<p>I'm guessing it's not a good idea, but has anyone been successful in <em>starting</em> two languages at the same time?</p>
<p>I have friends who started three at the same time. They seem quite happy with their choice.</p>
<p>I did not start three languages at once, but I learned them at the same time (with a two years gap).</p>
<p>It really depends on the languages and on you ! I would not call myself a language talent but I managed, though I had difficulties in seperating English and French (which are pretty similar).</p>
<p>As long as they are really different, it's easier !</p>
<p>I know a few foreign languages: Mandarin, German, Portuguese, and a bit of French and Spanish. The ones I speak, or spoke, well (the first three) are the ones I learned in country and/or living day-to-day with native speakers. This is a much more efficient way to learn a language, of course.</p>
<p>If you are in high school or college, I would really suggest against starting several different languages at once as part of official courses. The opportunity cost is way to high. Learning languages is an exercise in rote, basic learning. I don't see how classes at the basic levels would be that impressive to colleges or grad schools beyond perhaps one language. You would be much better off even loading language CDs on your IPOD and getting Rosetta Stone or other tapes for any additional languages you want to learn beyond one. If your goal is simply to learn languages, this will be a more effective way to do so anyway.</p>
<p>Even better would be to spend a summer in a country such as Guatamela or Spain or Taiwan or China or wherever for the other languages you want to learn. AND THAT would be more impressive for a college or grad school.</p>
<p>Now to your original question: learning two or more languages at once. I can switch between two foreign languages, but for me, really concentrating on one at a time is what put the neural pathways in place to begin to speak without reserve and speak well. I am at best above average at languages, not a sponge like some of my friends who can hear something once and repeat it. A Chinese woman on the street asked me for directions the other day and I started speaking Chinese with Portuguese interspersed. I had to concentrate and slow down to just speak Chinese. Most people apparently are like this -- i.e., one secondary language functions as the primary reserve. The primary reserve will come out if you try to speak other languages which you use less. But in my case, I do spend half my day speaking Portuguese.</p>
<p>Just a thought. You may have better processing capabilities. And in any case, unless you really expose yourself to tapes or people or are simply spectacular with languages, you're not going to get very far even with one language that quickly. So, you could also argue, why not more than one?</p>
<p>Oh, the final thing: of course, the more you learn the easier it becomes.</p>
<p>well i started learning french in 8th grade and spanish in 10th grade (but i tested out of spanish 1 because i have mad skills or something) and continued to study both languages concurrently. yes, i do mix up french and spanish at times since they are in the same family, but its helpful more than anything. and i get to hear all the grammar lessons twice...</p>
<p>
That's what I was hoping, but I wasn't sure. </p>
<p>
I will be, partly. One of my languages will be Gaelic or Welsh (not sure which yet), and I'll be studying abroad there next year. The other language is a fairly esoteric dead one that's not offered here, which is why I wanted to take both. Thanks for the great input. :)</p>
<p>@ BedHead:</p>
<p>This reservething is exactly what happens to me. My native tongue is German; English happens (more and more) to be the language I think in (I'm living in Germany) and as soon as I try to speak french, I use English terms with french pronounciation.</p>
<p>@warblers...
A dead language and a modern one is a good thing, because you will hardly speak the dead one. It's more about remembering the grammar and structures. I never had a problem to learn Latin and English. Of course it's a risk, but if you learn for the sake of learning, it might be pretty satisfying.</p>
<p>DavidAlex: When I had first started learning Portuguese, I was in a bar in Rio had a couple of beers and my German came back better than it had been in 10 years. My German friend said "my god, you speak good German." It was really weird because something about the fact that I was trying to learn a new language strangely activated the German. It wasn't just the beer. I had been in similar situations (without learning a new language as a backdrop) in the intervening 10 years. This was something new. Weird.</p>
<p>I'd second the opinion that the more different the languages are, the less of a problem it will be. I've never had trouble mixing American Sign Language and French--it's just not physically possible :-)</p>
<p>I have Latin and Spanish back to back and LOVE it, even though I am not fond at all of Spanish. They really help me with each other. Occassionaly I mix up sounds; for example, facile is easy in both Latin and Spanish but in Latin it's fah-kell-ay and in Spanish it's faw-seal. My teachers give me some weird looks but they eventually get it!</p>