Language learning: how much is too much?
‘A single 30 minute lesson’ would probably be the answer to that questions from many of my collegiate peers past, but are we really, scientifically, limited by anything other than apathy?
It is true that there is a critical period for learning one’s native language as a child: feral children raised in solitude without any linguistic stimuli (or ‘negative feedback’ as it’s technically called) prove this when they are returned to society in their teens, yet remain unable to string together even a simple sentence. But what about the acquisition of a second, third, fourth or even fifth language?
Well, it has been documented that an aptitude for language learning does exist, and will aid those in learning. As do motives for learning, the learning environment, the learner’s character and their attitude towards learning [you must excuse the lack of sources for these claims and take this as fact from someone who did linguistics at University but sold his books in a heartbeat upon graduating, though a brief scurry through Google will invariably add weight to my claims]. It is fair to say, then, that someone who claims to find language learning hard, in fact speaks the truth…
But what of those who find the challenge of learning a new language more interesting than drinking, smoking, happy slapping or anything else the kids of today enjoy? Let us start with some definitions:
A polyglot is a speaker of two or more languages, and a hyperglot a speaker of six or more. The next definition is very interesting: A semiglot (copyright Web-Translations 2008), or semilingualism to use the standard term, is where acquisition of a first language is interrupted, and insufficient or unstructured language input follows from the second language - immigrant children, for example – in which case the speaker can end up with two languages, both mastered below the monolingual standard.
It seems there is no limit to the number of languages one can learn, aside maybe from the limitations of one’s memory. Professor Carlos Amaral Freire, a 74 year old Brazilian, holds the world record for learning languages. How many do you think? No, go on, guess…37? 53? Close, it’s actually 115.
The Professor must be very proud at having shattered the previous record, held by an Italian cardinal, Giuseppe Mezzofanti, who could translate from a very meagre, and frankly embarrassing, 114 languages.
An employee of Web-Translations and speaker of many languages, Mariana, espouses her opinion on language learning…
“A friend of mine started learning Tibetan and she finds Asian language learning a very thrilling endeavour because of how very different they are from what we Europeans know in terms of sounds, written language, pronunciation and philosophy.
“It is very difficult to find anything to compare these languages to and learn on the basis of ‘language associations’.
“Based on my experience, I am already convinced that it is quite easy for Europeans to acquire many ‘Latin alphabet’ languages. So maybe more of a challenge for Europeans is to try learning Asian languages, or to try Cyrillic languages.
“I know that English native speakers have difficulties with languages like Spanish and Bulgarian, where adjectives may have different endings according to the gender of the nouns combined with them. For example, in the word groups [A red rose] and [A red dress ] in Spanish and Bulgarian there is a different ending of the word [red] according to the gender of the noun coming along.
“Of course, living in-country while learning a new language is the best possible experience; I remember how fast I was able to learn Portuguese while I was in Brazil. I spent only 3 months learning before my trip and after the second month in-country I was able to communicate with customers on the phone and enjoying the fact that I was clearly understood.”
As for me, well, I speak 6 languages…English, French, small talk, MSN speak, some basic programming languages (do they count? They should as they have strict syntax like any other language) and, of course, the language of Luurve.
What about you?
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November 18th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Interesting question about how much learning is too much, but unfortunately you don’t answer your own question! I do have two opinions of my own on the topic: 1. You should stop studying when you start to resent the exercise. 2. It’s never too much when you don’t even notice that you’re learning (i.e., switch activities to something more fun if you start to resent learning).
November 18th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
As far as learning another language is concerned, can I put in a word for Esperanto?
I suggest not only because it has become a living language, but because it has great propaedeutic values as well. Esperanto helps language learning!
You can check this out at http://www.lernu.net
November 19th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Thanks for both comments.
J - you are totally right.
Brian - I checked out the site and it’s very interesting.
Surely anyone could learn Esperanto; it seems so intuitive. I guess that’s the idea!
Cheers.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:19 am
[...] following statement of Kristian over at web-translations made me wonder. He was writing about how much is too much in language learning, and ends with the [...]
November 25th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I feel like at a certain point language learners (except for perhaps the true geniuses with too much time on their hands) have to make a choice between being very good at a very few languages, or at being not very good at a very many languages. I speak seven, but none save my mother tongue do I speak as well as I know I could. Instead of keeping at it and working towards near-native fluency in any one language, I always find it more exciting to start studying a new one and so start forgetting the old ones.
In my own experience there is a real opportunity cost in pursuing more languages, given limited time to study and practice. In asking the kind of question you asked, it’s important to define what “knowing” a language means. Is that the ability to hold a conversation? Order pizza? Explain poetry and understand jokes? The level of knowledge greatly affects the concern of how many might be too many.
December 11th, 2008 at 4:37 am
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - About half the adult British public believe that children behave like animals and pose an increasing danger to themselves and others, according to a poll released on Monday. A report by charity Barnardo’s,