# Aprender varios idiomas a la vez / Learning several languages simultaneously



## Philippa

Hello!
Has anyone got any good advice for not muddling up languages when you're learning them.
We're going to Italy for several short trips soon and so we would like to learn some basic Italian, but I really don't want to 'mess up' and confuse my Spanish and I know the languages are very similar.
I did learn French at school and I was an au pair for a couple of months and at one point it was probably better than my Spanish is now, but it's like there's only room for one foreign language in my brain. I can still understand French pretty well, but I want to reply in Spanish! If I don't think carefully I even pronounce French words the Spanish way now, whereas at the start of learning Spanish I kept pronouncing things the French way.
Aaaaah!
Any advice gratefully received - thanks!!
Philippa


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## Eustache

Es dificil comenzar a entender una tercera lengua (incluida la materna), porque el cerebro trata de mezclar esa tercera lengua en el "sector" en donde se encuentra la segunda, pero no te preocupes!, eso solo pasa al principio... luego esa tercera lengua buscará un lugar en tu cerebro y nunca más tendrás problemas.

Según los científicos eso solo para cuando se está aprendiendo una tercera lengua... cuando se aprende la cuarta no te va a causar ningún problema


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## valerie

My mother tongue is French, and I learned Spanish quite easily, without having lived in a Spanish-speaking country. Then I was sent for work to Italy, where I spent 9 months, and had intensive sessions of Italian. During that period, I spent some week-ends in Spain, and was very happy to practice my Spanish....Until I realize that all my conversation, which I was convinced was Spanish was just Italian. I was not able to choose between speaking Spanish or Italian, both languages seemed to use the same place in my mind, I was not able to switch from one to another.
Now, I do speak Spanish, but I have abandoned speaking or reading anything in Italian, it is somehow sad, but the only solution I have found.

This never happened to me between German and English, or Spanish and English. Now I wonder if the same experience would occur with Portuguese, or Catalan. I'm very interested about hearing more experiences


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## VenusEnvy

Check out this thread asking for advice.


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## Benjy

i have never had any difficulty keeping my languages seperate, but then i have never tried mastering another romance language. i speak french to an ok standard and i've dabbled in hebrew/greek. i used to know quite  bit of latin but have sadly forgotten it all now =[


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## zebedee

As you can see by the answers you're getting this is something that happens to everyone learning more than one language. The brain naturally tries to borrow established patterns from the languages you've already learnt and applies them to the new language. 

One way that works for me is to actively discourage any kind of association between the languages I have in my head (including my mother tongue) so that I concentrate on "thinking" monolingually in the new language.

So when I learn new vocabulary and expressions in language nº 3, instead of translating the word to my mother language or to language nº 2, I try to invent a definition _in the same language_ or if I can't find the words then I try to memorise a key sentence without translating or draw a picture. That way my brain stays continually in language nº 3, creates new thought patterns and doesn't jump from one language to another mixing them up.

Of course, the more you learn of the new language, the more naturally thinking in it comes.

Hope it helps!


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## belén

A language teacher told me once that there is something called "third language interference".

I have been trying to learn German for many years, but I am still in a very basic level. At the same time, two years ago, I took a Portuguese course. Surprisingly, sometimes, I would try to say something in Portuguese and it would come out in German. I didn't understand how this could happen, because German and Portuguese are VERY different...that's when I heard about this "third language interference" phenomena. 

I would love to know more about this subject, I have been googling, but didn't find much information.

Best,
Belén


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## Leopold

Este artículo no es exactamente sobre el tema, pero me parece interesante y bastante acertado:
http://www.sgci.mec.es/redele/revista1/calvi.htm
Habla de los problemas en el aprendizaje de lenguas afines, como español e italiano.

L.


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## RODGER

Valerie's post interested me very much. I learned Italian after learning French and found there was no conflict between the two languages, quite the contrary, as the Latin "skeleton" of Italian is even more apparent than the one which exists in French. Spanish, however, has always posed what seemed to me to be unreasonable problems of learning, probably because of this. I know linguists talk of "interference" between certain languages with common origins which have grown quite far apart. I have also heard that Spanish grammar ha a deleterious effect on French grammar ! 

Rodger


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## PSIONMAN

RODGER said:
			
		

> I have also heard that Spanish grammar ha a deleterious effect on French grammar !




Oh No ! This has been at the back of mind. I have spent a few years getting to a reasonable standard in Spanish and I want to do French next - should I forget that?

Has anyone any experience of where Catalan might fit into this?

Jeff


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## VenusEnvy

RODGER said:
			
		

> I have also heard that Spanish grammar ha a deleterious effect on French grammar !


I can vouch for what you've heard. The rules are very similar, but slightly different enough to get them mixed up!



			
				PSIONMAN said:
			
		

> Oh No ! This has been at the back of mind. I have spent a few years getting to a reasonable standard in Spanish and I want to do French next - should I forget that?


I tried learning them both at the same time. But, I was at the same level at the same time in both languages. I would answer questions in my French class in Spanish, and vice versa. It was a nightmare. This, of course, is only my personal story. I highly recommend MASTERY of one before beginning the other.


