🔤 Learning multiple new languages simultaneously, and not just one at a time (polyglot or not) | Polyglot ABC

This goes for aspiring polyglots  -AS WELL AS-  for single language learners!

In my previous blog post ("🔤  A first thought about learning a new language i.e. becoming a polyglot"), I already mentioned my stance on learning new languages is to scale UP the amount of new languages you're learning and actually try learning MORE new languages simultaneously, as opposed to scaling down to learning less new languages at a time.

Here I'll sum up some of my reasoning behind that extensive new language learning stance…

1. First, as mentioned in the previous blog post, creating a greater challenge will generally result in greater gains.
You don't even have to take my word for it… just experiment and see if it holds true. If nothing else, you will at least experience and confirm for yourself that 'going wide in new language learning' does not work for you.

How and how wide should you scale up with learning new languages?

Well, I suggest:
— A minimum of 6 new languages to learn
- 2 of the new languages you're learning should be languages you really want/need to be learning
- Each of your new 'want/need' languages should be accompanied by at least 2 related languages (e.g. a cluster of Germanic/Romance/Scandinavian/Slavic/Etc. languages)
— Keep it up for at least 2 weeks of learning (assuming you'd do 'actual' learning i.e. learning a new sentence in each of the new languages every (other) day, actually practicing ALL the new languages at the same time and not just 1 or 2 new languages intensively and the other languages 'on the side')

2. The more languages you have to compare, the more connections and/or oddities you'll notice between the languages, making it easier to remember those specifics in these new languages.

Take for example the sentence: "I'm learning …" …

In some Romance languages this looks alike:
🇪🇸 Spanish: "Estoy aprendiendo …"
🇵🇹 Portuguese: "Estou aprendendo …"
🇫🇷 French: "J'apprends …"

Yet in two of the Romance languages, arguably the most Roman languages of them all, Italian and Romanian, it looks quite different:
🇮🇹 Italian: "Sto imparando …"
🇷🇴 Romanian: "Eu invat …"

(This has a very good explanation though… 'Romance' is too wide of an umbrella term. If you look at the language tree below, you'll see that Italian is indeed further away from Spanish/Portuguese and French, and Romanian even further. But then again, you'd never've noticed that if not for actually comparing those languages all at once)

Snapshot for language tree from: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_languages#Family_tree_of_Romance_languages

By learning all 5 of these languages at the same time, you'll notice that some words look and/or sound the same between the languages, making it so that if you remember one of them, either because it has the nicest 'ring' to it -OR- because it was the hardest to pronounce right, you'll have an easier time deriving what the word should be in the other languages.

Something you wouldn't be able to do if you had no other language to compare or associate it with!

Likewise, it will be easier to remember words that stand out for being different than what you'd expect from their related parts in the other languages…

So, in 🇪🇸 Spanish, 🇵🇹 Portuguese, 🇫🇷 French ➡️ "learning" starts with "aprend…", while 🇮🇹 Italian and 🇷🇴 Romanian go all rogue with "imparan…" and "invat" …

And 🇮🇹 Italian "Sto", 🇵🇹 Portuguese "Estou", 🇪🇸 Spanish "Estoy" all sound similar, while 🇫🇷 French and 🇷🇴 Romanian don't even bother with the 'am' part

3. An inherited "STOP" sign:

In my previous blog post I also mentioned a much cited reason of 'mixing words up' while learning a new language. This happens by falling back to a word you know from your native language. Now, when you have only one language to fall back on (your native language), you can imagine this happening more easily and automatically…

Like when choosing between just 2 kinds of soda…

When you have the choice between only the soda you already know you like 👍🏼 and the one you already know you dislike 👎🏼, the choice is easy… automatic 'like'!

However, if you get the choice between 3 kinds of soda: the one you know you like 👍🏼, the one you know you dislike 👎🏼, and a third option that you never tried before 🆕…

all of a sudden you'll 'stop' 🚏 and think about it 🤔…

contemplating if you feel like going for the familiar choice…

or feeling adventurous and trying the unknown choice (it might, after all, turn out to be better than the one you know you like)!

The same happens in your brain when it has more options to choose from:

> a foreign word it can't remember instantly ➡️ only your own language to choose a substitute from… choose that word!
> a foreign word it can't remember instantly ➡️ multiple languages to choose a substitute from… which should it be?… that pause might just be enough to choose the correct one

4. Creating more opportunities for errors, which in turn give a greater insight and a greater chance of making correct choices through deduction.

As with anything new you're learning, you'll be learning the most from your mistakes and learning through trial and error.

When learning just a single new language, you'll actually focus on getting things right: memorize vocabulary, really put effort into understanding conjugations and grammar in that single new language etc. But by doing so, you're in fact minimizing the opportunities to make terrible mistakes in that new language. And though that sounds tempting, it actually works against you on many levels of learning a new language…

First, you might start talking 'too' properly, getting confused and misinterpreting things when a native speaker talks with 'slang' or otherwise out of the ordinary, proper, way.

Secondly, you might shut down when you get into a situation where you actually DON'T remember the right way to say something in that new language, staggering, falling back on your native language or worse, refraining from saying anything at all.

Thirdly, you might get overconfident, somewhat the opposite of the previous point, where instead of 'not' remembering something, you might 'remember' a completely wrong word, use it with confidence, and actually completely lose the meaning of what you wanted to say
(I remember, as a kid, I once told my mom about this "bride & broom" I saw on the street 🙈😂)

These are just a few examples, but you can be sure there are more when it comes to 'avoiding mistakes' only to make really large ones when you eventually do, and you will.

By learning multiple new languages simultaneously, you're increasing your opportunities to make many, small and/or large, mistakes early on in the process, make them spread out over different languages, but then using those mistakes, and what you've learned from them, and applying those insights to the new language(s) you actually want to be the most proficient at.

Again, if nothing else, at least you'll be able to boast about being able to speak multiple languages, or, perhaps, unexpectedly, be able to actually have a conversation in more than just 2 or 3 new languages.


Give us your thoughts about learning multiple new languages simultaneously in the comments section below:
- What other benefits can you think of for learning multiple new languages simultaneously?

Feel free to become a new language learning/polyglot friend on Facebook: Genaro van der Werff

Wikipedia entries on languages mentioned here:
Romance Languages | French | Italian | Portuguese | Romanian | Spanish

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