Learning two languages at the same time

K. T.   Tue Apr 08, 2008 3:46 am GMT
"I think human beings often think too much before they act, or they simply don't act at all."

This is sometimes true. People put off what they should do. On the other hand, many people don't think enough about consequences before they act.
Guest   Tue Apr 08, 2008 7:19 am GMT
THe hardest thing about learning languages is doing the stuff you don't like. I'm an avid reader, but I hate practicing conversation, because I am a misanthrope. I study alone because classes are pathetic, and teachers are not angry enough, and smile too much. My god! Where is Hitler when we need him, to be a language tutor.
K. T.   Tue Apr 08, 2008 5:25 pm GMT
I believe that I saw him on Youtube in a few clips. He was in England and he'd changed his name to "Hilter". He even had a sidekick who looked like
Herr Heinrich Himmler. Based on his earlier speeches in German as Hitler, I would say that Hilter has not quite mastered English to the same level, so no, I can't say that he'd make a good language tutor.
Guest   Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:07 am GMT
Good point, Guest. I don't like classes either because most of the native English speakers who are interested in learning languages are of the same ilk. They are the liberal arts type people whom I, a punk rocking butcher, despise and do not wish to listen to.
J.C.   Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:46 am GMT
I really wish I could learn just TWO LANGUAGES at the same time but my drive to learn languages in addition to 1-hour and half commuting to work doesn't give another choice.

What I'm doing right now is study Chinese and Russian one day and French (Studying for the DELF certificate) and Swedish (Just feel like learning another Germanic language because when I studied Dutch my teacher was always telling me I shouldn’t speak in German during the lessons! Actually he used to tell me that "Nederlands is geen duits"-Dutch is not German!!). I don't feel stressed out because I'm doing this totally for fun and have some advantages in doing these languages.

1) Before doing Russian I studied Polish in 1993 when I had a crash course in college and can see the similarities in vocabulary such as Pravda (truth) in Polish, which is правда in Russian or Można (Used for asking permission), which is можно in Russian.

2) Chinese is easier because I can read the characters due to my knowledge in Japanese and understand them right away. In that case I only have to concentrate on the tone of the word because Chinese grammar is pretty easy.

3) French is a Latin language and I have an advantage when learning vocabulary, even though grammar could still be complicated specially verbs.

4) Swedish is very similar to German in some aspects and I can see the similarities with German in words such as båda (beide in German), verstör (verstehen in German), dör (Tür in German), etc.

I read someone talking about Portuguese and Spanish and don't advice someone to do that because the closer the languages the more difficult it is to speak them properly. Even as a Brazilian Portuguese speaker I have difficulties speaking Spanish because what I assume to be Spanish can be Portuguese or I can use a messed up pronunciation of words trying to fake Spanish. In other words, I'll be speaking in Portuñol (Mixing of Portuguese and Spanish). :)
Xie   Sun Apr 13, 2008 12:27 pm GMT
>>>THe hardest thing about learning languages is doing the stuff you don't like. I'm an avid reader, but I hate practicing conversation, because I am a misanthrope. I study alone because classes are pathetic, and teachers are not angry enough, and smile too much. My god! Where is Hitler when we need him, to be a language tutor.

That's crazy. All I need is money and a tutor, and possibly not even a tutor, when I can meet people online and seek advice. A tutor like our professor even without proficiency in dozens of languages is already enough. I don't want one who can't speak German well (worse than I do) and tell me how hard it is to learn German (which is also true for many others in this case) and ask me to 'learn' literally every single utterance - in fact by rote, and this won't work. My tutor has worked in my city for 3 decades, and it's been a miracle for someone who speaks the language so badly to be working for the Goethe Institute and several universities where they have language classes.

Guys, that's part of my experience that has possibly driven me onto the path of individualism - part of my personal growth in recent years. I can't understand why many young people among my people like to depend on others for help - like in language class, and never work quite often on their own to get all those utterances right. Like how Farber claimed how some Americans were doing 18 years ago, many hopeless students around me are going to end up not being able to order lemonade in any random French/German city... whether you are learning one or two or three, it's still 'a lot of hard work' which you SHOULD try, since you like it, and while there's no getting around this 'hurdle', breakthroughs aren't exactly impossible but rather easy to do so after you learn how to simplify learning tasks.