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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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 Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 12:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Super Frank wrote: |
| Many people study French and German at the same time so don't see why you shouldn't be able to keep them both up. Personally I'm crap with learning languages, my French is abysmal and half my family live there, whilst my Chinese gets harder the more I realise how bad I am. But I am determined to get there eventually. Good luck. |
I'm one of those people that studied both French and German at the same time, and I'd like to point out that there are features of English that come directly from each langugage (a lot of grammar, and long words from French, shorter words and some aspects of grammar from German- English is a Germanic language after all), so it's probably not as hard as learning two languages that have no relation to English simultaeneously.
That said, the OP is not going to be a zero learner in either, so it may not be too too hard. I do find that I will occasionally use a German word instead of French or vice versa- and code switiching between English, French and German has been a problem during drunken conversations in Japanese, but not so much any more.
Many people who have successfully learned multiple languages to fluency say that they approach each first from a cultural feeling, so they actually feel differently when using each language, and that keeps them seperated soas to avoid code switching. |
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Deconstructor
Joined: 30 Dec 2003
Posts: 775
Location: Montreal
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| Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 12:56 pm Post subject: |
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| GambateBingBangBOOM wrote: |
| Super Frank wrote: |
| Many people study French and German at the same time so don't see why you shouldn't be able to keep them both up. Personally I'm crap with learning languages, my French is abysmal and half my family live there, whilst my Chinese gets harder the more I realise how bad I am. But I am determined to get there eventually. Good luck. |
That said, the OP is not going to be a zero learner in either, so it may not be too too hard. I do find that I will occasionally use a German word instead of French or vice versa- and code switiching between English, French and German has been a problem during drunken conversations in Japanese, but not so much any more.
Many people who have successfully learned multiple languages to fluency say that they approach each first from a cultural feeling, so they actually feel differently when using each language, and that keeps them seperated soas to avoid code switching. |
The above is very true. I speak four languages and never mix them. At one point I spoke all four absolutely fluently and considered them as my native languages. I think this is because I learned all four before I was even 10 years old and in their given cultures.
Of course, once you throw the good old brew into the mix, you got a brand new language going. Personally I don't know what the hell I'm talking about in any language after a few drinks and neither does anyone else.
I tell my students that they should always drink a beer or two before coming to class. Once in a while we go out for a drink or two; after the first beer they tell me that they speak better than they thought. After the second they don't understand why they were placed at their present level. After more than four drinks... well this might be the response:
"You tink speak gooder than me? I use English get Big Mac tomorrow... er... yesteryear... Why put me beginner? I beginner 3 year before... How many beer?"
"I think you've had 5."
"How many beer, I say?!"
"You mean how much is the beer?"
"Level 3 good for me." |
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