two languages at the same time just like a child in a bilingual family. I think it's possible, but you need to have regular comprehensible input in both languages.
Learning Japanese for me is a big struggle and I never feel I progress as I reach a point of burning out and the next time I try, I've forgotten what I've already learnt. So it would actually be a bit tempting to give a European language a try just to experience the joy of much faster progress. Without ever spending any time learning any Spanish, I as a Norwegian speaker can understand more of a Spanish Wikipedia article than a Japanese one. Mostly due to how many words are similar to English.
But I've no real interest in actually learning the language.
I find it very difficult to stick to 1 language. I feel that I am wasting time if I'm not studying at least 2 languages. The problem is that something gets put off on the back burner.
How many words on LingQ do you need, to surpass that steep part of the hockey stick? I'm curious.
That’s what I’m wondering. Also how many hours of listening?
It depends on the language. 5 or 10,000 words in some languages maybe 20,000 words in some other languages. It depends how similar the languages are to languages you know and how many easily recognizable words there are
How do i get hindi in lingq please. It only language i want learn
When you watching series are you using subtitles in English or in the language you are trying to learn?
I’d say start with english substitles, then move on to subtitles in the target language once you’ve reached B1/B2 in the language
@@erenparla3869 thank you so much! How do you know when you reached that level? I’m doing Spanish right now… but I am learning from living in the country…
@@eddieaugustin3811 oh you're living in Spain? That's cool! According to the book "Fluent Forever" by Gabiel Wyner, he'd say to forget about translating into English and just immerse yourself in the language. This is why family's who learn a language together, and only speak that language in their home, end up learning it a lot quicker. So in my opinion use Spanish subtitles, or none.
@@eddieaugustin3811 Well if you're living in country of your target language your probably exposed to Spanish on a daily basis which is great
@@eddieaugustin3811 as Spanish native speaker who's learning English, I'd recommend you listen to Spanish content as possible as you can. I do that at English, and i consider that works. Step by step you're gonna reach that level you want to.
Which language suits best with German? I am learning German and I want to learn those too ; French , Chinese, Russian , Sweedish , Spanish , Italien, Polish, Dutch, Japanese, Korean
I am learning Spanish currently. I need to learn French as well, but i am afraid to learn two latin based language's together. Does anyone have anything to say about this
No matter,how many languages you learn; finally you or we have to speak or write in English to Coney our message to mass. Lol
Any suggestions for good tutors in Japanese I'm now at a state where I dont really feel like I'm progressing as much as I did in the beginning so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated thank you!
Very intresting thank you
I would like to add that you can try learning two languages at once when one of them is very similar to your mother tongue :)
Спасибо за видео, хочу выучить одновременно английский и японский, не знаю как это сделать, разрываюсь между этими двумя языками, ещё изучаю react, redux, typescript.
Очень сложно пока.
what if you try to learn a language that has some similarities such as Spanish and Itallian. It could be quite confusing?
That's my situation.I speak a bit of Spanish but decided to learn Tagalog.But I am hoping to keep them seperate in my mind.
First time here, how old are you?
How old when you started to learn languages?
How long on average does it take you to learn a language in order to be able to converse with someone enough to "get by" ?
77, young, but learned most of them after the age of 20. Length depends on the language.
@@Thelinguist 77 the perfect age after 33. Thanks for responding 🤙🏼
@@Thelinguistyou don’t look 77 damn. Must be all the language learning keeping you young haha
Do you know if there is an easy way to import kindle books to Lingq?