To Learn 2 Languages at Once... or Not?
TaiPan
April 15, 2007, 12:17 AM posted in General DiscussionI enjoy studying Chinese on Chinesepod and was considering giving SpanishSense.com as test drive. However, the last thing I want to do to myself is contaminate my Mandarin learning with Spanish vocab and grammar (the mutual use of 'de' seems particularly challenging). I don't know if my internal filing system can handle it. I'm American and grew up speaking English with no second languages.
Does anyone have any experience/success studying two foreign languages at once? Should I risk my Mandarin progress by giving it a try? Your thoughts..?
fudawei
May 30, 2007, 11:18 AMYou will not mess them up. The mind has a wonderful way of compartmentalizing these sorts of things. I've found that studying Chinese and Spanish at the same time very easy. Indeed, I snort condescendingly when the Spanish crowd whines about how difficult Spanish is. Hey, I've dealt with tones, measures words, tense markers and endless homophones. I laugh at your trilled R's and puny "verb forms", Spanish!! Bring it on! ;)
TaiPan
May 30, 2007, 11:33 AMFuDaWei LOL! Very Funny. Thanks for your thoughts... BTW, does FuDaWei translate to 'F*** You, Dave' in English?
TaiPan
May 30, 2007, 10:55 AMI enjoy studying Chinese on Chinesepod and was considering giving SpanishSense.com a test drive. However, the last thing I want to do to myself is contaminate my Mandarin learning with Spanish vocab and grammar (the mutual use of 'de' seems particularly challenging). I don't know if my internal filing system can handle it! I'm American and grew up speaking English with no second languages. Does anyone have any experience/success studying two foreign languages at once (with no immersion in a foreign country)? Should I risk my Mandarin progress by giving it a try? Your thoughts...?