Hello everyone,
I am learning Spanish right now. I am planning to start learning another language after gaining some level of proficiency in Spanish. I am studying 3 Level course in Spanish, namely; Basic, Intermediate and Advanced semester. I am currently in Basic semester and I am planning to start learning another language when I start the Spanish Intermediate semester.
Will it be a good idea to learn another language along with spanish, if I dedicatedly give 30 minutes to each language everyday?
If yes, which language will be easier to handle, any other language that originated from latin(such as Italian, French, Portuguese) or other(such as German, Russian, Chinese Mandarin)?
Oh and to prevent and confusions. What I meant to say is that it's probably better not to learn 2 language from the same family *at the same time*. Learning one after you have already gained proficiency at the other won't give so many problems. But do make sure to always keep maintaining your language skills.!
I'd recommend not to study two languages of the same language family. So no 2 romance language, or 2 Germanic languages, and so on. Because they are usually very similar and you might risk mixing up the grammar which will make it unnecessarily difficult for you.
I have some experience with almost all the languages you mentioned, so I'll give you my view on it:
- Spanish: Easy grammar, easy vocabulary (similarities with latin and English), easy pronounciation
- French: Moderately difficult grammar. Easy vocabulary. Moderate pronounciation. They also leave out many sounds in speech which might make it more difficult to listen to(one of the more complex romance languages, in my opinion.)
- Italian: No experience
- Portuguese: Almost identical to Spanish with sometimes different spelling and vocabulary. Mostly identical grammar as well
- German: moderately difficult
- Russian: most difficult/complex grammar I've seen so far. Many irregularities. Very different vocabulary (when compared to German, English, Romance..). Pronounciation: relatively easy. The different writing system is not really hard either.
- Chinese: You'll need a good visual memory for memorizing all the characters, most difficult writing there is (harder than Japanese writing). Easy grammar (for example: no conjugations, no plural, no verb tenses). pronounciation: normal-hard. You'll need to get used to using the ''tones'' in Chinese, because Chinese is a ''tone-language''. Another factor that'll make it harder to learn is that it's a really different language.
So this is how I've experienced these languages and how I feel about them. Maybe it'll help you a little for you to make your decision. But like I said, learning a language from a different language group will probably prevent you mixing things up. Good luck!
In general, ist should be no problem to learn two languages at the same time, above all if you already have an intermediate leve in one language.
However, I personally cannot recommend to learn similar languages at the same time. It didn`t work for me.
Well, but this actually doesn`t mean that you won`t make it. So, simply try it and do a language you are interested in.
Motivation is one of the main aspects you need not to fail. And in this case everyting is possible, we only can talk about our own experiences, not what`s going to happen to you.
However my advice: take a language from a different family!
My friends say that for a person who knows Spanish Italian is quite easy when you compared it with other Romantic languages.
