7 expert tips for learning several languages

7 expert tips for learning several languages

I have always seen myself as a zealous learner, someone who enjoys challenges and discovered new things. In truth, I am only eager when I have the choice of what I learn. Before our longer stay in France, I thought I would tackle French with the same enthusiasm with which I learned Spanish.

In reality I half -heartedly completed three (out of 78) Levels in Duolingo and left it. It's not that I am resistant to French, but I don't want to water my progress with Spanish.

Note: "first language" describes the first foreign language you want to learn, not your mother tongue.

1. Don't give up your first choice

Most people choose their mother tongue for a certain reason. This can be learned by a systematic review of the best language to speak, the desire to speak when traveling with locals, or the interest in a certain foreign culture. Giving up your first language sets a priority and makes it easier to give up later efforts.

"instead of stopping, finds out what works for you," says Kiyeun Baek from London, who speaks English, Spanish, Korean, Japanese and French every day in her role as head of business development at Global Verlag DK. "For me it starts to read real novels in the language as soon as possible."

Judith Meyer, who operates Learnlangs.com and organizes an annual multilingual meeting, speaks nine languages ​​(with another four at beginners or middle school).

she advises: "First try another method or other materials. If a course is bored or you can't understand it, just do something else for a while: a different course or even a few funny activities such as surfing on the Internet or watching funny videos."

Meyer advises English native speakers to first choose a European language before they go on more distant difficult languages: "Every European language is a good first choice, and it makes little sense if, for example, they get into difficulties from French to Spanish, because they lose their progress just to encounter exactly the same difficulties again."

2. Understand the components of "natural talent"

Our experts agree that motivation is the most important ingredient when learning several languages. Interestingly, they ask us to question the term “natural talent”. Instead of a unique property that some people have and others do not, natural talent can be broken down into components.

Julia Saperia, a statistics based in London who speaks five languages, told us: "I think there are several different talents - if they are all, they are lucky.

I am good in grammar because I can think logically and my hearing is good because I am musical. Some people are able to absorb languages ​​by immersing them in them, others are not afraid of making mistakes and learning without knowing the rules or taking care of it. This is a talent that I am not blessed with! ”

Meyer explains: "I think there are talents for different aspects that are important when learning language. For example, there are people who have the gift of imitation: You hear very well and can reproduce noise more ferely than the rest of us.

There are also people who have a particularly good memory. Daniel Tammet, who made it into the headlines in a week to learn Icelandically, used to take fourth place at the World Memory Championships. [His memory] definitely helped. Synesthesia also helps. However, I don't believe in a separate language gene. ”

Natural talents in this way makes it less discouraging. You may not have a good memory, but you may be good at talking to people without worrying about making mistakes. Likewise, they may not be good in grammar, but their accent could be perfect.

3. Like your learning by following the 70/30 rule

A question that every aspiring polyglott arises is: Should I learn my languages ​​in parallel or one after the other? Our considered answer is neither nor.

Lora Green from 2polyglot speaks four languages ​​and explains:

"Do not start to learn two languages ​​at the same time because all rules and definitions are mixed in your head, but do not wait until you speak a language before you take courses in the second, because there is no strict limit where you can say that you speak a language. You will only waste time. Use this as a sign that you can start learning a different language. ”

Green adds: "I use a ratio of 70/30. I use 70 % of my language learning period for the new language and 30 % of the language that I master at medium level." This allows her to build up her languages ​​in layers.

Meyer uses a similar approach: "The approach that works best for me is to have only a beginner language that I am actively learning, and an advanced or advanced language that I also concentrate on. In the case of the medium/advanced languages, I sometimes focus on more than one, but not with the beginner languages. This has always become a disaster!"

4. Develop personas for every language

As soon as you have made progress in several languages, it can be difficult to divide them, especially if they are similar.

Natasha Asghar, a London-based moderator of ZEE TV, speaks three Indo-Arische Languages ​​and three European languages-of which she uses four in her work every day.

She tells us: “I learned English, Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi at the same time and later studied French and German. A useful tip for new learners is to develop“ personas ”for every language. This will help to keep them separated in your head. ”

For French, her personality could be a bizarre waitress like Amélie, who smiles a lot and gesticulate. For German it may be a strict scientist who speaks in chopped tones. If you take over your mannerisms, your tone and your way of speaking, it will help you keep the languages ​​separately.

If you lay your languages ​​according to the 70/30 rule, it can also be helpful to change your surroundings for every language and learn them on different days.

5. Proceed systematically

If you are serious about learning several languages, you should consider drawing the hours you spend on every language.

Meyer tells us: "I am impatient when I don't see results quickly, so I will lead a protocol about when I learn and how long I learn. I use a table because daily updates should not take time. My current main project is Hebrew and I can say exactly that I have learned 136 hours of 136 hours a little more than half an hour is. "

If you record your studies in this way, you will be encouraged to celebrate small successes, motivate you to continue investing hours, and receive solid key figures where you can measure future language effort.

6. Understand that language learning is more long than difficult

Most of us believe that language learning is difficult. Without a doubt, it can be frustrating, challenging and unsatisfactory over long periods, but it is not as difficult as astrophysics or advanced math.

Learning several languages ​​- or even one - is more long than difficult. Even the simple languages ​​require 600 learning hours to master them. Staying concentrated and motivated is clearly the key.

The designer Shannon del Vecchio living in San Francisco speaks English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese. She tells us: "When I met my wife Gina for the first time, I already spoke four languages. I learned Italian because her family is Italian and I now have an Italian surname. She always said to everyone:" Shannon is so good in languages! She is wonderful! She speaks four of it. " After watching me to learn Italian, she now says: "You don't believe Shannon's ability to concentrate when learning language. She can sit down and work on it for two hours, and nothing distracts her concentration."

7. Don't worry about keeping them all in your head

One of my concerns about learning to French is that it will somehow "overwrite" my progress in Spanish by either watering down or shoving it aside, an error that is most likely related to the discredited hypothesis "Separate underlying knowledge" (SUP).

The academic Nayr Ibrahim explains: "This theory suggests that languages ​​are stored in separate subjects or containers that represent half of the capacity of the one -language brain. These 'containers' have limited storage space, and since the brain cannot store so much information, 'bend the other language'."

brahim adds that SUP has been discredited through decades of research on two- and multilingualism. In short, her brain has space for numerous languages. Just don't worry about keeping them all in mind at the same time.

Baek tells us: "In my experience, the languages ​​that I use most frequently are easily 'accessible' and I have to 'activate' the others. Meyer adds that "it is difficult to keep all languages ​​accessible", but that she can reactivate inactive with a few hours.

don't be defeated by fear of losing a language before you even started.

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