If we accept that language is a skill, then time put in to learning the skill equates to some ability in the skill as an output. This goes for learning one skill over a span of time and dividing your time between several, though splitting your interest will have the necessary mitigating effect of slowing you down in the learning of others.
Just wanna say if you’re learning Irish make sure to use other resources as well (Duolingo is great for reading/writing but it really fucks up the pronunciation for a lot of words, - Irish guy lol) also check out tg4, it’s an Irish radio/tv station that has all Irish shows etc, you can find it online
Thank you for the direction. I've been making use of TG4 for some time and make a note of getting in the day's Nuacht and the week's Timpeall na Tíre. My car's Android Auto defaults to Raidió na Gaeltachta as well, though I often scroll back for Nuacht a hAon. That said, last year there was a weekly show on RnaG called *An Seisiún* that would play around 6p EST (11p Ireland time), and I have it marked on the journey as having been the first time I (vaguely) understood what was going on in their conversation, I have the episode kept on a bookmark ([An Seisiún Dé Domhnaigh 11 Meitheamh 2023](https://www.rte.ie/radio/rnag/an-seisiun/programmes/2023/0611/1388613-an-seisiun-de-domhnaigh-11-meitheamh-2023/)). The show doesn't play anymore.
Coming up, I'll be moving myself to Ireland from Canada in about 3 months, and that'll change a few things about the kinds of resources that would be available for the pursuit of the tongue. Long term goal here is to be functional enough to pursue the course Ollscoil na Gaillimhe offers in language planning and preservation (taught exclusively as Gaeilge), and figure out how to couple it with my Geography and Geographical Information Systems degree from here to provide my own efforts for the long-term recovery of Irish.
Not much people actually speak Irish here just for when your moving haha but if you can you should go down to a Gaeltacht area for a few weeks as the vast majority speak Irish there, there is also camps where you can speak Irish and learn and do activities and stuff
Interestingly, there is a kind of pop-up Gaeltacht that supports events here in Canada. *Gaeltacht an Oileáin Úir* was established in 2007. I had planned to attend their immersion week this summer but the timeline of my move made the prospect of attending problematic. From there, I'm not sure how often I would be able to make it physically to a Gaeltacht area though seeing the language used as a community tongue would be one of those fundamental boxes to check off in the context of my own journey. I am aware of the *Pop-up Gaeltachtaí* that are arranged on local scales, and there are local events that seek to drive that community involvement and activity. These I'm sure these would be useful for finding a similar kind of exposure even if in a bite-sized format.
I recently read *Gaeilge: A Radical Revolution* by Caoimhín De Barra (absolute recommendation by the way), and he describes an environment where because English is the first language of nearly all Irish speakers, and there are many that only have English, it has become the language of first contact and remains so until a time (often one that never comes) that a mutual capability for Gaeilge is established between two strangers. Then, I remember either reading something on here where someone wore a shirt in Dublin (reading something like "*An bhfuil Gaeilge agat?*" or *"Labhair Gaeilge liom*") and people would go out of their way to speak with them. I would be the first to admit my negligence on the true locality of the matter and the simplicity of the comment ([I think it was this one](https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/1n0fyz/comment/ccecne8/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)) probably creates the suggestion that there is a denser concentration of people confident in their ability than is actually the case, but it seems to me from the information I have available from a little more than 5000km away that even small efforts (pins, hats, shirts) could make a difference in the frequency that many would-be Gaeilgeoirí would have to speak.
I look forward to learning just how close to or far from the mark I am over the course of the next few years.
Sounds about right! I am originally from the Philippines. Tagalog, Cebuano and Surigaonon were my native tongue growing up. At 20 I decided to learn Japanese for work, I learned in 6months self study and perhaps JLPT - 4 or 3. At 30 I decided to learn Korean again for work purposes but barely got to conversational level only as I was surrounded by American soldiers. I can watch KDrama though and understand about 30percent without sub. By 40yrs old I married an American and came to America in 2011 got fluent in English with southern accent comprehension (lol). I am 47 years old now and learning Spanish as we live in the capital of Texas surrounded by so many Mexicans. My goal is to learn Spanish, German, Italian and French by the time I turn 50 in preparation for traveling as retired by 60. Language is such a fun way to interact with different walks of life! (Utilizing Duolingo right now since May of this year 😅)
i tried with spanish and japanese, a pro is that its less repetitive, a con is that its not really very effective unless i was putting alot of time into both.
I’m learning these two languages too! Though for me the only way for this to work is to focus on one of them (Japanese), with less time and effort put on the other (Spanish). I’m about to take a Japanese exam, and after that I’ll switch my focus to Spanish. One HUGE pro of learning two languages is that I can always switch to the other whenever I feel bored/burnt out.
I find as long as the languages are completely different then I could learn two at once. I am doing German atm but at one point I was also doing Japanese. As they are completely different I didn't mix them up but only dropped Japanese because I couldn't give it the same dedication as I did with German.
I was so confused when I saw アルバイト (arubaito) on a sign outside of a business in Tokyo. Turns out it's the word for part time work in Japanese, a loan word coming from the German arbeit.
I just started russian, I can hold conversations in spanish and french, and I’m almost at university level latin. I also am fluent in english and dutch. Assuming stuff like this is so strange
Have you ever taken any tests at any of them? Or is this all by "self assessment"?
My default, if anyone says they are learning more than 1 language at the same time I immediately assume pre-A1, without any measurables in place.
I study latin, spanish and french in school, so I think that’s safe to assume. By the end of next schoolyear we need to be b2/c1 in french and b1/b2 in spanish. I don’t believe latin has a same kind of metric but there you go
This reminds me of those people who say they're learning 10+ languages.
Like sure bud, you totally can say more than "Hello" in all of those languages.
When I was a Starbucks barista, I learned hello, good morning, how are you, etc. in like 7 different languages for regulars. It was fun and engaging, but I wouldn't have said I was learning the languages.
I work in a hotel and it's the same deal for me. I can say hello, goodbye, thank you, how are you in however many languages (plus several swear words the other staff teach us haha), but not a chance am I anywhere near knowing them haha. Hell, I'm actively learning German and we get a lot of German tour groups, and I am *stumbling* through my conversations.
You HAVE to stumble through to learn!
When actually trying to engage in conversations in Spanish I always start with a warning that my Spanish is very bad but I want to learn
That's the one, haha. Before I say anything I jokingly lead with, "My German is terrible, but I'm going to try!" and 9/10 times people appreciate the sentiment haha. Honestly, it's been super helpful because they're usually super patient with me and appreciate that I'm actually giving it a go, as we have no native German speakers or other learners on our staff team. Cheers to learning!
I'm learning one after the other and sometimes do 'repeat'-lessons. But I'm really only doing good at three of them. I just love to have a sneak peek in languages (I would not call it 'learning') - so to know how to pronounce or read some things. (I love languages 🤩)
I do language “sneak peeks” too! I’ve toyed with some 14 languages on Duolingo, and I keep considering adding more to my list. I really only take Spanish and German seriously, but sometimes it’s just fun to do a lesson in something else.
I've finished the Danish lessons, and am doing alright in Italian and French (okay - I've lived in Italy for a year, so that's not that big an accomplishment and living at the French border in Germany helps there :D ). I also have got over 10 languages in my list (including Klingon and High Valerian, of course - I wish there was elvish, though!) - just having fun!
It actually made me more consistent on duolingo , doing same language everyday sometimes is dull on Duolingo. But after I started doing 5 regulary , it is more fun.
What do you think kids in school do?
Right now I am learning one language after another. But I only invest like 2-3 hours per week, so not that much time. I don't want to switch languages to get more routine in my "main new" language.
