What do you think of those learning 5 languages at once?

[pandachan]

I respect them- if they feel that they are capable of learning several languages at once, more power to them! Me, I don't think I could do that. Learning a language from scratch takes a lot of dedication and practice, I would rather concentrate my full attention on one language rather than spread it out over a few languages. Not to mention the inevitably of mixing up the languages!

[JessiFox]

While I believe that to be a remarkable ability, I find that to be cheating the system. I believe that if you're going to be learning a language, you should figure out how the language works in relation to its culture and the history of how this specific language came to be. Especially if the language does not derive from Latin roots. For those who are learning more than one language at a time, you're not getting the full experience of the language(s) that you're learning!

Really well stated, I agree. I was thinking along similar lines but struggling with how to say it. I understand the desire, I've always wanted to learn as many languages as possible, too. But I think you need to give the language you're learning a fair amount of attention and respect.

[Wizard]

I think that if someone is actually able to keep up with learning five languages at once, they are incredibly commendable; I can barely learn the one I'm trying my best with, let alone do 5 simultaneously. I know there are people out there that are better at learning languages in general compared to others, but even at that its hard to imagine someone doing THAT many.

I think if it were me attempting it, though... Well, I'd be more than likely to end up getting words from different languages confused and speaking a weird mix of several languages at once, ahaha. Just picture German with some random Japanese, English, and some Spanish in there too, all going at once.

Yeah...probably best I just stick with one.

[lushlala]

I think that if someone is actually able to keep up with learning five languages at once, they are incredibly commendable; I can barely learn the one I'm trying my best with, let alone do 5 simultaneously. I know there are people out there that are better at learning languages in general compared to others, but even at that its hard to imagine someone doing THAT many.

I think if it were me attempting it, though... Well, I'd be more than likely to end up getting words from different languages confused and speaking a weird mix of several languages at once, ahaha. Just picture German with some random Japanese, English, and some Spanish in there too, all going at once.

Yeah...probably best I just stick with one.

That's definitely me, too. I find that learning even one language is stressful and demanding enough on its own, without adding one on top, let alone 4 more. I bet if there's anybody who's able to do this, they don't have much of a life, because they have so much going on. How they're able to keep the languages separate without mixing them up is beyond me. It'd be interesting to have experts look at their brains to determine how they're able to do this. There can't be that many people who're able to do this!

[booklover22]

Learning that many languages at once is a lot, I mean good for them for being able to do that! I don't think that I wold be able to do that. I have a hard time learning the one that I'm trying to learn right now. I think that I would just get the words from other languages mixed up if I was doing that. I would love to learn more languages though.

[kmb]

For me personally, I think I'd struggle with it - I am finding it hard enough with the one language I am trying to learn!

However, I guess it really depends on the languages you were trying to learn all at once. There are a lot of languages with commonalities, so if that was the case then I imagine it would be a lot easier to learn many at once. However, if they were all extremely different, then I would have to assume it would be hard to tackle.

[untalleslie]

If that works for them I think is fine! But I don't get why are they so desperate to learn all those languages! As you have said, when you speak different languages there are more jobs opportunities, but they are so young... It could be kind of confusing and stressful for some of them, but as I've said, if it works for them they should keep it up!

[missbookworm]

Wow. Seriously? I really admire those people who have the ability to learn/study 5 languages at the same. Learning even just one language is already difficult to do, what more if you are trying to acquire fluency in 5 languages simultaneously? I think it's possible but very hard to do.

[kurdapia]

It is possible to learn a few languages all at the same time. I wonder though if you can manage to remember everything you learned especially if you do not use all of these languages everyday. Even in our own native language we are sometimes lost for words what more if you use five foreign languages

[Enrico]

I think the best way to go is to learn one language first and apply the 80/20 rule to it. Once you have enough efficiency on your first language, learn the next one applying the 80/20 rule once again and then learn another one until you get to five languages or more. Then once you have the basics down on the languages you've learned, you can relearn them and study them to a higher mastery level. In my experience, I found that it my Spanish helps in my current learning of French because they have a lot of similar words or roots!

[kokosflocken]

Five sounds like a little too much, but sometimes two or three at the same time (particularly if they have the same linguistic origins) can help you compare the similarities and differences and in general, get a bigger picture of the language family.

