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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Learning two foreign languages at the same time
Message-ID: <1995Jan15.062853.28218@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System)
Reply-To: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago
References: <Bg3aZxF.jpaulino@delphi.com>
Date: Sun, 15 Jan 1995 06:28:53 GMT
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In article <Bg3aZxF.jpaulino@delphi.com> John Paulino <jpaulino@delphi.com> writes:
>I am currently studying French and would like to begin
>studying German.  Does anybody here know what difficulties
>that might pose to studying either language?  Would it be
>a more efficient use of my time to concentrate on one language?

My personal feeling is that it would be better to concentrate on 
one at a time, but I don't have any hard data to back this up.
Keep in mind that there are a lot of variables:  What methods are
you using to learn each language?  What prior language experience
do you have?  How intensively are you studying them?  What level
and what type of proficiency do you hope to gain?

An example of why I think these considerations are important:
During my second year of college, I was studying both German and
Korean simultaneously.  I was fairly confident in my German, so
I thought starting a new language wouldn't be that tough.  Un-
fortunately, my Korean teacher preferred a rigourous listening- and
speaking-oriented approach that demanded a lot of time.  My mind 
was focused on going to Germany the next year, and my attention
slipped.  I ended up doing very poorly in Korean.

Then that summer, I picked up a book on Catalan.  I spent the
next few weeks alternating between learning it and beefing up
my active German vocab and reading comprehension.  After arriving
in Germany, I kept up with Catalan and had a reading knowledge
by the spring.

Some observations:
1)  My goal for Catalan (reading knowledge) was much more modest
than my goal for Korean (speaking ability).
2) I had more leisure time when I was studying Catalan than when
I was studying Korean and had no other classes to study for.
3) I had studied Spanish (closely related to Catalan) in high 
school, but I had never had any substantial experience with a 
non-Indo-European language before Korean.
4) It was much easier to perceive parallel structures in German
and Catalan than in German and Korean.
5) Catalan I studied purely for fun; Korean I studied partly
for fun and partly because it was a requirement.  I was highly
motivated to study German.

In short, if you want an active, speaking knowledge of both
languages, I wouldn't recommend taking both at once unless
you haven't got many other demands on your time and/or you're
fairly confident in French and/or you've had some experience
with German or a very similar language before.

I've posted because I'd like to hear what others have to say
on this subject.


-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