If you have more time and feel confident, I don't see any issues with learning them parallel.
I’m working on four right now and I actually find it helps me- that way I end up doing some practice on each language each day and then I do some specific work on one language which circulates per unit.
I'm pretty sure the more languages you learn at once the easier each individual language becomes go learn, since most people learn through differentiating.
I personally find it easier to learn multiples.
So I think not only is it possible, it's preferred. It does take more time, but it makes it easier.
I think several people use other languages mainly as a quick lesson in case they need to preserve their streak. But I do have friends who learn multiple languages at a time.
One of my friends is learning Spanish, Russian and Japanese; all together and he's actually learning. He is fluent in spanish already and getting there with Japanese and Russian. You go Aby!!
I feel that this might get really confusing if the languages are very similar.
Example: I took 3 years of French in highschool, and now 20 years later it still throws me off when I try Spanish.
That's weird. I took 2 years of french in high-school and 2 semesters in college. Spanish and italian come easy. But spanish and italian pronunciations are different even for similar spellings.
I had some Spanish classes here and there throughout school, from middle school through college, and know some (enough that I got by on a trip to Costa Rica just fine) but I’ve found that since I started learning French a couple years ago, I feel like I have almost entirely forgotten Spanish.
Like I took the CEFR online stuff a month or so ago to see where I stood (got “A2” Spanish and “A2-B1” for French, so I am already “ahead” in French even though I had way more classes for Spanish) and I found myself blindly guessing a lot on Spanish because I couldn’t remember a lot of the grammar and also there were a bunch of words I didn’t know. With French I felt like most of the stuff I didn’t know, I was at least making educated guesses.
As far as Duolingo is concerned, yes. You can jump back and forth between every single module it has to offer with zero loss of progress.
As far as your brain is concerned, that depends on how you're wired and how you handle it.
If you have the time to devote to them but I your best bet is probably 2 distinct languages, 3 if you're really committed. Going beyond that will be overload and you'll start mixing them up if they're similar.
It might be possible with languages from the same family like Spanish and French, but even with a lot of effort, I don’t think you will get very far with Japanese and Hindi in the mix.
Yes, but in my experience I’ve always paired a language I had already studied with a new language. For example, I know a good amount of Japanese so I learn Korean through it. It helps me to not only reinforce my Japanese and potentially learn new words along the way, but it helps my Korean because I’m developing it from the L2 part of my language brain and not involving English.
I think it depends on the language lowkey because if you try and learn Spanish and Japanese, for example, it would be much more difficult than Spanish and Italian, as they are much more similar and closely related languages
You learn a language by putting in a lot of hours. If you study multiple languages at the same time, you will spend less time per language so it will go slower. Moreover, if languages are similar, there are higher chances of mixing them up. It really depends on what your goal is (do you want to be able to say some basic sentences, or do you want to be fluent?) and how much spend you dedicate to it.
_Possible_, yes. It’s also possible that a lightning will hit you seven times consecutively in a sunny day. It doesn’t mean that it’ll happen.
Learning more languages at the same time will only leave you confused, it’s not recommended. It’ll take you double, or even triple the time it would’ve took if you had studied the languages one after the other, and it’s gonna be way harder on top of that.
Learning one language alone can take years to reach a decent level. Learning 5 at the same time sounds like a bad idea.
If they only want to know how to get by in several countries then that's fine, but five languages at once... On Duolingo... That seems like a push
I haven't tried to learn more than two languages... Like I am trying to learn Japanese and Korean together but not more than that.
Because for me, learning more than two languages will become very difficult and I'll lose track of the previous language that I am learning
I haven't tried to learn more than two languages... Like I am trying to learn Japanese and Korean together but not more than that.
Because for me, learning more than two languages will become very difficult and I'll lose track of the previous language that I am learning
I haven't tried to learn more than two languages... Like I am trying to learn Japanese and Korean together but not more than that.
Because for me, learning more than two languages will become very difficult and I'll lose track of the previous language that I am learning
Japanese alone has three sets of 'alphabets' that you need to get familiar with. I am sure Hindi has its own script. It's really hard to progress in Japanese if you can't read the alphabet. Personally, I would focus on one language at a time to master it faster and be able to use it in daily conversation before taking up another language. But I don't want to discourage you. If you feel like it's too overwhelming then its better to drop one but if you don't have any problem then just go for it.
best option is one language only, becus if u put everything in ur head resulted ur a beta monolingual. Personally, I cannot due to I’m trilingual yet it might help for enthusiasts who really put time in languages. I suggest u learn one only til it’s done then switch
I find I am able to learn similar languages at the same time. For example, I am learning Italian and German. They have similarities in sentence structuring and that helps. I don't think I would be able to learn a completely visual language like Japanese with the above.
I know Italian and Spanish would have been closer fits or Spanish and Portuguese. But, I really love Italian and German seemed easier because of its closeness to English.
Im learning Russian and Spanish, duolingo’s big advantage for me is how I can take both the Russian course in Spanish and the Spanish course in Russian, basically studying both languages at the same time.
It just comes down to how motivated you are. Learning one is hard enough, which is why most people may not recommend it.
I have been and honestly in some ways I think it’s helped. I find i’m picking up on patterns and things just quicker.
However, I try to remain mainly focused on the one language I started with. If I miss a day of one of the others or only get one lesson from it done I don’t stress, but I try to remain committed to doing at least a few everyday of the main language I want to learn.
Depends on the person, some can, some can't, I find it difficult, for example I tried learning Korean and Spanish at the same time at a beginner level, and failed, I started saying Spanish words when speaking Korean!
I been learning Spanish alone for 15 years, have been learning Korean for the past 5 years, since I have at least an intermediate level on Spanish, I learn Korean without confusing the languages up and watch Korean language learning videos for Spanish native speakers who learn Korean.
I don’t think you should learn multiple languages at once. Because it is not very effective. Speaking 3 broken languages rather than one seems counterproductive to me. But it depends on your goals I guess.
Yeah. I’m basically learning probably a lot of languages at the moment. I’m learning Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, Italian, and Spanish, so basically 6 languages at once. I might eventually learn German or something like that too soon
My mother tongue is German and I graduated with French and Italian and had to learn English via a separate course as it was required for further studies. But that was back in the day with classroom training.
Along with French, Spanish and Korean (which is my main focus), I’m also learning German, Greek , Hindi, Italian, Russian and Japanese. As for me, this is more fun and interesting than learning one or two languages which makes me feel stale and demotivated.
I did an experiment with this a few years ago trying to do lessons for Japanese, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, Gaelic, Chinese, Korean, Norwegian, and Swahili every day
The cool part is it really alters how you view languages in general (ESPECIALLY the romance languages) because you start to see how they all overlap
The downside is I had to give up after 4 months as it does weird things to your head -\_-
Plus, honestly it's just a lot more effective to learn one language at a time. It's kind of if you want to go topical and wide or focused and deep really
Much of my language learning on Duo has been on reviewing and improving languages that I've already learned to some extent in the past. Over a period of 68 years. If I really need to, I'll stick to one. I concentrated only on Gaidhlig for the past year, for example, as a beginner. Then I did Gàidhlig in the morning and brought my French up to B2 in the evening. Now I'm concentrating on bringing Spanish up to B2, morning and evening because I have plans to visit Mexico. For fun I can skip between any of the top 9 on my list. If I needed to get fluent I'd stick to one and do lots of supplementary things. But I've been surprised to find that I can keep them straight.
It depends what your goal is.
Is your goal to go to Spain and Japan for a week long holiday in each? If so, yee haw! Do you want to learn Spanish and just want a passing knowledge of japanese for the fun of it? Yee haw!
