Learning Two Languages at Once

CC subtitles available in: English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Malay, Russian, Japanese, French and Italian.

I'd like to thank the volunteers who created this video's translations:

Sara
Simon
Phol Huỳnh
Yukari Inabnit

When starting out in a language, I prefer to focus on that language. Once I'm more advanced, I can combine it with the study of another language where I'm at a similar level.

0:00 The beginning of a new 90-Day Challenge for Arabic and Persian.
1:53 Don't study two languages at once if you are a beginner in those languages.
4:06 My strategy for learning two languages at once.
5:36 The importance of doing things you enjoy when studying two languages.
7:39 The importance if finding a great language tutor.

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My Podcast:

#learnlanguages #languages #polyglot

[Thelinguist]

At the beginner stage in a new language we feel satisfaction from obvious progress. This fades as we discover how much remains. At that time, it's sometimes beneficial to do two languages at the same time.

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Social Media

[i_noah_guy]

Tell me you’re Canadian without saying you’re Canadian - “Language learning is like an upside down hockey stick”

[mertonlegrand]

I’ve been learning Japanese for 2 years, when last March, I really felt stuck. That was when I, out of nowhere, decided to pick up French again (which I had in school years ago; I was really bad).
So I did that for a month, completely ignoring Japanese and the amazing part is, when I returned to Japanese I felt like I improved massively… just by doing nothing and letting my subconscious sort some things out.

[JDGhast]

I was literally just searching around for more info on this exact topic. You’re a hero!

[imadivergentandantinormiep]

My native language is spanish. I'm learning russian language now, though I'm studying from english to russian, so I'm studying both languages at the same time

[Caine]

I’m seriously studying Spanish right now while also dabbling in Norwegian and Japanese to challenge myself and keep it fun. That way once I’m at a level I want to be with Spanish and I move on to the other two I’ll have a head start 🇪🇸 🇳🇴 🇯🇵

[little_engine_goes_to_Thailand]

I totally agree. I have been learning Thai for 1 1/2 years at home and it was getting a little boring, so I picked up Russian 8 months ago ( again, learning at home) and I now switch back and forth during the week and feel the enjoyment coming back into learning Thai. You have to like Mr. Kaufmann said, get past the initial 3- 6 - 12 months with your first language, and probably better if the languages are not too similar as may get confusing. But if you tell someone that you are learning 2 languages at the same time- expect to get some weird looks.

[levipatrickdiaz]

I think it depends on goals. If you want to really advance quickly or reach a high level of fluency faster, it’s better to focus on just one (especially if you’re short on time). But I guess if there’s no rush, you have a lot of time, or you REALLY want to learn 2 at the same time and don’t want to choose between them, it’s not bad to do two at once. I hear of people focusing on 2+ and that sounds hard to me, but my main focus now is slowly improving my high level Spanish (which happens almost passively because of my day to day life and work situation) while really trying to progress on Russian as quickly as possible (which has turned out to be VERY difficult for me, haha). Since Russian has been so challenging, I’ve been tabling the other languages that interest me until I reach a decent level of “fluency” (as I define it)

[eeeee]

Es agradable escucharle con frecuencia :) se siente un ambiente de comunidad y soporte ¡Muchas gracias por compartir continuamente! Es lindo escuchar que otros pasan por lo mismo y leer los comentarios siempre me da mucha esperanza y ánimo de seguir <3

[unalettriceinviaggio]

Off topic: have you ever considered doing a bookshelf tour and showing us all the books you have? I look at the bookshelves behind you and I'd like to know more about the book you used for learning languages or simply the ones you read...

[afanasymarinov]

I started studying Hebrew three months ago after having spent the previous two years learning Russian. My Russian is by no means perfect, but being quite advanced now in Russian, I continue studying both languages in parallel quite comfortably.

[erenparla]

This is exactly the content I was looking for thank you for these videos Steve!

[TediousDraven]

That was what I was looking for! Thanks for the video, Steve! Really appreciate your videos!

[alwaysuseless]

My experience is that once I learn a language, then starting a new language means I'm now learning 2 languages, because otherwise, I'm going to start losing the language I've already learned. To be specific, I currently speak native English, B2 German, and A2 Spanish. So I'm primarily focusing on Spanish, but I have to do a few lessons in German every week. This not only maintains my German, but also gives me the rewards of being fairly fluent in a non-native language, while I continue learning Spanish. Eventually, I'll be engaging in German and Spanish every week, while learning French.

[angelsrosena]

Today I’m on my 59th day of this challenge (in 🇩🇪 ) and this challenge has been teaching me so much about discipline than anything else. It’s not easy, but it’s worthy.

Thank you ☺️

[Pamela._]

Yes. I'm a total beginner in arabic (which is a difficult language for me) and I'm missing that excitement in understanding things/ improve quickly that I cannot yet reach in arabic. So I decided to also start studying french (knowing other 3 romance languages gives me a nice head start) to have that feeling of reward, dopamin rush, whatever.... While continuing learning arabic slowly without feeling bad for not learn fast.

[danieluchoa]

Watching from Brazil. I really love your channel, you can learn a lot in one single video. Such a wisdom.

[black]

Currently learning both Japanese and Korean. Both have similarities in sentence patterns, grammar and some vocabulary. I think that, learning 2 languages at once is managing the time for both languages, in which I did in my Boarding School, 2 weeks for English and 2 Weeks for Arabic.

[FarmanAli-mqqq]

Steve, you are my favourite polyglot because of your views about learning languages. You give more importance on input.

[alkmiyaa]

Me encantan tus videos y en especial este, ya que estoy retomando mis estudios del idioma arabe y me gustaria empezar a estudiar farsi. Mi gran motivacion es mi familia politica egipcia con la cual me quiero comunicar.