Learning more than one language at a time

[thediscoverer]

Does learning more than one language at a time cause confusion? What is your opinion.

[IAmJon]

I think you should prioritise one language over the other. I waited until i was decent at French before starting German. Even now as i learn two at the same time i try to make sure i am learning French more. If you learn two at the same time and spend as much time learning both, you make it hard for yourself. Especially when learning similar languages like the Romance ones. It does vary from person to person though.

[thediscoverer]

thank you for replying. Your opinion greatly appreciated.

[helenvee]

This question comes up about once a month and it depends on the person. I'm doing two languages and have had no difficulty but someone else might. It's purely personal I think.

[thediscoverer]

Thanks for your opinion. I'm new here :)

[cly44]

I'm going to stick with one until I've got it down pretty well. Thats what I did with Korean and then Japanese. Those two language have many similarities and trying to learn them together was confusing.

[thediscoverer]

That's reasonable. By the way, how many languages do you know?

[Michael-Forest]

Though I'm currently taking a break from Duolingo to totally focus on learning Chinese (since I've found myself in China for a bit), I was previously learning all five languages at once. (I'm cheating a little by saying that—I'm already proficient in French, but needed the review.) For me, an experienced language learner, learning four languages at once is really no problem; in my experience, I get more confused by learning languages sequentially than I do by learning them simultaneously (ESPECIALLY when the languages are related). But your mileage may vary, and particularly if you're short on time or really struggling with one, it may be best to stick with one.

Like in my case, I have to spend so much time trying to learn Chinese that I don't have enough time to make sure I learn German/Spanish/Italian/Portuguese/French every single day, and I don't want to rotate between languages.

[Michael-Forest]

For what it's worth, I'm proficient in two languages (including English), but I can carry on a conversation in probably about 5. And I've studied at least 10, I'm sure. When I learn languages sequentially, especially related languages, I keep wanting to "fill in the gaps" from one language to the other, and that messes me up. When I learn them at the same time, it's easier for me to separate them into their own linguistic boxes.

[thediscoverer]

Grazie mille! Appreciate your opinion very much.

[jrikhal]

Hi,

See, for example:

• http://www.duolingo.com/comment/8111
• http://www.duolingo.com/comment/210742
• http://www.duolingo.com/comment/327249
• http://www.duolingo.com/comment/518618
• http://www.duolingo.com/comment/545741
• http://www.duolingo.com/comment/725489

Before posting a question, please look for it into the forum through the search engine of the discusions page: probably someone already asked it and had an answer.

For your question you can search, for example an exact part of your title, "more than one language" (with guillement) or learn AND language AND time AND advice (with capital AND) in the search engine.

[thediscoverer]

Thanks a lot for the advice. I'll definitely do as you said before posting a q :)