for those of you learning multiple languages - how do you study?

I'm currently learning two languages, and making an effort to keep up with reading in the two languages that I grew up speaking. It's hard to find the time for everything that I want to do! When I see people post with 6 or 7 languages under their profile, I'm amazed.

So here are my questions for people learning multiple languages:

How many hours do you spend on language learning every day? Do you follow a strict schedule, or just study what you want when you want? Do you work on all of your languages at once, or do you rotate them?

Are you motivated by learning many languages to a lower level, or are you aiming for a higher level? Do you "adopt" all of the languages that you learn, or do some of them get abandoned?

I'll answer my own question, although I'm decidedly NOT a polyglot!

How many hours do you spend on language learning every day? Do you follow a strict schedule, or just study what you want when you want? Do you work on all of your languages at once, or do you rotate them?

I spend about 2 hours on language learning every day. One of my languages - Spanish - is at a high intermediate level, so I can do fun stuff like reading and TV and call it "study". My other language - Tagalog - is at a low beginner level, which is where I think it will stay for a long time. Ha!

Here's what my daily study looks like:

An hour of Tagalog every day: 15-20 minutes of anki, 30 minutes working through a course (I'm using 2 right now) or writing a text, 10-15 minutes of listening in the car. Twice a week, I have a 30-minute Skype session with a tutor.

An hour of Spanish every day: 5-10 minutes of anki, 10-15 minutes listening/reading Democracy Now, 30-40 minutes of reading. Every weekend, I do one 1-hour Skype session and try to watch at least two hours of television.

I don't follow a strict schedule, although I do work in each language every day. I'm a hedonistic learner, so I have to enjoy what I'm doing. I don't think that I would want to "rotate" languages, which is why I'm not sure if I'll add another language once I'm comfortable with Tagalog.

Are you motivated by learning many languages to a lower level, or are you aiming for a higher level? Do you "adopt" all of the languages that you learn, or do some of them get abandoned?

My long-term goal is to get my Spanish to a high level (equivalent to C1), and my Tagalog to a conversational level (equivalent to B2). I definitely adopt languages. I don't suffer from language wanderlust at all. If I'm learning a language, it's because I'm committed to it for the long-term.

I'm also at awe of people who manage to learn several at once and make decent progress. I've tried myself with varying results; I did French and Italian for a couple of years and while I did see improvements in both, it always felt like a compromise between the two, never mind other areas of my life. But I'm not quite patient enough to wait until I reach a level I'm completely satisfied with in one before starting another (although of course I at least wait until I'm fairly conversational!), especially when that other one has obvious utility to me, so I've accepted that I have to compromise somehow.

For now I've decided that it's best to prioritise and have one "focus" language, which at the moment is Italian. French is in maintenance, meaning a conversation every week or two and the odd article/video/etc., and in Spanish I'm learning the basics at a pace that is much slower than I'd ideally like but is fairly steady and sustainable. I might ramp up the Spanish a bit once I become more conversational, but in full awareness that my Italian will suffer.

About schedule: I don't really have much of a consistent routine in life so I just fit in languages when I can. I try to do around half an hour of Spanish a day, normally a bit in the morning before work and another bit after, then remaining language time is for Italian, and it could be anything from a few minutes to a couple of hours. What I do again depends on how much time and energy I have and what my current focuses are: conversation if possible, pronunciation/accent work, grammar, or more passive activities like watching a film or reading a book. Weekends are even more variable, I have busy ones and quiet ones; on the quiet ones I might watch a couple of films as well as the more active work. Trying to make a schedule is impossible for me so I suppose just sort of improvise based on priorities.

About levels and motivation: I'm like you, I don't have wanderlust and I'm in it for the long haul; the closest I get to dabbling is learning a few phrases etc. of the language if I'm visiting a country. I'm fairly conversationally fluent in French (somewhere in the massive gulf between B2 and C1) and I'm hoping to reach that sort of level at least in Italian and Spanish too, if not higher since I have a lot more opportunity to practise them. It'll take me another few years at least at my current rate!

I can't respond with so much Infos because I don't truly study my languages now, but they are extremely important in my life.

I want to study Spanish because I've learned alone and only from a book and my level is low, but Dutch and German I want to practise for maintain, for example in conversations on the threads in this languages about off topic things. MyDutch is advanced, and my German is good, I mean good enough for my aims. With English it's similar although my level is much lower: I don't want to study but improve through practice.

For me, the off topic threads in my languages are perfect, especially if the native speakers write and if they correct the mistakes.

I have quite some experience in handling two study languages at the same time. Last year I attended my VHS - Danish course regualarly and prepared the lessons every week by reading native level texts and looking up unknown vocabualry. During the holidays of this course I concentrated on my self-study of Nowegian, which I started in July 2013. I quit my Danish in spring 2014 when the course to the majority descision to read a book (with 300 pages) published in 1937 (which I found too old to interest me). Now I want to give my coursemates time to read this book without me.

