hello guys welcome to my channel
this is zoe how's your language learning going
if you are learning several languages at once or
want to do so
today's video is for you
I got a lot of questions from you
like how to maintain the level
of the languages while learning other languages
some friends are
not sure if they should start learning a
new language because
they are afraid that they might lose the level of other languages
or they might mix them up
other friends wrote to me like
Zoé, I've decided to learn
four languages because you have inspired me
to be honest I feel a bit worried about it because
I don't want to mislead you
I know we are indeed interested
in different languages and is difficult to decide
I know
it's exciting to study several languages and discover
different cultures
still I need to make this video to tell you the reality
It is super
challenging
and it requires a lot of energy passion and discipline
so today
I will be sharing with you in detail my journey of
learning six foreign languages
French English Arabic German Turkish and Persian
you will see how I gradually learned
one language after another
what difficulties I encountered
how I dealt with these difficulties
I will try to give you some handy and practical advice
as always
I hope this can give you some ideas and inspiration
if you like this video
don't forget to hit the like button and support me
don't forget to subscribe to my channel
is it possible to learn
several languages
simultaneously
a big yes
theoretically I'm learning six languages simultaneously
but I didn't start learning then at
the same
time
here is the timeline
from September 2015 to September 201 6
I focused only on French
I got a DALF C1 and studied my
MA in sociology in France
sometimes we had conferences in English
and I realized that my English was very weak
I could understand but I couldn't speak
because I had never practiced before
living France was my first experience abroad
so I told myself that
if I wanted to have an international
academic career I had to improve my English
so I started to work on my English and French
simultaneously
even though
I could already speak French fluently in everyday life
it was still difficult for me to follow the courses
read quickly we had to read a lot
writing the dissertation or thesis in French
was still a big challenge
so for French I concentrated on the lectures
listening recording
checking in new keywords from articles and books
for English I bought a grammar
and an academic vocabulary book
I watched a lot of online lectures in English
lot of open classes in
philosophy sociology and history
and did a lot of shadowing exercises
to improve my pronunciation
at that time my French was much better than my English
if there were words I didn't know in English
I checked it and wrote them down in French
I still use this method a lot of today
I mostly take notes in English and French
for other languages
I rarely take note in my native language Chinese
it was
not difficult to balance these two languages because
most of the time
I was studying and using French
I just put learning English into my daily routine
if you are in the same situation
there is a dominant language like French
devote most of a time
and energy to it
and another language
put it in a fixed routine
30min a day for example front 7:30 to 8 am
for example with a clear plan
that target your weakness
like shadowing for my pronunciation
grammar exercises for my grammar
what I have learned from that
period is that
we should do things with a long term vision
at that time it seemed more
important to me to live in France to get my degree
but my decision to improve my English and integrated
into my daily life
into my daily routine
has changed my life three years later
today I can lecture it in English
I am not afraid to attend any international conferences
I can write articles in English
and now the most of the contents of my channel
is in English to reach a wider public
I really got a lot of opportunities because of it
at the end of my MA
I decided to learn Arabic
at that time the level of my French was already sufficient to
manage my academy tasks
so my goal became Arabic and English, the same principal
Arabic was my dominant language
English the routine as before
but I reduced the time of
studying English to only two three times a week
another tip when I
watch
movies series or videos on YouTube today in Arabic
French and English
even if I can understand everything
I always turn on the CC subtitles
to see new words and expressions
this is how I learned new skills and
at the same time
many new words and terms about photography videography
gym and makeup cooking
that's how I maintain my level
in these languages without
a lot of
additional studies
a year after learning Arabic
I decided to learn German because of my academy vision
and I wanted to read sociology
sociology and
philosophy books in German
it was the first time I felt overwhelmed
but I told myself the same strategy to focus on Arabic
learning German
stay in a basic daily level
a basic daily routine
I studied one lesson with DW DEUTSCH WELLE every day
English and French I always watch
videos and read books and sometimes talk to friends
to maintain my level
now doing videos in English is a good way
to practice as well
one of the challenges was
that I started to mix Arabic and German
even though they are so different
especially as Arabic was my priority language
I used to think in Arabic and translate everything
into Arabic so I set two separate
study blocks I began study Arabic
in the morning