[zurcminister]

If I could do such that will definitely be an achievement. For those people who are trying to learn five languages at once is such an amazing feat as this is very challenging and is very difficult to achieve. I guess this can be done but really needs a ton of concentration and discipline. So I would like to send out a big good luck to those attempting such and I know you are up to the task in the attempt to do so. Keep it up!

[humanoid]

Five languages at once! That's no mean feat. At school, we learnt both French and German at the same time and that was hard enough. I imagine that it would take some real effort not to get these languages mixed up.

[Amy]

I think it's amazing that someone can learn that many languages at once.  I would wonder how in depth they are able to learn each one though.  I don't have that much talent.  I'm currently struggling through learning just one language right now.  More power to those who can do more than one at once though.

[Chris_A]

I think learning 5 languages at once can be quite challenging, especially if the languages are not related to one another. In my opinion, it is best to learn 1 language at a time, getting quite good at it, and then moving on to learn a new one. That way you are sure to get quite proficient in the languages you want to learn.

[kmars]

Learning more languages widens your scope economically and socially. I want to learn more languages but at the same time I do not want to overcrowd my brain. At the end of the day I don't think I will be able to stay abreast of all the languages that I've learned because it takes a lot of revision and continuous practice. Unless I plan on teaching many languages at a language school.

[lushlala]

Learning more languages widens your scope economically and socially. I want to learn more languages but at the same time I do not want to overcrowd my brain. At the end of the day I don't think I will be able to stay abreast of all the languages that I've learned because it takes a lot of revision and continuous practice. Unless I plan on teaching many languages at a language school.

It certainly does open your doors to so many exciting opportunities! That's why if it were easy to do, you'd find many multi-lingual people around the world, including me! But lately I've been seeing many articles of some people having learnt a foreign language in record time, like in the last article I read that this guy learnt a foreign language in like 22 hours! -and apparently he's not even very good at languages!  Just how they do it is something I can't get my head around!!

[Trellum]

Learning more languages widens your scope economically and socially. I want to learn more languages but at the same time I do not want to overcrowd my brain. At the end of the day I don't think I will be able to stay abreast of all the languages that I've learned because it takes a lot of revision and continuous practice. Unless I plan on teaching many languages at a language school.

Then start with only one, once you master one jump into another one. Nowadays you have so many choices, the best ones are paid ones, but while you decide what language you really want to study, you might want to give the free choices a  try

[lushlala]

Then start with only one, once you master one jump into another one. Nowadays you have so many choices, the best ones are paid ones, but while you decide what language you really want to study, you might want to give the free choices a  try

[Wanda Kaishin]

What do I think of people learning 5 languages at once? I am one, so I guess by definition I love them. Now, there seems to be some negativity about multi-language learning here, so let’s clarify.

What do you mean by “learning”? Personally, I think as long as we are using languages, we are learning them. But when people ask me which languages I’m learning now, I tell them the names of the ones that I study on a regular basis. For example, right now I study Mandarin every day, and I study Japanese, French, Thai and Russian once every 4 days. So I say I’m learning 5 languages.

If I already speak the language comfortably, do you still consider me to be learning it? And what do you mean by speaking a language comfortably? I see the term “fluent” being used a lot here, but I don’t find this term to be helpful. Fluent means too many things to too many people. I prefer to use the CEFR when talking about skill levels. There are 6 levels: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2. All 5 of my languages are at B1 or B2, so am I still learning them by your definition?

After many years as a polyglot, if I had to do it all over again this is what I’d advise to people who want to learn a lot of languages in their lifetimes: learn the first one all the way to your final desired level in that language, then move onto the next one. Repeat. Assuming your final level is C1/C2, learning in this way allows you to completely avoid the time consuming practice of maintaining your languages.

To those who said they can’t learn multiple languages - there’s no magic formula here. As I said in another post: motivation, time and resources. If you have them, you will succeed. Do you have them for all of the languages you are learning combined? If so, no problem. If not, you will fail.

Some people have mentioned confusion between languages. This happens because you are at a low level in one or more of your languages, and it goes away when you improve. Once you’ve been through this you’ll understand that it’s nothing to worry about.

I’m all for learning multiple languages, but I’m against starting more than one language at a time. The effort level is really high and so is the confusion level. If you don’t want to follow the method I outlined above, then I recommend at least a really long stagger between starting languages.

