No! Anyone who has a deep interest in languages in general and has invested their time into really learning a language is going to want to move on to the next one before the first is truly learned (it can be an overwhelming impulse).
Curiosity is natural, but you need to decide whether you want to fully learn to become fluent in the first language or are just gathering a little knowledge of different languages here and there. You can even end up not being particularly proficient in any language by doing things this way.
You need to make a decision at the beginning. Are you wanting and willing to put in the time and effort that it takes to become fluent in a particular language? If so, set some targets. Allocate a certain number of hours per week for studying this language ONLY.
You can decide for yourself whether you want to become functionally fluent or simply to be able to hold a basic conversation. But focus on one language, take it to where you are happy, only then move to the next one.
Even if you are a pretty smart cookie, the language you study is fairly straightforward and you use the very best language program there is; to learn a new language requires a lot hard work and commitment over a long period of time. Even for a very easy language, you will probably need hundreds of hours of hard work to speak it correctly. Don't waste your time in studying a bit of this and a bit of that, thinking that in the end you might learn how to speak them all. You won't.
If you prefer to learn a smaller amount of a number of different languages, there still needs to be some kind of disciplined learning method that will give you optimum results. When you buy a grammar book for French or German, for example, make sure you tell yourself loud and clear that you will finish learning Spanish first - and that this is just to satisfy your curiosity for other languages. If you do a few lessons of German for fun, make sure you are clear about why you do this - I want to see what German sounds like and how close it is to Dutch. Don't get carried away and do an entire volume of German while you are only half way through the Spanish still!
So no, generally speaking, learning two languages at the same time is usually not a good idea.
About the Author: I have a number of health, fitness and general lifestyle websites, including one showcasing the USA's top selling method of exactly how to learn a new language...and in under 8 weeks! Visit http://www.firstforlanguages.com Look out for more of my lifestyle websites in the First For....com' series that is currently under development. |
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