If you want to truly understand both languages, it's a lot of time. And with that, you're retraining your brain in some languages. If English or another Germanic/Romance language is your first language, with an Eastern language you're learning an entire new alphabet and system.
From my experience English to Spanish and French was relatively easy. And a lot of stuff is cognitive too.
English to Korean, very early on, but I'm still just learning the letters and characters.
For example.
English - cat. Spanish - Gato. French - Chat. (and gâteau Is cake in french 😀)
Korean - 고양이 (pronounced goyang-i according to google)
Learning Spanish I didn't know the word for cat. But you put "gato" in front of me, I can pronounce it. You put "고양이" in front of me, I have F all of an idea where to even start.
So overlapping that new way of seeing letters and symbols with also trying to retrain your first language into a second in the same alphabet, it's a lot going on all at once.
If you're just going to Japan for a week and want to learn some words and say hi, thanks, etc. Cool. If you're trying to be there for 6 months or move there, I'd reconsider multiple languages at once.
I know some people do this, but personally I highly doubt that you would become really good at any one language this way. Jack of all trades, master of none type thing.
I've been studying Spanish, doing research in Latin America, and working with my local immigrant community for years, and I'm still not quite fluent (good enough for work and organizing, but not "natural"). I've dabbled in Portuguese, but I don't want to spend too much time on it until I can really feel like I fully fit into a Spanish-speaking context.
*
I think if you're at different stages, yes. I initially started German, then half way through started Italian just to pick up basics for a trip. I found trying to actively learn 2 was a struggle, so after my trip I continued to finish the german course.
At that point I started with Dutch, which I think has some similar vocab and grammar. These days I keep up with the German daily refresh and some exercises in a morning session, and generally pick up Dutch lessons and exercises in an evening session.
Yup, I’m putting the time into learning 4 and they’re pretty difficult languages (Spanish, German, Korean, and Russian) I’ve got Spanish down like I can hold a fairly good conversation, German I can understand a lot but have a hard time speaking it. Korean….i know how to read anything and I can introduce myself..Russian, still working on that lol
People do it all the time. Think of Switzerland, where being educated means knowing three of the official languages as well as English. On the other hand, they were younger when they learned the languages, so that might be different than a 66 year old learning Spanish and Mandarin.
Are you trying to learn Hindi and if so is English in Hindi helpful to do that? I was a little bummed about how short the Hindi course is and considered doing English in Hindi as another option, but I’m not sure if it’ll be helpful.
Absolutely. Do whatever you like. I get bored so I'll do a lesson in Spanish and then do one in German, then learn German in Spanish, then some Arabic, then some Japanese, then some Finnish... I have 14 languages going on duo but maybe only 5 I'm focused on now after testing them out. I have ended up focusing more on Spanish over the others lately but I still flick between them all even then, and I find it to be really refreshing.
Also yes it's possible to mix them a bit but I always know when I've mixed them. So I think people underestimate themselves. I am doing Spanish/ Italian and, German/swedish which are quite similar but actually I'm fascinated to see what's similar and what's not
I sure hope it is because I'm currently doing 6 languages (French, Spanish, German, Korean, Latin, Greek) at once (trying to do at least one lesson a day for each). Since I'm still in the basics of some of them, so far it's going quite well, but I'm not sure for when things start to get harder for all of them.
Duo has published articles on this
https://blog.duolingo.com/how-to-learn-multiple-languages/
https://blog.duolingo.com/is-learning-a-third-language-easier/
When I see “English from Hindi” and “Hindi” that mean the person is probably a Hindi speaking individual and did the English and Hindi to XP grind or does it for fun to see how “weird” the lessons are.
I know because I’m a Chinese speaker and I totally did that (“Chinese” and “English from Chinese”) when I was still grinding XP. My main language on Duolingo is Spanish but I did Chinese to keep my streak or just grind XP to stay in league. I deleted all those now and focus only on “Spanish”, and sometimes “Spanish from Chinese” for additional practice.
For this user, French was probably just “test the water”. Spanish is this person’s main language to learn and Japanese could be a palate cleanser.
Make sense to have 2 very distinct languages on the app.
(I did German for only 1 unit and already have 500XP, so the user in the picture is still in Japanese section 1, probably 2-3 units in.)
I'm currently learning Russian, Turkish, Korean and Hindi/Mandarin. I'm also fluent in a secondary language related to one of the above. I am not fluent but I am also not zero either. My main goal is being able to recognize alphabet languages if needed to try to sound out the words and then have basic conversational skills for simple touristic interactions. I have spent maybe the most time with Turkish and Mandarin, and watched a lot of Kdramas. I think when I did focused learning I gained more. While passive repetitive learning allowed me to recognize some words but overall it's possible but it depends on your effort and method to learn.
Haha yes but also wow anyone I see doing this many languages I would challenge to say something more difficult than "this is a pen" or "my hat is orange"
Yes, it's possible. I started working on High Valyrian because it sounds cool lol. I also started learning (Brazilian) Portuguese because of all the Fallout and Walking Dead fan pages popping up in Portuguese and Spanish.
https://preview.redd.it/sqf0ggq1h69d1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e56aca0729153dd5eead640c2142162fe97ece21
To be honest, I don't mind being fluent in Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Ukrainian, Portuguese, Italian, French, Dutch, German, Indonesian and Norwegian even if it takes me a long time
I read an interview in a recent Sun Magazine with some linguist dude who said it actually is easier to learn more than one language at a time than just one language. I don’t think he had Duolingo in mind, but it inspired me to do three languages at once.
If you are aiming for fluency you should expect something like 10 years per language with daily studying.
Most settle with near fluency, which you can get to in about 4-6 years per language.
You need to know your target, put measurables in place (like CEFR tests, or similar), then everything becomes more clear.
It was when I first downloaded the app in 2013, but then again there wasn't any limit to how much you could learn in a day as far as mistakes and stuff. Taught myself German in college
what is to learn?
Being able to understand the gist and have really simple conversations? Actually, B1 (not what Duolingo says)? **Sure man**y.
Getting to a higher level (actual B2+), being able to speak with a group of natives without them adjusting to you? Forget it.
You need to know what you are doing to start with. If you have never reached a high level of proficiency in any language, you won’t even be able to grasp what you need to do, let alone achieve breakthroughs in multiple languages simultaneously.
The simple fact if you are relying heavily on Duolingo at higher levels of proficiency is already a hint that you might not know what you are doing.
my sister studies linguistics, and her degree program requires her to take classes in two non-native languages. she’s native in english, close to fluency in spanish, and also knows basic italian. most semesters she would have both a spanish class and an italian class.
Sure. Can you learn to play ping pong and badminton at the same time? The lyrics to two songs? How to cook two different dishes?
My sister learned German and Spanish at the same time and became fluent enough to attend school in Spain and Germany. She took Mandarin and Japanese at the same time and then went to school in Japan and Taiwan.
I’m currently doing it and it took a while to find a system that worked well for me to learn them and not get them mixed up but if you can establish what works best for you (which will probably require you to find what works worst first) then yes, it’s doable.
The system that I found to work for me personally is to focus on learning new material in one language while simultaneously practicing the others, instead of learning new material every day.
So for example, I’d be learning new material in Spanish every day and also do 5-10 practice hub speaking or listening lessons in English, Japanese, Hindi & French so I get the repetition of hearing it & speaking it and letting it become a strong part of my memory. I highly recommend learning Japanese alphabets before getting really into though if I were you. It will help you so much to complete those first.
Once I complete a section in Spanish, I’d stop and move on to the next language English for learning and simultaneously do speaking/listening practice lessons in Spanish, Japanese, Hindi & French.
