Have you found it easier to learn a third language after picking up a second?

[olivia]

For people who grew up with one main language and then learned a second, was it easier to pick up a third after having experience learning one new language? It probably depends on what languages you are learning, but I'm thinking might be easier for me to pick up French or Italian after learning some Spanish since some of the principles are the same. I haven't spent too much time learning a third language though besides some short beginner Duolingo lessons. What does everyone else think?

[shamzblueworld]

I think it depends upon the language you're learning and the medium of learning as well, though I can say it would be slightly easier to learn the third language because you would have the experience of learning and also the patience.

[Determined2014]

For people who grew up with one main language and then learned a second, was it easier to pick up a third after having experience learning one new language? It probably depends on what languages you are learning, but I'm thinking might be easier for me to pick up French or Italian after learning some Spanish since some of the principles are the same. I haven't spent too much time learning a third language though besides some short beginner Duolingo lessons. What does everyone else think?

It all depends on the language , if they are almost realted then it becomes easier to learn the third language, lets say I was learning spanish then I now want to learn Chinese, it will notbe easier since the languages do not even relate.

[TheElephantsCafe]

I think it depends upon the language you're learning and the medium of learning as well, though I can say it would be slightly easier to learn the third language because you would have the experience of learning and also the patience.

I agree, I know for me trying to learn Italian after learning Spanish is going much better than before when I tried to learn Italian without knowing any Spanish. They're both very similar and I'm sure that's why it's easier. If I were to try and learn German or Swahili right now I'd probably have no idea what I was doing.  :bored:

[pcgamer]

Learning a language is never easy even if it means it's not your first language. It's always a pain.

[DancingLady]

Definitely.  I think with your second language, you are also learning how to learn language.  Once you have learned this skill, it is easier to learn the next one.  I noticed this when I took German.  I had 2 years of French in HS, which did not stick well, but when I started German everything was coming much easier.

[ariana4]

Nope! Perhaps it would be easier if the languages were similar. But I was born bilingual, and studied French in high school. Recently, I've been trying to learn Japanese. It's been very difficult as I constantly think of French vocab words. Learning multiple languages, at least in my experience, becomes a huge stress. This is because if I am not regularly speaking the language, I need to review vocabulary words, and the more languages, the more words to remember.

[jbepp]

It definitely depends on the languages. I learned English trough assimilation, and after I understood most of the language, I started to study grammar. Now that I'm learning French, I try to use the same methods that worked for me when I was learning English. It's also really useful because many English words come from France or vice versa, and it really makes things easier.

[NATASHA]

Absolutely! I find that once you have learned a language or two then it is definitely easier to pick up another language and you will find that you can learn a fourth or even more.

I would love to be able to speak in any language as it is so nice to be able to communicate with people from all over the world.

[Dora M]

I grew up bilingual, and I learnt two more languages over the years. For me, it has never been hard to pick up a new language or to become fluent in it. It's one of the things that come easy to me. I like the fact that I can speak to people in all parts of the world, using these skills. And I am truly grateful, that I was able to turn this talent into a lucrative job.

[Melee]

Well, I have not yet mastered a second language, but I will chime in here and say what a friend of mine told me, of course keeping in mind that everyone's ability, and desire, to learn is different.

A friend of mine who speaks at least 3 languages speaks Spanish.  She married an Italian man and had to learn his language.  She told me that it was relatively easy for her to pick up Italian because, to her, it was very similar to Spanish.

[Baburra]

I learned my second and third languages simultaneously when I was younger so I don't have much of a comparison but now that I am learning more languages I can say that knowing of how long it takes and how much effort is needed does help with giving a general idea of what to look out for. Also, learning of the importance of the basic structure gives me more of an appreciation of the discipline and the overall idea of each language so I'd say it absolutely helps.

[NATASHA]

I would love to be able to speak as many languages as possible. Wouldnt it be great to be able to communicate with anyone that you meet from other countries?