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## lainyn

I politely present my grounds for disagreement:

I very rarely have any problems mixing up my Spanish and French. The only time this occurs is when I lack the correct Spanish vocab and I espanglize a French word in order to sound coherent 

That is to say, it's a common but not universal affliction. I'm currently learning about 6-7 languages. No problems so far, but of course I'm far from perfect at most of them.


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## suzzzenn

Maybe if the languages aren't similar, it is easier. I am learning Trique and Spanish, two radically different languages! I never mix them up, but Spanish flows much more easily. I still have trouble expressing myself in Trique. This is probably because Spanish is so similar to English (compared with Native American languages). I am trying to decide which language to study next and am a little reluctant to learn another romance language because I am worried about confusing the two.


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## PSIONMAN

I tried to learn German 30 years ago and have had little or contact with it since, but in a Spanish class last year I was wanting to say "sun glasses" and it came out as "brille de sol" and it was only when my (sensitive and understanding) classmates stopped laughing that I realised what I'd done. I had no idea that the word was lurking there or why it popped out at that moment. I knew the Spanish word perfectly well 

Jeff


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## Apoka

Hola, quiero saber si es recomendable aprender varios idiomas a la vez. Hablo español, y mi nivel de ingles es de bachillerato. ¿Es recomendable que me aventure al estudio de dos idiomas más? Estaba pensando en el francés y el ruso, o alemán y ruso. ¿Creéis que seria beneficioso o perjudicial?

Hello, I want know if is recommendable learn several languages simultaneously. I speak spanish, and my english level is the High school. Is recommendable that ventures me to the study of two languages more? I was thinking in French and Russian, or German and Russian. You know that it will be beneficial or  detrimental?

Salu2


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## Lugubert

I think it is preferrable to choose languages that don't resemble one another too much when taking on more than one at a time. For example, at  21, during a pause in Chemical Engineering studies, I took Sanskrit and Classical Arabic. Good results, despite adding a small course of Spanish. I can still recite long passages from either course book. When I at 59 tried Russian and Bulgarian in the same semester, I didn't get very far in those languages, and I don't attribute that failure to taking Chinese as well. To be on the safe side (and because of other factors), I now pause the Chinese, which has since then proceeded quite comfortably at 50% intensity, and at present Bible Hebrew and New Testament Greek both proceed admirably. I'm now 64.


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## MarX

Hej Apoka!

I don't think learning German/French and Russian simultaneously would pose a big problem. They are different enough.

Just as Lugubert said, learning two similar languages at the same time can be pretty confusing.


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## almostfreebird

MarX said:


> Hej Apoka!
> 
> I don't think learning German/French and Russian simultaneously wouldn't pose a big problem because they are different enough.
> 
> Just as Lugubert said, learning two similar languages at the same time can be pretty confusing.



yeah that's why I gave up leaning Italian. Its conjugations and spelling confused my spanish.


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## Apoka

Thanks for yours answers!


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## vince

Apprendre plus d'une langue à la fois no es una buena idea. Il est facile de les confundir.


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## PSIONMAN

vince said:


> Apprendre plus d'une langue à la fois no es una buena idea. Il est facile de les confundir.




Estoy d'accord


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## MarX

vince said:


> Apprendre plus d'une langue à la fois no es una buena idea. Il est facile de les confundir.


Not if they are not similar.

Suppose you're learning Chinese and Catalan at the same time. What is there to confuse?

Now learning Catalan and Italian at the same time can be confusing because there are so many similarities and it is hard not to mix them up in the process of learning.


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## locaporfutbol

Creo que mi pregunta cuadra perfectamente en este hilo...
Este verano voy a tenet que elegir qué estudiar en la universidad. Una de las posibilidades es la filología espaňola. Como me gusta muchísimo este idioma, estaría estupendo estudiarla. Pero hay una cosa - en esta carrera es obligatorio estudiar también otros dos idiomas romances, latín y portugués. Yo no he estudiado nunca estos idiomas, así que tendría que empezar con los dos desde el cero. Esto quizá no sea un problema tan grande. Pero además acabo de empezar con el euskera (como autodidacta), que me atrae mucho. Así que estudiaría a la vez tres idiomas para mí completamente nuevos. Y tengo miedo de que tenga un caos total en la cabeza. 
Qué opináis? Es posible estudiar tres idiomas nuevos a la vez? O es imposible (digamos para una persona normal, que sé que hay genios...)?


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## Mate

*Nota del moderador:*

Este hilo ya no concuerda con los actuales lineamientos de este foro:

*No empezar hilos que:*

puedan ser contestados mediante un simple sí o no;
pidan ayuda para tareas escolares o de investigación;
traten de romance, amor, cocina, deportes, literatura, películas, música o televisión;
discutan o inviten a la discusión acerca de estereotipos, generalidades y prejuicios;
inviten a un listado de su libro, canción, película, receta, actor, político, etc. favorito.
*soliciten consejos personales se cualquier índole.
*
De ahí que permanecerá cerrado de ahora en más.


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