I'm in the process of making a Youtube channel, which has been a way more difficult task for me than I thought it would. I have a lot of plans... the hiccup is my own standard of quality I'd like to deliver to possible visitors. But that's not why you're here.
I'd like to tackle a topic today that I see a lot in the language learning social media world. That topic is how to learn more than one language at a time. This is a hot topic, and you will find blogs and videos out there that go something like this "Five simple things you can do to learn multiple languages at once! Number 5 Blew my Mind!!!"
Or.
"Speaking 20 languages fluently after just a few months."
Well, I'm not going to feed you that kind of bologna. The truth is that tackling two languages at once is very difficult and, depending on your definition of "at the same time", impossible. That doesn't mean I'm not going to tell you how I do it, or that you can't. Let's look at it a little closer.
In the strictest terms I don't think I actually study two languages at once at the same level. My French is at an intermediate level, and my foundation in the language is such that I feel confident I can study a second language without too much decay.
The thing is that I, and studies show humans in general, are -really- bad at multitasking. There was a short while about six months after I started learning French when I decided to learn Italian at the same time. My rational was that I was scheduled to travel to Italy on the same trip as the one I was learning French for. Plus, my then fiancé expressed interest in studying a bit of Italian before the trip because her mother's family is from Italy.
What I found from this short lived experiment is that learning two languages that are
A) Very similar linguistically
and
B) Both at the beginning stages
Was a very bad idea for me. Words began mixing I would forget French words for Italian ones, and visa versa. Worst of all, my momentum and progress in French stalled.
Ultimately this was the reason I stopped. Mixing words up in two languages is bound to happen even if you are only studying one. I mean even at that point if I had been studying French a lot in a day, and if I had really been in the zone, I would sometimes send a text message in French without realizing it.
Because humans are really bad at multitasking I think it is very difficult to study two languages at a similar level at the same time.
So we have established that learning two or more languages at once is hard. So what? How do I do it now?
Well, after my disaster with Italian I didn't try picking up another language for a long while. Like, almost four years later. The seeds were planted on my first trip to Ireland.
While in Ireland in 2015, I was exposed for the first time to Irish (Gaeilge). I had never seen a language like it. The first thing that began to tug at me what the name for Dublin "As Gaeilge", which is "Baile Átha Cliath". Many of the other names for places seemed to make more sense to me, but this one... I couldn't take Dublin and get"Baile Átha Cliath" in the end. So I did some research. It turns out that the Classical Irish name for Dublin is Dubhlind which means something like "Black-pool". But the modern Irish name Baile Átha Cliath means "Town of the Hurdled Ford". This fascinated me and it put a seed in my brain that would bloom about eight months later.
I waited to start learning Irish until I was finished with the French tree on Duolingo, and even further after that; I had been done with the French tree for about six months before I started thinking about learning Irish. I had begun to see a sharp deline in my learning progress in French with Duolingo, and I had begun to rely more on more advanced forms of learning including books, podcasts, videos/movies, and speaking to a native French speaking friend I had met.
This was the start of my system for learning more than one language at once.
I divide my languages into three groups; each group gets a different allotment of time relative to the amount of time I have to spend on language learning. I do study both my target languages every day that I can, but the amount of time and the method of the study is very different.
So here it is; my system for learning two or more languages at once.
Main Target Language
This is the main language you are concentrating on learning. For me right now this is Norwegian. This language should take up most of your study time because it is the one you are trying to build a foundation with. This is also the language I learn with game-like apps such as Memrise, Duolingo, Drops, and Babble. I would strongly counsel you to have only one Main Target Language at a time.
Maintenance Target Language
This is the language you have been studying hard on up until you pick up your second target language. For me this language is French. You could have more than one language in maintenance if you needed, because these languages are those in which you have a firm foundation that is unlikely to decay. As I said before, my studies in French are generally in speaking with my good friend Christelle, who is a native French Speaker; along with reading French websites, listening to French podcasts, and watching videos and movies in French (Though lately I have not had time for movies in French, COVID-19 notwithstanding). In terms of actual time I probably actually spend more time on French than I do on Norwegian, but much of it is more passive study rather than active study.
Right now those are the only two tiers I am using, but there is one other I would use if I wanted to throw a third (Second new), language into the mix.
Tertiary Language Target
This is your Dabbling zone. I participated in the LangJam back at the end of March 2020, and I studied Italian for one weekend. During that weekend, Italian was my Tertiary Language Target. Say in a few weeks I find a huge compulsion to study Hindi. In this system that language would start out as a Tertiary Language Target.
This is a target I would only get to after I had studied my main and maintenance targets and still found myself hungry for more. I might also restrict this language to learning from one or two sources I am not using for my other languages.
For instance, My Birthday was just a few weeks ago and I was gifted a subscription to "The Great Courses Plus". One of the courses I am planning to take is "Latin 101." When I decide to tackle this course, Latin will be my Tertiary Language Target, and I will keep my focus mostly on my Main and Maintenance languages.
So that is how I do it. I hope it helps you. There are a few things I need to mention here before I close out.
First, If you are a brand new language learner, probably don't try learning two languages at once until your first new language is at a point where you won't suffer too much confusion and decay by adding a new language to the mix. Please note that the threshold for this condition is different for each person. There are a small percentage of people who are naturally gifted and able to keep things like this separate in their heads. If you are such a person then have fun, but please do not disregard my second piece of advice here.
If you are studying more than one language at once you will have to keep a very close eye on your enjoyment levels, as well as on your level of Burn-out.
Don't underestimate the power of Burn-out. It will sneak up on you if you aren't paying attention and it will destroy your motivation and momentum. If you feel yourself getting burned out, or you feel like you are not enjoying your studies as much as you used to; Back Off! Drop one of your languages for a short time or just take a break from all of it. This can be a dangerous thing to do, so be cautious, but I have a blog post that might help you.
Let me end this post with some encouragement.
You can do this!
Learning a new language is an amazing journey that allows you to peek into the soul of another culture. It's a phenomenal task to undertake that will cause you to grow as a person in ways you never thought possible. It can be hard at times, but I can't describe the soaring heights you will reach as you realize that you can understand your new language when just a few short years before it was complete gibberish to you. You should be proud of yourself for making the attempt; and I am proud of you whether I know you personally or not.
Keep going! You are doing Awesome!
Have fun out there!