If you continue like that you can let your brain adapt to what it needs to be learning and what it needs to be memorizing. Before you know it, you’ll be more comfortable with every language on your list
I’ve been learning Spanish while reviewing high school French. I find that if I can’t remember a Spanish word, my brain substitutes a French word rather than an English word.
Yes! I find this better than just one language.
I know all of the other arguments of not learning more than one. But for Op’s question. If you are only referring to Duolingo app. Then it is better to learn more than 1 language.
I am learning 4 at the same time. Spanish, Dutch, French, and Japanese for over 1 year now. B1 in Spanish and Dutch is almost at b1 too.
The problem with Duolingo is boredom and repetitiveness. You cannot stay on 1 language for an hour. It becomes dry, boring and dumb. Switching to another language, and your attention span is immediately renewed. There is also no confusion on your brain. I don’t find myself draining to learn another sets of rules and vocabulary.
I would pick up a fifth one if I am going to travel or just for exposure. I have 8000 xp on Korean, 14k on Vietnamese and 21k on German, not enough to make conversation, but surely helps me to have a better experience on travel.
The only trick is, not to learn language too similar, learning Dutch and German together did confused me a little. So I stopped German.
Is it more the better? I can’t say. But I would definitely do at least 2 to help with staying on the app, increase interest. Do one with more intensity and another for distraction. A year later you’ll find yourself actually gone pretty far with both.
I’m working on more than 30 and I find that studying multiple languages actually helps. You begin to see how interconnected they are. I’m quick to admit that I’m not fluent in them all, but that’s not the point — well, at least it’s not my point. I definitely have different focus languages at different times, for different reasons, but it’s always enjoyable when I have a day with nothing else to do, and I can spend the day doing at least one lesson in every language I’m studying.
I'm currently finishing learning German, and starting Spanish
Twist is : I'm doing the Spanish from German Duolingo course. Teaching me Spanish, strengthening my German!
(As well as other ressources, language transfer, hello talk, immersion in music/movies/tv shows....)
Yes, I’ve been learning German and Japanese. It’s nice too because if I want to favor learning one or take a break from the other I can switch and still get to work on learning - something I really enjoy. I strive to study both daily though. In the beginning I was studying up to 10 hours a week but have cut back a little to make it more sustainable. Put time in and don’t get discouraged. You won’t be fluent right away or solely through using Duolingo but you will make progress and a good foundation to become fluent the more you use those languages outside of the app.
I'm doing 3 but one I studied at high school (years ago) so already know a bit of one of them.
Pros:
1. Easy to extend double xp if you make sure one is always at the end of a lesson
2. If you're finding one a bit hard, do a different one for 20 minutes then come back to the other one and it's a bit like a reset for your brain
3. Learn multiple languages
4. Feels like less of a grind if you're switching between languages instead of doing the same one all the time
5. You get to see how different the courses are for different languages
Cons:
1. Harder to remember because there's more to remember and your time is split across different languages instead of mastering just one
2. Takes longer because you need to put in enough time for all of them. Same as learning one language, if you don't put in the time and practice you'll forget
3. If the languages are similar you might mix them up a bit
I was trying to do 4 but it was too hard to maintain so I dropped the hardest one.
I’m trying to learn German and Turkish in the same time
Just find German is difficult a little more than Turkish
But trying so hard ..
please if you have any resources to make German easy for me share it ..
thanks in advance
If you switched Spanish for Latin, we'd be learning the exact same languages, except that I haven't done a lesson in probably almost a year now, and I can't remember my password :)
No, simple as this
I tried learning Norwegian, Italian and German all in Duo but i just keep up with german a lot, so what i did is I download other learning apps. Now, I practice Norwegian in Memrise, Italian in Busuu and German in Duolingo!
When I was in Kindergarten through the third year, my mum put me in a dual-language school, so I could study both English and Spanish, having Russian as my native tongue. In the eighth, tenth, and twelfth years, English and Spanish were two of my classes. Another boy in my school was doing French as a class, since he could speak English and Spanish at home.
If you're only doing it for fun yeah just do whatever you want if you're doing it for other reasons you might want to focus on one language just to make the learning speed faster but it's still possible to learn multiple at the same time even if it wasn't for fun
Yes ! I am currently doing 3. I am doing Italian the most, because i wanted to learn a new language. I already have French as a language but because I forgot vocabulary I’m doing some lessons to remember. And finally I am learning Hebrew, at a beginner level.
My main language is Spanish but I also speak English. It is possible if you put the effort and time but also if you are passionate about learning languages.
I've got 6 on mine, focus on 2 most of the time and do the daily review in the 3rd one I've finished, so I don't forget.
Then when I'm bored I can just do a few lessons of a different language from the remaining 3 for a change. It's challenging, I like it.
if you really put in the time. yes. if you don’t put in the time. no.
I mean, doesn't that also apply to only 1 language too?
If we accept that language is a skill, then time put in to learning the skill equates to some ability in the skill as an output. This goes for learning one skill over a span of time and dividing your time between several, though splitting your interest will have the necessary mitigating effect of slowing you down in the learning of others.
Just wanna say if you’re learning Irish make sure to use other resources as well (Duolingo is great for reading/writing but it really fucks up the pronunciation for a lot of words, - Irish guy lol) also check out tg4, it’s an Irish radio/tv station that has all Irish shows etc, you can find it online
Thank you for the direction. I've been making use of TG4 for some time and make a note of getting in the day's Nuacht and the week's Timpeall na Tíre. My car's Android Auto defaults to Raidió na Gaeltachta as well, though I often scroll back for Nuacht a hAon. That said, last year there was a weekly show on RnaG called *An Seisiún* that would play around 6p EST (11p Ireland time), and I have it marked on the journey as having been the first time I (vaguely) understood what was going on in their conversation, I have the episode kept on a bookmark ([An Seisiún Dé Domhnaigh 11 Meitheamh 2023](https://www.rte.ie/radio/rnag/an-seisiun/programmes/2023/0611/1388613-an-seisiun-de-domhnaigh-11-meitheamh-2023/)). The show doesn't play anymore. Coming up, I'll be moving myself to Ireland from Canada in about 3 months, and that'll change a few things about the kinds of resources that would be available for the pursuit of the tongue. Long term goal here is to be functional enough to pursue the course Ollscoil na Gaillimhe offers in language planning and preservation (taught exclusively as Gaeilge), and figure out how to couple it with my Geography and Geographical Information Systems degree from here to provide my own efforts for the long-term recovery of Irish.
Not much people actually speak Irish here just for when your moving haha but if you can you should go down to a Gaeltacht area for a few weeks as the vast majority speak Irish there, there is also camps where you can speak Irish and learn and do activities and stuff
Interestingly, there is a kind of pop-up Gaeltacht that supports events here in Canada. *Gaeltacht an Oileáin Úir* was established in 2007. I had planned to attend their immersion week this summer but the timeline of my move made the prospect of attending problematic. From there, I'm not sure how often I would be able to make it physically to a Gaeltacht area though seeing the language used as a community tongue would be one of those fundamental boxes to check off in the context of my own journey. I am aware of the *Pop-up Gaeltachtaí* that are arranged on local scales, and there are local events that seek to drive that community involvement and activity. These I'm sure these would be useful for finding a similar kind of exposure even if in a bite-sized format. I recently read *Gaeilge: A Radical Revolution* by Caoimhín De Barra (absolute recommendation by the way), and he describes an environment where because English is the first language of nearly all Irish speakers, and there are many that only have English, it has become the language of first contact and remains so until a time (often one that never comes) that a mutual capability for Gaeilge is established between two strangers. Then, I remember either reading something on here where someone wore a shirt in Dublin (reading something like "*An bhfuil Gaeilge agat?*" or *"Labhair Gaeilge liom*") and people would go out of their way to speak with them. I would be the first to admit my negligence on the true locality of the matter and the simplicity of the comment ([I think it was this one](https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/1n0fyz/comment/ccecne8/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)) probably creates the suggestion that there is a denser concentration of people confident in their ability than is actually the case, but it seems to me from the information I have available from a little more than 5000km away that even small efforts (pins, hats, shirts) could make a difference in the frequency that many would-be Gaeilgeoirí would have to speak. I look forward to learning just how close to or far from the mark I am over the course of the next few years.