There is a group of multi-language learners that even I have my doubts about. These are the young folks that are studying between 5 and 30 languages at a time, none of them above A1. I read about how they study. Typically they average 10 or 15 minutes a day in a language. Imo, that’s not enough to ever bring a language to a high level. But these people think if they keep it up, eventually they will reach C2. It’s unfortunate, because they are lead by a handful of enthusiasts who claim this method works. Like I said, I have my doubts.

There’s nothing wrong with learning a language to a low level; please don’t be discouraged if this is your goal. It’s not for me, but I respect everyone’s goal. What I hate to see is someone who wants to reach a high level in a language following this method.

[111kg]

I was too once learnig multiple languages at a time. However, I've discovered that by distributing your attention to 5 different things, each one receives only 20% of your best. It's not practical from my point of view, especially if you plan to speak those languages. Yes, you can learn 10 languages at one time, but only to get some certifications, but on the long run, you will forget almost everything, especially if you don't use them.

[Trellum]

There is a group of multi-language learners that even I have my doubts about. These are the young folks that are studying between 5 and 30 languages at a time, none of them above A1. I read about how they study. Typically they average 10 or 15 minutes a day in a language. Imo, that’s not enough to ever bring a language to a high level. But these people think if they keep it up, eventually they will reach C2. It’s unfortunate, because they are lead by a handful of enthusiasts who claim this method works. Like I said, I have my doubts.

 

There’s nothing wrong with learning a language to a low level; please don’t be discouraged if this is your goal. It’s not for me, but I respect everyone’s goal. What I hate to see is someone who wants to reach a high level in a language following this method.

 

There is no negativity directed to people learning several languages at once, we were talking about the same group you were referring to in the quote above.  That group of kids learning 5 or more languages at once and none of them above A1.  Hence the ''negativity'' aka freedom of  speech. A kid in particular inspired this thread, it was with him in mind that I created this thread, because he is currently learning more than 5 languages at once, but none of them above A1 or A2, even his English is quite deficient. I have advised him to focus on 2 or 3 languages at a time, but he won't listen.  

 

 I personally think it's crazy!  And I wonder how he has time for that... going to school, having a gf, adding people to practice languages... he spends a lot time on sites like speaky.  I really have no idea how he does it! I feel sorry for the kid, he wants to learn so many languages, but I doubt he will ever master them all like that... last time I checked he was learning 11 languages at once. 

 

I've met kids who have done well learning several languages, but they have never gone past the 3 language at once mark.  To me the ideal is reaching a C2 level before embarking on a different one.  I might learn french and German at once once I am done with dutch (since it's very important for me to master it as soon as possible).  But I'd not call that multiple language learning    

[Wanda Kaishin]

 I personally think it's crazy!  And I wonder how he has time for that... going to school, having a gf, adding people to practice languages... he spends a lot time on sites like speaky.  I really have no idea how he does it! I feel sorry for the kid, he wants to learn so many languages, but I doubt he will ever master them all like that... last time I checked he was learning 11 languages at once. 

But what are his goals? I personally only feel sorry for the ones who expect to reach a high level doing this. There are plenty of multi-language learners who are thrilled if they are able to small talk a little in a language. Some call this "just flirting", and it's surprising to me how many prefer this to reaching a high level. If that's what they're after, more power to 'em, right?

[Spyllus]

I don't know how they can do it O_O it's difficult enough to learn 1 let alone more than one at a time

[Trellum]

But what are his goals? I personally only feel sorry for the ones who expect to reach a high level doing this. There are plenty of multi-language learners who are thrilled if they are able to small talk a little in a language. Some call this "just flirting", and it's surprising to me how many prefer this to reaching a high level. If that's what they're after, more power to 'em, right?

His goals are to master all those languages o_O  ALL!  The boy is super motivated, I have never seen someone as motivated as him, but  I'm sure he'd do more if he focused on only 2 or 3 languages at once. He is very smart,  but I really think he is not using all his potential... his English could be better!  He reminds me a bit of myself when I was younger, I wanted to learn as many languages as possible, but I only focused on one or two at the time.  I lacked that kind of motivation (he is so motivated!), but I managed to master English and improve my Spanish orthography greatly.