Learning Multiple Languages at the Same Time

I kind of say that I regret doing three languages at the same time, but if I had

the discipline, I would focus on one now.

Hi, Steve Kaufman here and, uh, today I want to talk about my experience

in learning or trying to learn several languages at the same time.

A subject I've talked about before.

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So I've talked about this before, and this is something that comes up a lot.

People who do learn several languages at the same time, or would like

to learn several languages at the same time, is it a good idea?

Not a good idea?

And so forth.

So I have tended to say it's best to focus on one language.

However, there are advantages to trying to learn more than one language at one time.

And basically that's sort of the experiment that I embarked on.

It's gotta be three years ago where I said, I'm going to learn three

Middle Eastern languages, Turkish, Arabic, and Persian or Farsi.

Um, and my reason for doing that was, first of all, the reasons were one:

I didn't want to go...

I know it takes a long time to learn any one language.

So if I were to focus on Arabic then for two years, I would

not do any Persian or Turkish.

So, if I were to learn all three languages, it might take me six

years or more to achieve any kind of a level in any one of them.

So I said, well, if I go three months on one and three months on the other, you

know, I kinda maintain all three of them.

I won't move along as quickly, but I won't forget as much.

And so that's kind of what I've been doing for the last three years.

Uh, I decided to stop the Turkish because one of the obstacles for me in Persian and

in Arabic was simply the writing system.

The problem, the difficulty in learning a writing system is not so much

learning what the different symbols or characters or letters represent,

it's actually training your brain to read, uh, and to convert, you know,

Writing into meaning instantly the way we do in our own writing system.

And it's just an awful lot harder.

Uh, I, I still find it easier to read in Czech or Polish than in Russian or

Ukrainian, even though I speak Russian, certainly a lot better than Czech.

Uh, you can't sort of discount the sort of sense of familiarity with

a script that we grew up with.

And, uh, of course, you know, all of the Cyrillic script is essentially

parallel to the Latin script.

So it's not that difficult to learn.

Uh, on the other hand, Persian and Arabic present me...

at least they were difficult for me.

So I said, okay, I'm going to focus on them and leave the Turkish.

So I've been doing that.

And I would say that really my progress has suffered.

Uh, I have, uh, a smattering of certainly Arabic and Persian.

Um, not only that in Arabic, I've decided to expose myself to Levantine

Arabic and, uh, Egyptian Arabic, which also introduces a level of confusion.

But, um, and the reason I'm doing that is that I want to be able to understand

movies from Lebanon, movies from Egypt and, um, Arabic speaking people, they

speak their own dialect to each other and they somehow manage to communicate

across different dialects with the exception of people from North Africa.

So I kind of feel if I'm doing my Arabic thing, then I should kind of

be familiar with Levantine Arabic and Egyptian Arabic, and actually the two

Egyptisn and Levantine are closer to each other than they are to Standard Arabic.

But you still need the Standard Arabic in order to read and in order to

understand, you know, radio political podcasts and things of that nature.

So my Arabic is kind of at a standstill.

Uh, Persian I think I'm doing better at, and I have, it's more

comfortable, easier for me to speak in Persian when I speak to my tutor.

But there's no question that if I were to focus on one, I would

be much, much further ahead.

And so then I say to myself, okay, why don't I just focus on Persian now and

trying to get it up to a decent level?

Uh, but then of course there's always that, geez, you know, I come across an

interesting something in Levantine Arabic.

Uh, in fact, I bought a book recently, um, on, uh, Levantine Arabic

grammar and Levantine Arabic verbs.

And it's fun going to the lead through that.

So it's kind of hard to let go, but I probably should.

And no sooner have I done that than I, I was scheduled to have a, uh,

an interview or a conversation.

Uh, a YouTuber who speaks Japanese and Turkish.

So I said, geez, I'd better brush up on my Turkish.

So I go back to my Turkish and after an initial three months

focused on Turkish, I did have an exit video as I call it in Turkish,

where I actually was able to speak.

I couldn't do that now.

Uh, but then I go back to Turkish, go back to the mini stories,

go back to a bunch of stuff.

And I realized it was how much I have forgotten.

And also how many words there are for me to learn.

So I'm kinda nowhere in Turkish, uh, not where I would like to be in

Arabic a little closer, where I, to, where I would like to be in Persian.

And now it turns out that I have an interview or a discussion

with someone from Korea.

And so I said, you know what?

I should kind of brush up my Korean.

I've spent a lot of time on Korean over the years on again off again.

And it's really not at a level that I would like.

I'm sure if I, if, you know, when I have been in Korea can have sort

of casual conversation with people.

I do have theoretically, a large passive vocabulary, but in fact, I struggle.

Um, so I've been doing very Korean plus I'm down here in Palm Springs.

Again, you can see my fake bookshop behind me and we're at a golf course

and there's a large group of young Koreans who are, uh, this is sort of like

their golf camp with their instructors.

So I like to go and chat a bit and, uh, and, uh, watch them, with them

all and see if I been imitate them.

So the Korean is back.

So like, there's just no end.

And so then the question really is, is it really worthwhile doing all of this?

Why bother?

And so I think the question of whether you should learn more than one language at

the same time, or even as a polyglot, even if you're not doing it at the same time,

you are entertaining, you are balancing like this, this, uh, you know, a juggler

who's got all these balls in the air.

Uh, obviously you can't maintain them all, you know, you're

catching stuff that's falling down.

You can't maintain them all at the same at the same time.

Um, so then you, I think it very much depends on the, the sort of, uh, you know,

what your needs are at any given time.

And I definitely enjoy exploring languages, even the little

bit of Turkish that I have.

I'm very happy that I, I I've done that.

Uh, I'm happy because I enjoy when I go back to Turkey and I hear the

sounds of Turkish, uh, when I watch a series in Turkish I get a bit of a

sense of what they're talking about or the odd word here and there.

And I'm very happy that I, that I did that.

I'm very happy that I did what I did in Korean, even though it's not

quite where I would like it to be.

So I think that the simple answer is, you know, should you study more than

one language at the same time, or even, should you study more than one language?

Should you focus on one language and try to be as good as you

possibly can be in that language?

That's...

Finally, you know, in the end, that's up to you.

I very much applaud people who want to become as good as they can be in

language X, but at the same time, uh, it's such a wonderful thing.

And I think back to that great gentle giant Moses McCormick who

tragically died at a very young age.

Whose life was spent exploring all kinds of unconnected languages from

every corner of the world and probably not achieving, you know, C2 or

anything in any of those languages, but certainly capable of handling

conversations in a variety of languages.

So it depends what you want to do.

Do you want to explore, or you want to be a perfectionist?

Uh, but if you want to do well in the language, then I

certainly think you have to focus.

And, uh, I kinda say that I regret doing three languages at the same time, but if I

had the discipline, I would focus on one.

Now I would go and focus on Persian and get it up to a really good level

and then go back in and pick up the pieces, uh, of my Arabic or, or.

And, uh, I've still got pieces to pick up in a Korean and

Czech and Greek and Romanian.

So that in a sense, comes with a territory.

If you're going to be a polyglot and enjoy exploring languages, you're

never going to be satisfied, uh, with your level in any of them,

but you're going to enjoy them all.

So just a bit of a ramble, uh, on the subject of studying

more than online at the same.

Thank you for listening.

I hope you find that useful.

And I think I'll leave you my exit videos after three months of Persian and three

months of Turkish and, uh, of those two, I think I've improved in Persian since then.

I haven't improved it in Turkish.

Bye for now.