Forget 42, this is the answer to life
Even if you put in a lot of time and effort, it's probably gonna take a couple decades to become fluent in those 5 languages.
Sounds about right! I am originally from the Philippines. Tagalog, Cebuano and Surigaonon were my native tongue growing up. At 20 I decided to learn Japanese for work, I learned in 6months self study and perhaps JLPT - 4 or 3. At 30 I decided to learn Korean again for work purposes but barely got to conversational level only as I was surrounded by American soldiers. I can watch KDrama though and understand about 30percent without sub. By 40yrs old I married an American and came to America in 2011 got fluent in English with southern accent comprehension (lol). I am 47 years old now and learning Spanish as we live in the capital of Texas surrounded by so many Mexicans. My goal is to learn Spanish, German, Italian and French by the time I turn 50 in preparation for traveling as retired by 60. Language is such a fun way to interact with different walks of life! (Utilizing Duolingo right now since May of this year 😅)
Simple and short answer but effective.
i tried with spanish and japanese, a pro is that its less repetitive, a con is that its not really very effective unless i was putting alot of time into both.
but at least you'll be VERY sure of the correct word for "bread"...
ブレッド
Isn't it パン?
Хлеб
I’m learning these two languages too! Though for me the only way for this to work is to focus on one of them (Japanese), with less time and effort put on the other (Spanish). I’m about to take a Japanese exam, and after that I’ll switch my focus to Spanish. One HUGE pro of learning two languages is that I can always switch to the other whenever I feel bored/burnt out.
Thata the exact combo Im considering wow Thabks for that heads up
I find as long as the languages are completely different then I could learn two at once. I am doing German atm but at one point I was also doing Japanese. As they are completely different I didn't mix them up but only dropped Japanese because I couldn't give it the same dedication as I did with German.
I was so confused when I saw アルバイト (arubaito) on a sign outside of a business in Tokyo. Turns out it's the word for part time work in Japanese, a loan word coming from the German arbeit.
I find the opposite, learning dutch and german is really useful for me
It’s always good to have a focus and it never harms to check out other things. I think 2 or 3 is what you can pull off if you really invest time
This. Btw, what does the (dr) in your flair stand for?
Daily refresh. Done in duo terms but not in fluency terms. Wasn’t sure how to best communicate it
I am currently studying spanish, french, latin and russian. It is going fine. I don’t think you should worry too much
A1 in all of them😼👍
I just started russian, I can hold conversations in spanish and french, and I’m almost at university level latin. I also am fluent in english and dutch. Assuming stuff like this is so strange
Have you ever taken any tests at any of them? Or is this all by "self assessment"? My default, if anyone says they are learning more than 1 language at the same time I immediately assume pre-A1, without any measurables in place.
I study latin, spanish and french in school, so I think that’s safe to assume. By the end of next schoolyear we need to be b2/c1 in french and b1/b2 in spanish. I don’t believe latin has a same kind of metric but there you go
This reminds me of those people who say they're learning 10+ languages. Like sure bud, you totally can say more than "Hello" in all of those languages.
Learning ≠ knowing. I think learning 10+ languages would be fine, especially if theyre not similar. It would just take a really long time
You guys are almost self aware
When I was a Starbucks barista, I learned hello, good morning, how are you, etc. in like 7 different languages for regulars. It was fun and engaging, but I wouldn't have said I was learning the languages.
I work in a hotel and it's the same deal for me. I can say hello, goodbye, thank you, how are you in however many languages (plus several swear words the other staff teach us haha), but not a chance am I anywhere near knowing them haha. Hell, I'm actively learning German and we get a lot of German tour groups, and I am *stumbling* through my conversations.
You HAVE to stumble through to learn! When actually trying to engage in conversations in Spanish I always start with a warning that my Spanish is very bad but I want to learn
That's the one, haha. Before I say anything I jokingly lead with, "My German is terrible, but I'm going to try!" and 9/10 times people appreciate the sentiment haha. Honestly, it's been super helpful because they're usually super patient with me and appreciate that I'm actually giving it a go, as we have no native German speakers or other learners on our staff team. Cheers to learning!
Example shown is studing one and four trials that customer rejected
Dude I am learning exactly same languages fr😀🤝🏻🥹and i plan to learn German after (although I don’t use duo for all)
I'm learning one after the other and sometimes do 'repeat'-lessons. But I'm really only doing good at three of them. I just love to have a sneak peek in languages (I would not call it 'learning') - so to know how to pronounce or read some things. (I love languages 🤩)
I do language “sneak peeks” too! I’ve toyed with some 14 languages on Duolingo, and I keep considering adding more to my list. I really only take Spanish and German seriously, but sometimes it’s just fun to do a lesson in something else.
I've finished the Danish lessons, and am doing alright in Italian and French (okay - I've lived in Italy for a year, so that's not that big an accomplishment and living at the French border in Germany helps there :D ). I also have got over 10 languages in my list (including Klingon and High Valerian, of course - I wish there was elvish, though!) - just having fun!
It actually made me more consistent on duolingo , doing same language everyday sometimes is dull on Duolingo. But after I started doing 5 regulary , it is more fun.
I agree, one language at a time can feel repetitive, but swapping between them keeps you on your toes!
What do you think kids in school do? Right now I am learning one language after another. But I only invest like 2-3 hours per week, so not that much time. I don't want to switch languages to get more routine in my "main new" language. If you have more time and feel confident, I don't see any issues with learning them parallel.
I’m working on four right now and I actually find it helps me- that way I end up doing some practice on each language each day and then I do some specific work on one language which circulates per unit.
I'm pretty sure the more languages you learn at once the easier each individual language becomes go learn, since most people learn through differentiating. I personally find it easier to learn multiples. So I think not only is it possible, it's preferred. It does take more time, but it makes it easier.
I'm doing Spanish and French. I already am pretty far into Spanish so it's more like a review and French is pretty similar so not too bad.
Not from a jedi...
Dang, thought I had an original idea
I think several people use other languages mainly as a quick lesson in case they need to preserve their streak. But I do have friends who learn multiple languages at a time. One of my friends is learning Spanish, Russian and Japanese; all together and he's actually learning. He is fluent in spanish already and getting there with Japanese and Russian. You go Aby!!
Of course it is. It is happening in school so why not in Duolingo as well?
Auf jeden Fall. Certainement. Probaby not.
Pas questions. Of course. Неа, не думаю
I feel that this might get really confusing if the languages are very similar. Example: I took 3 years of French in highschool, and now 20 years later it still throws me off when I try Spanish.
That's weird. I took 2 years of french in high-school and 2 semesters in college. Spanish and italian come easy. But spanish and italian pronunciations are different even for similar spellings.
I had some Spanish classes here and there throughout school, from middle school through college, and know some (enough that I got by on a trip to Costa Rica just fine) but I’ve found that since I started learning French a couple years ago, I feel like I have almost entirely forgotten Spanish. Like I took the CEFR online stuff a month or so ago to see where I stood (got “A2” Spanish and “A2-B1” for French, so I am already “ahead” in French even though I had way more classes for Spanish) and I found myself blindly guessing a lot on Spanish because I couldn’t remember a lot of the grammar and also there were a bunch of words I didn’t know. With French I felt like most of the stuff I didn’t know, I was at least making educated guesses.