It is easier to learn languages once you know one or two and it is harder to stop learning when you can get response from people after you have been told that you speak their language well.

[JGON3491]

Oh dear lord I haven't even tried! If I were to learn a 3rd language I think my brain would not function well. I already have a hard time with two languages I can't imagine knowing 3 languages.

[Juan Fuentes]

My native language is spanish, and I learned english by a bit of self-teaching and mostly practice. I find that it is easy to learn a language when you see yourself forced to speak it. I tried learning french using books and courses, but in the end, practice is key.

For example, the rules of any language can be hard to learn by memory. But when you find yourself needing to speak the language over and over, you will start learning by trial and error as well. That's why communication courses are very helpful.

I do believe that once you find the learning process that suits you best, you can learn any language easily. If you've already learned a new language, you probably know that process already, so another new language should be easier.

[SamClemensMT]

Once you know the method for learning a second language it becomes easier with each additional tongue you study.  It really is like learning an instrument.  Some languages are in the same linguistic group, like English and Dutch, or Italian and Portuguese,so learning them together is a easier. Like studying piano and the harpsichord. However, if you have mastered Japanese you will find it fairly easy to then pick up Spanish. The method is the same.

[Guest wellpostlooper]

While I was learning Spanish, there was this guy who joined our class after having mastered French. For some reason he just seemed to catch up with us easily and we asked him about it. He said many of the words we are using just have a slight difference in French. I guess it is therefore easy to transition from one language to another as long as they are related especially those that are descended from Latin.

[snowfairy]

It really depends on the language you are studying. In my case it's a little bit difficult because the way we construct sentences in my native tongue is similar to the English grammar but when it comes to studying the construction on the Japanese language, it is different.

[SpringBreeze]

It definitely was easier. I think learning another language opens and exercises another part of your brain. So, after the second one you not only find it easier, you also find yourself more willing. Like now, I have no problem taking a language class for a couple of months just for fun and traveling.

[Saholy]

Yes! I think the rumors are true: it is easier to learn another language once you have one or some under your belt. One of the reasons is this: you learn to read body language, you learn how to access your memory banks for information you already know that will help you use process of elimination in order to help you decipher what you are hearing and lastly, you learn what key words are really important to learn for communication. There are about 100 words that one needs to learn in any language in order to begin communicating. If you are attempting a Latin based language, you already have hundreds of words that you know - you only need to change the way you are pronouncing or hearing them! Once you get passed these barriers to language learning, it becomes much easier to learn the next one. Some even suggest learning two new languages at once. But that might be a better subject for a future post. ;-)

[Ruth]

I found it is easier to learn a third language after picking up a second.  There are some similarities like phonetics, characters or structure among language.  However, it still requires hard effort to excel in the third language.

[Asaase]

I think it really depends on the third language and if the languages are related. Growing up, I heard mostly Amharic and Twi because these are my family languages. I learned English when I started school. For me, English was very hard to learn because the sentence structure is nothing like Amharic or Twi.

[anna3101]

I definitely think each new language is easier than the previous one, especially if they belong to the same family. I only have experience with Romance and Germanic languages, they have a lot in common in terms of both grammar and vocabulary, so the more languages you discover, the more similarities you see.

But I also think - as someone has already pointed out here - that learning is a skill by itself, so the more you do it, the easier it gets.

[bittersblue]

Sort of? I don't know if it actually became easier because of the language but after learning a language for 3-4 years, I just knew what learning methods worked for me. I knew what sort of things I had to do to better memorize vocab, practice grammar, etc. I don't think me learning Spanish had any effect on my Chinese ability, but I do think that my Spanish classes just helped me figure out what learning methods worked best for me so every language I took after that became easier because I knew what to do to learn everything quickly.

[hungary93]

Actually, yes mostly because of the old ways I learned how to get comfortable in a foreign language, and going to the process second, third and so on.. time is so much easier. It's mostly because you learn from yourself and the ways you can study, and also in several ways words and languages are similar to each other. The more the merrier.