Is it wise to study two foreign languages simultaneously?

[Orsorum]

I.e. if I took the second quarter of introductory latin and then accelerated attic Greek, one after the other?

 

[Chaotic42]

Nyet mi amigo. Es muy gloopui.

 

[CanOWorms]

I have a friend who was taking German his freshman year of college. The class was at 8am. He woke up one day and went to class to take his oral exam and he responded in Japanese to the German questions. He didn't even realize that he did that until he went back home and finally really woke up.

😀

Hopefully that won't happen to you!

 

[tigerbait]

I took Latin and Spanish together for 4 years in high school. Wasn't a problem.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: tigerbait
I took Latin and Spanish together for 4 years in high school. Wasn't a problem.

Me too. No problemo!

 

[Ness]

I think with those two languages you would have a very hard time, because if I recall correctly, they are both very different languages that have no connection to each other.

Latin and french or spanish would be easy to get along with because both french and spanish are built off of latin. Therefore, when you learn rules of latin, you can apply much of it to the other two.

 

[DrPizza]

I don't think it'd be a problem. Then again, I took Pascal and Fortran at the same time and had a Fortran teacher who graded solely on syntax. We didn't have to write any programs for the course... I kept trying to explain to him that I had taken Pascal for 3 semesters and any syntax problems in Fortran would show up and be corrected the first time I tried to complile the program. "But, we aren't going to compile the programs in here" Sheeeesh

edit: my point being that there could be a potential problem if the grammar was really different between the two

 

[dpm]

Originally posted by: ness1469
I think with those two languages you would have a very hard time, because if I recall correctly, they are both very different languages that have no connection to each other. Latin and french or spanish would be easy to get along with because both french and spanish are built off of latin. Therefore, when you learn rules of latin, you can apply much of it to the other two.

Funny, I was going to say the opposite. I took french and spanish (after giving up german) and found it fine. I friend of mine took spanish and italian and got really muddled up - they are far too similar to study at the same time!

 

[Ness]

Originally posted by: dpm

Originally posted by: ness1469
I think with those two languages you would have a very hard time, because if I recall correctly, they are both very different languages that have no connection to each other. Latin and french or spanish would be easy to get along with because both french and spanish are built off of latin. Therefore, when you learn rules of latin, you can apply much of it to the other two.

Funny, I was going to say the opposite. I took french and spanish (after giving up german) and found it fine. I friend of mine took spanish and italian and got really muddled up - they are far too similar to study at the same time!

Well yeah, vocabulary would be rough because they are pretty similar with Spanish and French, but dictation (I believe it's called) would be similar. For Latin and French/Spanish it would be easy, IMHO.

 

[KarenMarie]

My daughter took French, German and Spanish all at the same time. She never had a problem. However, she wants one year of an East Asian language and says that she will not take take anything

🙂 KarenMarie

 

[thraxes]

Hmmm welll I am of the conviction that there is no point in learning a language. Speaking a language != learning a language IMO. There is no way you can consider yourself to be able to speak a language when you are only practicing it for what, 3 hours a week next to other studies that may be more important? I had french for 5 years at school and I'll be darned if I'd be able to order a plate of frogs legs (well maybe I could, but not much else). It was frustrating because with regular practice I became fluent in spanish in less than 2 years. Of course it helped that i lived in a country where the language is spoken and had local friends who couldn't speak much english. Sheesh I'm wandering...

My point is, if your language education is going to be sketchy at best, there is no point in adding another language to the mix unless you get regular practice. Learning one language without real practice is hard enough, especially when starting out fresh with no vocabulary etc. I guess I am saying that you may want to get a basic understaning of one language first, before you start with another. But neither will be of much use to you in the end anyway if you don't get much practice.