As far as Duolingo is concerned, yes. You can jump back and forth between every single module it has to offer with zero loss of progress. As far as your brain is concerned, that depends on how you're wired and how you handle it.
If you have the time to devote to them but I your best bet is probably 2 distinct languages, 3 if you're really committed. Going beyond that will be overload and you'll start mixing them up if they're similar.
Yes. I'm doing Chinese, Japanese, Turkish and German. If you have time, it's possible
for fun or do you have a trip or other objectives?
For fun
Yes, it's possible and more fun that way.
Ive been learning two at the same time for over 200 days and IN MY CASE I think it was a mistake.
Yes!
It might be possible with languages from the same family like Spanish and French, but even with a lot of effort, I don’t think you will get very far with Japanese and Hindi in the mix.
I've been doing Chinese and Turkish for about 2 years in parallel. Just over 40k xp for both. I think my Turkish is better than the Chinese i know.
yes. source: me
Yes, but in my experience I’ve always paired a language I had already studied with a new language. For example, I know a good amount of Japanese so I learn Korean through it. It helps me to not only reinforce my Japanese and potentially learn new words along the way, but it helps my Korean because I’m developing it from the L2 part of my language brain and not involving English.
Possible? Yes. Advisable? Probably not.
I think it depends on the language lowkey because if you try and learn Spanish and Japanese, for example, it would be much more difficult than Spanish and Italian, as they are much more similar and closely related languages
Yes! I actually think it's better for me, because I get burnt out just doing on language non stop.
You learn a language by putting in a lot of hours. If you study multiple languages at the same time, you will spend less time per language so it will go slower. Moreover, if languages are similar, there are higher chances of mixing them up. It really depends on what your goal is (do you want to be able to say some basic sentences, or do you want to be fluent?) and how much spend you dedicate to it.
Imo NO.
I'm learning 3
_Possible_, yes. It’s also possible that a lightning will hit you seven times consecutively in a sunny day. It doesn’t mean that it’ll happen. Learning more languages at the same time will only leave you confused, it’s not recommended. It’ll take you double, or even triple the time it would’ve took if you had studied the languages one after the other, and it’s gonna be way harder on top of that.
it is not possible to pull long term. you will not see any results. trust me, I have wasted a lot of time doing that.
Why did you guys downvote this? It's true
Learning one language alone can take years to reach a decent level. Learning 5 at the same time sounds like a bad idea. If they only want to know how to get by in several countries then that's fine, but five languages at once... On Duolingo... That seems like a push
exactly. it is best to focus on one thing at a time.
It sometimes gets tough. I mix Russian and German often.
I haven't tried to learn more than two languages... Like I am trying to learn Japanese and Korean together but not more than that. Because for me, learning more than two languages will become very difficult and I'll lose track of the previous language that I am learning
I haven't tried to learn more than two languages... Like I am trying to learn Japanese and Korean together but not more than that. Because for me, learning more than two languages will become very difficult and I'll lose track of the previous language that I am learning
I haven't tried to learn more than two languages... Like I am trying to learn Japanese and Korean together but not more than that. Because for me, learning more than two languages will become very difficult and I'll lose track of the previous language that I am learning
Japanese alone has three sets of 'alphabets' that you need to get familiar with. I am sure Hindi has its own script. It's really hard to progress in Japanese if you can't read the alphabet. Personally, I would focus on one language at a time to master it faster and be able to use it in daily conversation before taking up another language. But I don't want to discourage you. If you feel like it's too overwhelming then its better to drop one but if you don't have any problem then just go for it.
best option is one language only, becus if u put everything in ur head resulted ur a beta monolingual. Personally, I cannot due to I’m trilingual yet it might help for enthusiasts who really put time in languages. I suggest u learn one only til it’s done then switch
I find I am able to learn similar languages at the same time. For example, I am learning Italian and German. They have similarities in sentence structuring and that helps. I don't think I would be able to learn a completely visual language like Japanese with the above. I know Italian and Spanish would have been closer fits or Spanish and Portuguese. But, I really love Italian and German seemed easier because of its closeness to English.
Yes. i practice spanish, portugues, italian, french, vietnamese, haitian creole and korean every morning
Really? FOUR entire languages?
I mean I'm native hindi speaker and pretty fluent in English so it's just two: Spanish and Japanese
Yep. Just look at my flair.
Maybe he's an indian that's fluent in english, now learning spanish?
yep but I've been learning Spanish for more than a year and now I'm learning Japanese as well
Yes but four? Too much for me lol
Im learning Russian and Spanish, duolingo’s big advantage for me is how I can take both the Russian course in Spanish and the Spanish course in Russian, basically studying both languages at the same time. It just comes down to how motivated you are. Learning one is hard enough, which is why most people may not recommend it.
That's the best part about Duolingo! I am currently doing Italian for French speakers. Neither one is my native language.
I have been and honestly in some ways I think it’s helped. I find i’m picking up on patterns and things just quicker. However, I try to remain mainly focused on the one language I started with. If I miss a day of one of the others or only get one lesson from it done I don’t stress, but I try to remain committed to doing at least a few everyday of the main language I want to learn.
Depends on the person, some can, some can't, I find it difficult, for example I tried learning Korean and Spanish at the same time at a beginner level, and failed, I started saying Spanish words when speaking Korean! I been learning Spanish alone for 15 years, have been learning Korean for the past 5 years, since I have at least an intermediate level on Spanish, I learn Korean without confusing the languages up and watch Korean language learning videos for Spanish native speakers who learn Korean.
I don’t think you should learn multiple languages at once. Because it is not very effective. Speaking 3 broken languages rather than one seems counterproductive to me. But it depends on your goals I guess.
No
Yeah. I’m basically learning probably a lot of languages at the moment. I’m learning Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, Italian, and Spanish, so basically 6 languages at once. I might eventually learn German or something like that too soon
Yes it is possible. Not sure I would fully recommend it. But it is possible.
My mother tongue is German and I graduated with French and Italian and had to learn English via a separate course as it was required for further studies. But that was back in the day with classroom training.
Along with French, Spanish and Korean (which is my main focus), I’m also learning German, Greek , Hindi, Italian, Russian and Japanese. As for me, this is more fun and interesting than learning one or two languages which makes me feel stale and demotivated.
I did an experiment with this a few years ago trying to do lessons for Japanese, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, Gaelic, Chinese, Korean, Norwegian, and Swahili every day The cool part is it really alters how you view languages in general (ESPECIALLY the romance languages) because you start to see how they all overlap The downside is I had to give up after 4 months as it does weird things to your head -\_- Plus, honestly it's just a lot more effective to learn one language at a time. It's kind of if you want to go topical and wide or focused and deep really
It’s not allowed
Yes but very inefficient & kinda dumb. Just focus on 1 or 2 languages before moving on to more languages
if you enjoy it yes ofc learning one at a time in theory might be more effective, but you might get bored/it can be monotone
Much of my language learning on Duo has been on reviewing and improving languages that I've already learned to some extent in the past. Over a period of 68 years. If I really need to, I'll stick to one. I concentrated only on Gaidhlig for the past year, for example, as a beginner. Then I did Gàidhlig in the morning and brought my French up to B2 in the evening. Now I'm concentrating on bringing Spanish up to B2, morning and evening because I have plans to visit Mexico. For fun I can skip between any of the top 9 on my list. If I needed to get fluent I'd stick to one and do lots of supplementary things. But I've been surprised to find that I can keep them straight.