so I only started studying German after 4 PM
another challenge was that
I was frustrated
because I didn't feel the same progress in German
as Arabic
but I thought the goal of each period was different
at that moment
what I needed in German was a good solid structure
especially grammar
my time
energy and environment didn't allow me to do more
so different periods different focuses
after three months in Egypt
I went back to China to see my parents
then came back to France
and started my phd
I was very interested in Turkish and Persian
but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to balance
everything
I assumed I should learn these two languages
after my phd now I'm not gonna touch them
but I wanted to travel to Turkey
during the Christmas holiday
I was like why not
starting learning some
Turkish just for discovering
so I just followed the lessons 15 to 30min a day
in this video
I explain in more details how I study a language
from scratch
and I give many examples of learning Turkish
after a month I decided to learn Persian
I used the same strategy as for Turkish
less by regularly
sometimes I was too busy
I studied Turkish on even days or persian on odd days
guys
it seems that I have experience in learning languages
I'm pretty organized and disciplined
but I still have
difficulties in learning four languages
simultaneously
first of all the balance between them
theoretically I know the hierarchy very well
Arabic German Turkish and Persian
but sometimes you feel
more motivated to learn a new language
like Turkish and Persian
I feel more progress
in the beginning it was more
enjoyable to learn to study
I knew I was going to
travel to the countries and practice with people
but I couldn't find a motivation to learn German
I have to be honest I didn't take lessons anymore
sometimes I only
talked to my language partner once a week
it happened it happened to me
sometimes you just couldn't find the motivation
so I was a bit stressed
I used to feel frustrated because of that
but I've changed my vision of language learning
and set more realistic expectations
no longer tracing progress in each language
simultaneously but setting long term goals
for example from last year
when I started my channel
November 2021
until November 2022
I set a general goal for each language
I want to have progress in each language
I split it into several
shot term goals
depending on the situation at a given time
during a period
I focus on
one or two languages by maintaining level of others
like this semester I studied more Arabic
and now I've just finished my studies
so my current focus is Turkish and Persian
because I will travel to Iran and T urkey again
this summer
I want to see more progress in these two languages
and I will only maintain my level in Arabic and German
by studying like two times a week
you really have to do it two times a week
from September I will concentrate on German
and I will only keep my
Arabic Persian Turkish level
some friends are afraid to
lost their level if they learn a new language
but it depends if you already have an
intermediate or advanced level
you had a good speaking skill before
you won't lose your level quickly
like my French English and Arabic
even I don't practice for a while I have no problems
switching to these languages
and I can speak fluently
but I suggest you you integrate some activities
with these languages into your daily life
like reading books watching videos
to keep the level
another difficulty is mixing languages
I don't mix English French German and Arabic anymore
but when I started to learn Turkish and Persian
I used to mix them horribly
because there are many many
many similar words you can't imagine guys walla
I still remember
I used to talk to my language exchange partner in
Turkish from
7 to 8 pm and in Persian from 8 to 9pm
because I only had
time in evening and I wanted to study these two
languages every day
to progress at that time I thought it was a great plan
but it was not a good idea at all
I was mixing these two languages
and it was so counterproductive
so I decided to do Turkish on odd days and Persian
on even days
even now I can study Turkish and Persian every day
I
will still try to set
two study sessions with long intervals
morning Turkish and evening Persian
another helpful exercise in separating two languages is
thinking and speaking in one target language
for example now I'm out I'm going home
I know that tonight I'm gonna study Persian
I'm not gonna wait
until I get home and sit at a table to learn Persian
still I'm
already going to force myself to think in Persian
while I'm walking down the street
it's like a warming up exercise
it's not easy but when you look up a word in person
it will train your brain to react in that language
it helped me a lot to separate the languages
at the end of this video
I want to say
that if you are not sure whether you should learn
another language or languages
ask yourself
why do you want to learn this language
what is a goal you want to achieve in one year
how much time should you invest
in learning this language based on this goal
can you do it
don't forget to
take into account the time you
need to maintain the level
of other languages
pay attention to difficulties such as the balance
between languages
the frustration of not progressing
or progressing slowly
and the risk of mixing languages
I hope the tips in the video can help you
I hope this video can inspire you
if you have any questions and want to share your story
write in the comments
if you liked this video don't forget to give me a like
see you guys bye