Hi everyone a question that polyglots usually get asked probably the most is: How do you maintain?
How do you keep up speaking?
5 or 8 or 10 languages and people also generally tend to ask when should you learn the next language?
How do you know when you're ready to move on?
Or should you just dive in and learn all the languages at the same time?
So I made it a video about this the other day, but it was kind of vague and it was like half-Korean half-English
So I'm hoping this one clarifies a little bit and that people will stop asking me this because of hopefully now I can answer it
Ok, let us dive straight in
Number one is it actually possible to learn two or three or ten hundred or five hundred languages at the same time?
Yes, it is if you have enough motivation
Enough time enough dedication you can do anything
but you have to make sure you are dedicated and hardworking and you open your mind to the
Possibility that it will be difficult
There will be time consuming you will be frustrated and your pockets will actually be a little slower
I mean, obviously if you dedicate all of your time and resources to one language
You're gonna progress in it a lot faster than you will if you're learning three languages at the same time
That's why
Dedication and motivation is important so you can try and work out a schedule for yourself to dedicate enough time to all of those languages
There's something on my lens
What is that
If you do not decide to learn two languages at the same time try and pick languages which are different
So if you learn Korean and Japanese at the same time
You might get confused because some words and grammar structures are similar on the other hand
You might think that that is beneficial to you and that it will help you understand concepts in both languages
So it's totally up for you to decide but my advice is rather try and learn one language to an upper beginner intermediate
Upper intermediate face-like become conversational and confident in the level AHA
Become conversational and confident in the one language
before you start the other one, I
learned
*murmurs: what did I learn?* Indonesian and Vietnamese at the same time and for some reason and those two languages are kind of
Unrelated and I've kept mixing the two up in my mind. I thought they were similar southeast South East Asia
And I kept saying and like I kept thinking of the Indonesian word when I wanted to say it in Vietnamese
I didn't like speak mistakes
But I was really struggling to find which word is which so as you can see you may get confused
So, I mean if you're learning French and Chinese
It'll be a lot harder to get confused between words obviously because they have a different script. The pronunciation is totally different
They're on opposite sides of the world. So I recommend choosing two languages that are different now
You may ask Lindy
what if I like Korean and Japanese, can I learn them both at the same time but my recommendation
For doing that is to focus on one for a while pick the one that's your favorite
So many people have asked me like I want to learn like Mandarin and Korean
But I don't know which one to pick please choose for me good chance for you. It's your life your decision ask yourself
Which one do you have?
The most passion for which one is going to be the easiest to start with make a pros and cons list
Pick the one you want to start with
Get to it in an advanced level and then bring in the other one and then you'll still be learning to at the same time
You'll just have a good solid base in the one but you can dedicate enough time to the second one
So on a similar note make sure you have enough interest. A ton of people are like well
I just want to learn to speak 15 languages that it's not a good enough reason
To learn many languages because you will get bored you will get frustrated and there have been times where I've been like
Angry at the Korean language. You will have a love/hate relationship with languages
I mean I've been learning Korean for like almost nine or eight or nine or ten years
I started in 2009 and I can't do math and
There have been times where I'm like, oh my goodness. I'm so tired of this language and like that's it, and I'm not studying anymore
You will get those times where you believe you will be angry at the language
You need to be prepared that that will happen. This might not be everybody's experience. I'm just talking about myself here
I have a love-hate relationship with languages. Another thing to focus on when you're learning languages at the same time many of them
Totally messed up my sentence structure in English there. It is to focus on the pronunciation
Make sure you have your pronunciation down really well
Before you move on too far, you know how in high school and middle school
We used to put on accents and imitate people, you know, the Indian people sound like this and in today's politically correct society
That's very rude
but um try and mimic the accent of that person if they were speaking English, but when you're speaking that language
So you don't have the francais the French people speak like this, right?
so when you're speaking French you put on this accent *français: Si on parle le français
la prononciation est vraiment
parler même c'est différent de l'anglais
est (bad accent: si on parle comme une personne qui est anglais c'est pas bien)
On dois
parler comme une français, alors you need to have the accent; comme une parler en français. Do you hear how similar I am
sounding maintenant it is because of my pronunciation.
We millennials lead people who are used to instant gratification
Please remember: things take time and success is not overnight
You will need to work very hard. It took me about
3 to 4 years to get at a comfortable speaking level in Korean and only then did I start bringing in ..uhh..
Japanese Vietnamese and so forth and that's why I said it's really important to have passion and dedication and motivation for the language
Because when you are angry at the language, when you are tired of memorizing grammar structures and verb tables
You will need that motivation and you will have to remind yourself: little steps, baby steps at a time
Nothing is gonna happen instantly. We are so used to instant gratification and we just all want to be polygots who speak 50 languages
It's gonna take a very long time
And now you may be asking so how much time do I actually need to spend per day learning each language?
This is totally up to you. If you want to make the language learning schedule go and do that. Personally,
I don't have a language learning schedule. It makes me very anxious
It makes me angry at myself if I cannot accomplish things
I have a full-time job and a part-time job
And I don't want to come home
tired in the evening and look at my schedule and it says "Read three chapters in Japanese"
That is the last thing I want to do
So I kind of study languages a bit more haphazardly whenever I feel it how whenever I feel like it
Whatever language I feel like doing that day. But, if it works for you to set up the schedule try and prioritize
Which languages are the ones you want to advance in the most, the quickest. Put those first on the list.
So you have seven days in a week.
Why don't you take that most important target language and do it three times a week?
You can figure out what you want to do. If you want to study one chapter each day or have a day for
textbooks, have a day for music, I mean that would be weird because you can integrate music into your day anyway,
practice talking to native speakers
You can work out your own schedule based on the priorities. If learning Italian is something you really want to do
But it's at the bottom of your list
you're planning to visit France for a scholarship, obviously, French would be first. You need to dedicate the most ..uh..
portion of your free time to French and have Italian still be there in the week
You don't want to lose it, but just put it a bit lower down. So make your goals realistic
Don't tell yourself you want to finish an entire textbook in a week. I've done that
I have so many textbooks where I've written in the front started on 1st of January 1 to complete by
20th of January, 5 chapters need to do XYZ amount of chapters each day.
I don't know how many people actually can get that right because life happens, things happen. You meet people you do stuff
Your hamster dies, you have to attend hamster funerals, but life happens
You're not gonna get to finish that textbook as quickly as you want. I'm not being pessimistic. I'm being realistic based on my own
Experiences. So beside yourself realistic small bite-sized goals
half a chapter, 15 words, memorize two kanji and
Once you've memorized two kanji, if you have the energy and time to do five kanji more
Well done, you have over achieved your goals and you'll feel great about yourself
And then lastly how do you make sure that you're using the ten languages that you speak or are learning?
You need to integrate the languages in your life. Find native speakers to talk to, write a diary
Listen to music of all languages, watch various TV shows, just make sure you do something in that language every day
But it's up to you to decide how you're gonna balance your time
discipline
Resources, immersion, and time management. You have to work this up for yourself. I don't have all the answers, but I really hope that I've
Piqued your interest, your curiosity, and helped you think about how you plan to maintain these languages
Please comment and let me know what your tips are. How do you manage to keep these languages up?
Because I don't have a schedule
I just do what feels nice to me because it's something I do for fun
Which relaxes me. If you have to do it for work, if you have to speak five languages at work
You might be the type of person who needs a schedule. Thank you guys for sticking through with this long video
It's great to chat to you guys and see you in the next video. Bye