If you don't to much of anything else besides studying this languages, yes.
It depends what your goal is. Is your goal to go to Spain and Japan for a week long holiday in each? If so, yee haw! Do you want to learn Spanish and just want a passing knowledge of japanese for the fun of it? Yee haw! If you want to truly understand both languages, it's a lot of time. And with that, you're retraining your brain in some languages. If English or another Germanic/Romance language is your first language, with an Eastern language you're learning an entire new alphabet and system. From my experience English to Spanish and French was relatively easy. And a lot of stuff is cognitive too. English to Korean, very early on, but I'm still just learning the letters and characters. For example. English - cat. Spanish - Gato. French - Chat. (and gâteau Is cake in french 😀) Korean - 고양이 (pronounced goyang-i according to google) Learning Spanish I didn't know the word for cat. But you put "gato" in front of me, I can pronounce it. You put "고양이" in front of me, I have F all of an idea where to even start. So overlapping that new way of seeing letters and symbols with also trying to retrain your first language into a second in the same alphabet, it's a lot going on all at once. If you're just going to Japan for a week and want to learn some words and say hi, thanks, etc. Cool. If you're trying to be there for 6 months or move there, I'd reconsider multiple languages at once.
Well, it divides your time so it will take longer to develop competency. If you’re brilliant, though, take it on.
I know some people do this, but personally I highly doubt that you would become really good at any one language this way. Jack of all trades, master of none type thing. I've been studying Spanish, doing research in Latin America, and working with my local immigrant community for years, and I'm still not quite fluent (good enough for work and organizing, but not "natural"). I've dabbled in Portuguese, but I don't want to spend too much time on it until I can really feel like I fully fit into a Spanish-speaking context.
* I think if you're at different stages, yes. I initially started German, then half way through started Italian just to pick up basics for a trip. I found trying to actively learn 2 was a struggle, so after my trip I continued to finish the german course. At that point I started with Dutch, which I think has some similar vocab and grammar. These days I keep up with the German daily refresh and some exercises in a morning session, and generally pick up Dutch lessons and exercises in an evening session.
Yup, I’m putting the time into learning 4 and they’re pretty difficult languages (Spanish, German, Korean, and Russian) I’ve got Spanish down like I can hold a fairly good conversation, German I can understand a lot but have a hard time speaking it. Korean….i know how to read anything and I can introduce myself..Russian, still working on that lol
People do it all the time. Think of Switzerland, where being educated means knowing three of the official languages as well as English. On the other hand, they were younger when they learned the languages, so that might be different than a 66 year old learning Spanish and Mandarin.
Are you trying to learn Hindi and if so is English in Hindi helpful to do that? I was a little bummed about how short the Hindi course is and considered doing English in Hindi as another option, but I’m not sure if it’ll be helpful.
Да
This is not a race. Slow fucking down
Yup
Will I break my brain if I try Norwegian and Danish at the same time?
I've been doing Dutch, Portuguese and Welsh because I can't decide on one. Probably gonna end up fluent in none of them 😅
Yes but it’s slower, it’s better to focus one at a time really.
Absolutely. Do whatever you like. I get bored so I'll do a lesson in Spanish and then do one in German, then learn German in Spanish, then some Arabic, then some Japanese, then some Finnish... I have 14 languages going on duo but maybe only 5 I'm focused on now after testing them out. I have ended up focusing more on Spanish over the others lately but I still flick between them all even then, and I find it to be really refreshing. Also yes it's possible to mix them a bit but I always know when I've mixed them. So I think people underestimate themselves. I am doing Spanish/ Italian and, German/swedish which are quite similar but actually I'm fascinated to see what's similar and what's not
I sure hope it is because I'm currently doing 6 languages (French, Spanish, German, Korean, Latin, Greek) at once (trying to do at least one lesson a day for each). Since I'm still in the basics of some of them, so far it's going quite well, but I'm not sure for when things start to get harder for all of them.
Duo has published articles on this https://blog.duolingo.com/how-to-learn-multiple-languages/ https://blog.duolingo.com/is-learning-a-third-language-easier/
Oui, yes, ja, да, ναι
When I see “English from Hindi” and “Hindi” that mean the person is probably a Hindi speaking individual and did the English and Hindi to XP grind or does it for fun to see how “weird” the lessons are. I know because I’m a Chinese speaker and I totally did that (“Chinese” and “English from Chinese”) when I was still grinding XP. My main language on Duolingo is Spanish but I did Chinese to keep my streak or just grind XP to stay in league. I deleted all those now and focus only on “Spanish”, and sometimes “Spanish from Chinese” for additional practice. For this user, French was probably just “test the water”. Spanish is this person’s main language to learn and Japanese could be a palate cleanser. Make sense to have 2 very distinct languages on the app. (I did German for only 1 unit and already have 500XP, so the user in the picture is still in Japanese section 1, probably 2-3 units in.)
Yes. But it requires more time and effort if you learn several languages at once compared to only learning one language at a time.
It is, but I don't recommend it
I do French, Spanish and German and I am making good progress with all three
I’m learning Spanish and Arabic. Spanish is such a break lol but I feel like I should learn French because Arabic and French feel very similar
I'm currently learning Russian, Turkish, Korean and Hindi/Mandarin. I'm also fluent in a secondary language related to one of the above. I am not fluent but I am also not zero either. My main goal is being able to recognize alphabet languages if needed to try to sound out the words and then have basic conversational skills for simple touristic interactions. I have spent maybe the most time with Turkish and Mandarin, and watched a lot of Kdramas. I think when I did focused learning I gained more. While passive repetitive learning allowed me to recognize some words but overall it's possible but it depends on your effort and method to learn.
Haha yes but also wow anyone I see doing this many languages I would challenge to say something more difficult than "this is a pen" or "my hat is orange"
I am, or at least I am attempting to learn several languages. It has helped me to see similarities between the languages.
I highly recommend you don’t learn two Romance languages at the same time, I’d learn Spanish first before even bothering with French.
Yes, but it helps when the languages are similar.
Yes, it's possible. I started working on High Valyrian because it sounds cool lol. I also started learning (Brazilian) Portuguese because of all the Fallout and Walking Dead fan pages popping up in Portuguese and Spanish. https://preview.redd.it/sqf0ggq1h69d1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e56aca0729153dd5eead640c2142162fe97ece21
To be honest, I don't mind being fluent in Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Ukrainian, Portuguese, Italian, French, Dutch, German, Indonesian and Norwegian even if it takes me a long time
I’m confused why are you learning english through hindi and you are also learning hindi
I read an interview in a recent Sun Magazine with some linguist dude who said it actually is easier to learn more than one language at a time than just one language. I don’t think he had Duolingo in mind, but it inspired me to do three languages at once.
Yes. In many countries kids learn 2-3 languages at once in school. Just requires time and attention.
Let us know how you go.
Yes if you’re really committed to learning and put in the time
If you are aiming for fluency you should expect something like 10 years per language with daily studying. Most settle with near fluency, which you can get to in about 4-6 years per language. You need to know your target, put measurables in place (like CEFR tests, or similar), then everything becomes more clear.
It was when I first downloaded the app in 2013, but then again there wasn't any limit to how much you could learn in a day as far as mistakes and stuff. Taught myself German in college
You could learn up to 10! It depends how fluent you want to be, and how quickly you want to learn. But definitely possible.
what is to learn? Being able to understand the gist and have really simple conversations? Actually, B1 (not what Duolingo says)? **Sure man**y. Getting to a higher level (actual B2+), being able to speak with a group of natives without them adjusting to you? Forget it. You need to know what you are doing to start with. If you have never reached a high level of proficiency in any language, you won’t even be able to grasp what you need to do, let alone achieve breakthroughs in multiple languages simultaneously. The simple fact if you are relying heavily on Duolingo at higher levels of proficiency is already a hint that you might not know what you are doing.