From the day on that I quit my Danish course my strategy has been to alternate the self-study of both languages. So one week Norwegian, one week Danish, one week Norwegian and so on. This works fine for me! I study paralell to very similar textbooks + workbooks, that is "Dansk for dig" and "Norsk for deg" published of Hueber-Verlag. I find this a good method to study similar topics in both languages alternating. Besides this I write essays in Norwegian and Danish and post them to receive corrections.

Fasulye

Interesting questions Stelle.

For me one language is enough to keep me busy, and I feel I'm still not doing enough each day even though I'm spending 2 to 3 hours consistently. I see that number increasing after I'm at the level where I can consume native materials with better comprehension. This comes from the desire to learn French to a very high proficiency level.

As much as I would not mind studying another language, I feel that any time would take away from my French study. I'm definitely in the camp of getting to a high level in one language, versus a lower level in multiple. If I ever do take up another (Dutch), you can bet I'll be in the C1 territory for French first.

I wonder sometimes what my "limit" for number of languages is going to be. The problem for me is not so much that I would worry about my ability in the languages deteriorating, but that when I lack the time for a language, I start to miss it! I don't even remember the last time I went a whole day without listening to or at least reading something in French. I'm not as attached to Spanish yet, but I imagine I will be once I get better at it and it becomes more fun. I doubt I would want to add enough languages that I would be forced to set them aside for days at a time. In the first months when I was learning Spanish, I actually thought about it giving it up simply because my French was so much more fun to use and learning another language meant I had less time for that. And time will get even scarcer as I add new languages.

Once you get to a point where you have incorporated a language so much into your daily life, I don't know that going a day without any single language here and there really makes any difference. At least that's the way it is for me with both Spanish and Italian, but then, I use both extensively in my work (and have for decades). So it becomes more fun to learn other new languages.

On the other hand, there are some languages that I'm content to study and just plod along knowing that I'll never reach the same level with them that I have with Spanish and Italian. Ojibwe is one of them, for a variety of reasons - I will never be fluent in it, and that's OK. And in Ojibwe's case, I certainly don't mind missing a day or two or three. But I always enjoy it when I get to study it.

R.
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I'm a really bad wanderlust-er sometimes. But even before that, there's right now 4 foreign languages that directly apply to my life. Cebuano is indeed the focus, and I try to make sure I do my listening/reading for the day before everything else. Somedays it seems more productive though, to not actively learn it. I come back a day or two later refreshed. The others ones are just randomly scheduled. It keeps it fresh.

I'm not properly studying anything at the moment, but when I had two languages on the go, I made the distinction between the "day-job" language and the "hobby" language. The"day-job" was serious, and learned in mostly in a structured way, to a timetable. (Which is much easier to do when you're studying it for a distance degree to be fair.) The "hobby" language was one that I could drop at a moment's notice if something else got in the way (typically assignments for the university).

I just needed to make sure that the languages weren't competing with each other for my attention, and everything was fine. Even the less-studied of the two progressed really quickly, piggy-backing on the progress made in the other one.

There was a contentious thread on HTLAL about this, We, who manage to focus on ONE language, i.e. about focusing on one language at a time versus studying several concurrently. Personally I dropped Spanish last year to focus on learning German, and only now am willing to add Spanish back into the mix. The most compelling argument to me to get to a high level in a language is ease of maintenance, when one can just use native materials instead of having to constantly find graded material.

For some of those in the HTLAL thread who both have reached a high level in one or more foreign languages, and also took umbrage at the assertion one should focus on one new language at a time, I wondered whether they are no longer willing to put the sustained effort into learning a new language in a shorter time that they once did, preferring instead to just do several at a more leisurely pace. I can see myself indulging wanderlust by doing an Assimil or similar course while concentrating on one main new language, since that wouldn't take too much time away from the main new language. But I like the results that concentrating on just German have brought me, which includes listening to German radio and watching German television that I don't regard as part of the time I allot to formal study since I tend to do other things at the same time.

I've done some of my best learning while studying multiple languages -- I don't think it's a question of either/or.

To me there are two questions here:

1) How much time do I have available, and how much do I need to get to a high level in a language in a reasonable time frame, which to me is 1-2 years.

2) How much do I lose or gain by studying more than one language at a time, in terms of my brain's background processes being divided, as they already are in regards my native language anyway.

There's probably no reliable way to test #2, but there is for #1, given the parameters, i.e. time available and time to goal, and the goal itself. If I had 8 hours a day to study languages, then it would be a different story.

roughly ~3hrs/day weekdays, ~6hrs/day weekends. Maybe half of this is active study, but at least half is passive (reading, watching, listening).

Not a strict schedule, but tend to do the same things: Pimsleur while on a stationery bike, listening to audiobook during commute, follow a course book or grammar in order, read during the evening, etc. I track listening/watching v. reading/grammar/writing (in half-hour increments) to make sure it doesn't get too out of whack, and that I don't favor one language over another too much.