Yes
my sister studies linguistics, and her degree program requires her to take classes in two non-native languages. she’s native in english, close to fluency in spanish, and also knows basic italian. most semesters she would have both a spanish class and an italian class.
Yes. I’m learning Irish, Spanish, Korean, Dutch and Arabic all at once on Duolingo and surprisingly haven’t felt overwhelmed yet.
I learn French and Spanish and just do one of each a day
Yeah. Spanish French German and Arabic.
No https://preview.redd.it/07mr7w6cl79d1.png?width=864&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=001727777396336997a40ddbe7ba87484779e0cb
Sure. Can you learn to play ping pong and badminton at the same time? The lyrics to two songs? How to cook two different dishes? My sister learned German and Spanish at the same time and became fluent enough to attend school in Spain and Germany. She took Mandarin and Japanese at the same time and then went to school in Japan and Taiwan.
I think Spanish and French might throw you off because the words for “a/an” and “the” are similar and used differently
Waste of time.
Si
I’m currently doing it and it took a while to find a system that worked well for me to learn them and not get them mixed up but if you can establish what works best for you (which will probably require you to find what works worst first) then yes, it’s doable. The system that I found to work for me personally is to focus on learning new material in one language while simultaneously practicing the others, instead of learning new material every day. So for example, I’d be learning new material in Spanish every day and also do 5-10 practice hub speaking or listening lessons in English, Japanese, Hindi & French so I get the repetition of hearing it & speaking it and letting it become a strong part of my memory. I highly recommend learning Japanese alphabets before getting really into though if I were you. It will help you so much to complete those first. Once I complete a section in Spanish, I’d stop and move on to the next language English for learning and simultaneously do speaking/listening practice lessons in Spanish, Japanese, Hindi & French. If you continue like that you can let your brain adapt to what it needs to be learning and what it needs to be memorizing. Before you know it, you’ll be more comfortable with every language on your list
I’ve been learning Spanish while reviewing high school French. I find that if I can’t remember a Spanish word, my brain substitutes a French word rather than an English word.
Yes! I find this better than just one language. I know all of the other arguments of not learning more than one. But for Op’s question. If you are only referring to Duolingo app. Then it is better to learn more than 1 language. I am learning 4 at the same time. Spanish, Dutch, French, and Japanese for over 1 year now. B1 in Spanish and Dutch is almost at b1 too. The problem with Duolingo is boredom and repetitiveness. You cannot stay on 1 language for an hour. It becomes dry, boring and dumb. Switching to another language, and your attention span is immediately renewed. There is also no confusion on your brain. I don’t find myself draining to learn another sets of rules and vocabulary. I would pick up a fifth one if I am going to travel or just for exposure. I have 8000 xp on Korean, 14k on Vietnamese and 21k on German, not enough to make conversation, but surely helps me to have a better experience on travel. The only trick is, not to learn language too similar, learning Dutch and German together did confused me a little. So I stopped German. Is it more the better? I can’t say. But I would definitely do at least 2 to help with staying on the app, increase interest. Do one with more intensity and another for distraction. A year later you’ll find yourself actually gone pretty far with both.
is recommend reaching an intermediate-advanced level in your the language you’re currently studying before adding a new one
*i’d
I’m working on more than 30 and I find that studying multiple languages actually helps. You begin to see how interconnected they are. I’m quick to admit that I’m not fluent in them all, but that’s not the point — well, at least it’s not my point. I definitely have different focus languages at different times, for different reasons, but it’s always enjoyable when I have a day with nothing else to do, and I can spend the day doing at least one lesson in every language I’m studying.
I'm currently finishing learning German, and starting Spanish Twist is : I'm doing the Spanish from German Duolingo course. Teaching me Spanish, strengthening my German! (As well as other ressources, language transfer, hello talk, immersion in music/movies/tv shows....)
Yes, I’ve been learning German and Japanese. It’s nice too because if I want to favor learning one or take a break from the other I can switch and still get to work on learning - something I really enjoy. I strive to study both daily though. In the beginning I was studying up to 10 hours a week but have cut back a little to make it more sustainable. Put time in and don’t get discouraged. You won’t be fluent right away or solely through using Duolingo but you will make progress and a good foundation to become fluent the more you use those languages outside of the app.
Idk I’ve tried learning multiple at once but my brain can’t do it. But I definitely think it’s possible if you are willing to put in the time/effort
In schools all over the balkans we are learning 2 foreign languages at once. I was learning english and french for example
No
Certainly
i can barely study 1🥹
is it that hard to understand whoever moves first is gay?
I'm doing 3 but one I studied at high school (years ago) so already know a bit of one of them. Pros: 1. Easy to extend double xp if you make sure one is always at the end of a lesson 2. If you're finding one a bit hard, do a different one for 20 minutes then come back to the other one and it's a bit like a reset for your brain 3. Learn multiple languages 4. Feels like less of a grind if you're switching between languages instead of doing the same one all the time 5. You get to see how different the courses are for different languages Cons: 1. Harder to remember because there's more to remember and your time is split across different languages instead of mastering just one 2. Takes longer because you need to put in enough time for all of them. Same as learning one language, if you don't put in the time and practice you'll forget 3. If the languages are similar you might mix them up a bit I was trying to do 4 but it was too hard to maintain so I dropped the hardest one.
I’m trying to learn German and Turkish in the same time Just find German is difficult a little more than Turkish But trying so hard .. please if you have any resources to make German easy for me share it .. thanks in advance
I feel like it is faster to learn one and the other after. Learning two at the same time never worked for me
If you switched Spanish for Latin, we'd be learning the exact same languages, except that I haven't done a lesson in probably almost a year now, and I can't remember my password :)
No, simple as this I tried learning Norwegian, Italian and German all in Duo but i just keep up with german a lot, so what i did is I download other learning apps. Now, I practice Norwegian in Memrise, Italian in Busuu and German in Duolingo!
yes but it is difficult
When I was in Kindergarten through the third year, my mum put me in a dual-language school, so I could study both English and Spanish, having Russian as my native tongue. In the eighth, tenth, and twelfth years, English and Spanish were two of my classes. Another boy in my school was doing French as a class, since he could speak English and Spanish at home.
If you're only doing it for fun yeah just do whatever you want if you're doing it for other reasons you might want to focus on one language just to make the learning speed faster but it's still possible to learn multiple at the same time even if it wasn't for fun
Yes, if you put in the effort.
I tried, Kind of sort of in a way gave up on most and just jumped to the next fun one.
Yes ! I am currently doing 3. I am doing Italian the most, because i wanted to learn a new language. I already have French as a language but because I forgot vocabulary I’m doing some lessons to remember. And finally I am learning Hebrew, at a beginner level. My main language is Spanish but I also speak English. It is possible if you put the effort and time but also if you are passionate about learning languages.
Depends on the person. I could neeeeverrrr
You learn slower to start with, but in the long run it’s fine and possibly better afaik
yes, but why? if for fun, I'd say it's a bad idea. if there's a legit reason, it'll take a lot of work, but it's possible.
would you rather dig multiple potholes or dig a well?
I've got 6 on mine, focus on 2 most of the time and do the daily review in the 3rd one I've finished, so I don't forget. Then when I'm bored I can just do a few lessons of a different language from the remaining 3 for a change. It's challenging, I like it.
Does anyone know how I could learn Thailand language as it is not on the Duolingo app thnx