All at once. I'm a high intermediate in both Spanish and German (roughly B2-C1), so that's more of maintenance. Some weeks I do more in one language than the other. I tried rotating certain days, but that didn't work out for me. With Russian (just started in January), I have to do something pretty much every day. When starting with German ~3 years ago, at first I only worked on it maybe 3-5 hours a week (so it took me about 2 years to get to B1), but last year I focused on it almost exclusively (3 hours a day). I could easily maintain Spanish since I live with a native Spanish speaker and have abundant opportunities to speak. This year I'm focusing on reading Spanish and on different regional accents.

I am more interested in learning fewer languages to a proficient level so I can enjoy native materials.

At this point, I have adopted them and cannot imagine abandoning them. In the past (dabbling stage), when I casually dipped into Finnish (phrase book) and Japanese (conversation course), I didn't progress, and actually at this point have no desire to revisit them. I took French in high school, and while I won't say I've abandoned it, at this point, I have no plans to revisit it or study it further. I got along ok in Quebec and Paris with my rudimentary French, but with the limited time I have, I can't see dedicating the time needed to learn it to a high level. I think German, Spanish and Russian will keep me busy for the forseeable future, though I am tempted by Portuguese, since I'd get it at a discount (already speaking Spanish).

I alternate a week of French and a week of German - about 1 1/2 hours a day. If I try to do both in the same week, I end up doing nothing.

I spend most of my evenings doing language related things, and often with my TV or some other source in a funny language running in the background. Luckily I'm the extreme opposite of a 'party animal' and my nearest family is living 100 kms from there - otherwise I couldn't spend that much time on a hobby without any relation to my job.

I don't follow a strict schedule, but instead I rely on some kind of rotating principle based on things like TV programs, articles I stumble over on the internet or bad conscience concerning neglected languages. In a given evening I try to get through maybe 4-5 languages, sometimes more (especially if I'm surfing on the internet), and I try to do as many different things - including wordlists, text studies with or without retranslation and copying, reading, listening and .. no, not speaking.

So I rotate my languages - but not by reserving whole days or weeks for each one. I rotate them at a much faster rate, and if I didn't I wouldn't be able to sustain a decent level in the majority of my languages. Well, sometimes a language will get less attention for a time because I have other projects running which crave my attention, but mostly I do get back to each and every language within a fortnight or so. An example: during the recent polyglot get-together in Berlin I had assessed my Dutch, Romanian and Latin as rusty and probably not fit for fight, but I discovered that my Esperanto also had become rusty, and in a multilingual chaos like Berlin it is harder to switch to a rusty language than it would be in a more relaxed and simple situation. However I could to some extent 'repair' them just by spending some time reading and thinking in them outside the group sessions. The biggest problem turned out to be Latin, because I hadn't brought neither a dictionary nor a grammar.

And target level? Well, at home I rarely speak any foreign language - even English. I may meet an Italian or Spanish tourist in need once in a blue moon, but I can't rely on it. So I basically just think (or write) in my languages, and they only get properly 'activated' and made fit for speech if I travel to a suitable country. In some cases I can't speak the language during my first visit, but then I walk around thinking and translating into the language even though I speak something else, and then I try to get back later for a proper monolingual experience. With that situation in mind it would be idiotic to aim for nativelike and superfluent speech, whereas I can try to write reasonable well because I have time to check things. If languages follow the Pareto principle - and I think they do - I can learn several language reasonably well in the time it would take to polish just one chosen darling to perfection.

I put Russian in a waiting position because I kept mixing it with Modern Greek as long as both were on a rockbottom level, but now I iknow both suffieciently well to study both. Later on I briefly flirted with Polish and Serbian/Croatian, but put them both/all on the shelf because my Russian was too shaky - but now I have returned to them (in the case of Serbian because I'm going to Novi Sad). For the moment I have suspended my Irish studies because I have to focus on the Slavic language, but it is certainly not dropped forever. And then there are of course languages which never were intended to become regular active languages on my list ... but you should never say never.

I am working on 8 languages now. My premise is that I have a lot of time, but I wouldn't be able to take on a single language for more than 2 hours a day. I'd feel bored or have burnout. Besides, most people who learn only one language study it for the same daily amount of time that I study each of my languages.

How many hours do you spend on language learning every day?
About 9 hours, with lots of pauses in between (commuting, lunch etc.)
- 2 hours on Mandarin
- 1 hour on Russian
- 1 hour on German
- 45 minutes on Estonian
- 30 minutes on Georgian
- 30 minutes on French
- 30 minutes on Norwegian
- 10 minutes on Papiamento

Do you follow a strict schedule, or just study what you want when you want?
I follow a stricrt schedule and I often see myself having to come up with new activities to fill in extra time, since as I advance in the language it takes less time to work on the lessons on a textbook or to read native material (of course the time spent on watching/listening isn't affected).

Do you work on all of your languages at once, or do you rotate them?
I work on all of them daily.

Are you motivated by learning many languages to a lower level, or are you aiming for a higher level?
I am aiming at higher levels, but once I reach reading fluency and spoken 'sufficiency' I stop bothering.

Do you "adopt" all of the languages that you learn, or do some of them get abandoned?
I haven't dropped any languages since I've taken them seriously. Only Papiamento is just at maintenance.