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Fear of losing fluency is keeping me from learning Spanish.

Tags: fear of losing language Learning a third language

July 16, 2011
00:49

Mjsielerjr

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Okay I just got back from a year long exchange in Germany. While I was there I worked super hard to learn German and now I can confidently say that I'm at a C1 level. Now that I'm back I not only want to keep my German skills but I want to also learn Spanish.

My problem is I don't want to lose a lot of my German in the process of learning Spanish. I also don't want my 'want' to keep my German to hold me back from learning Spanish.

Do you have any advice for learning a third language, while maintaining the second one?

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July 16, 2011
03:07

jdmoncada

Louisiana, USA

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If you really did learn it to that level, you won't lose it, and if a few words go missing… that's okay. Remember that the same thing happens in your native language. Sometimes we have those mental blips where we forget a word. It's human and normal.

My native language is English, and then I learned Spanish and German. In fact, during one semester at the university, I was concurrently studying both. It didn't prove a problem.

You'll find some of the grammatical structures are the same. There may be a few pronunciation difficulties, but nothing that can't be mastered with practice. The difference in the Rs comes to mind.

A few things might confuse you in the beginning between the two or more, but they will go away. Your other language will help you with the new one because you'll already know how to learn and how to approach things. For the first while when learning Spanish, you'll actually have MORE German in your head than you thought possible. You'll be seeing everything new about Spanish through the mind set of German instead of English. (This has happened to me, and I don't believe I'm so unique that other people don't do the same.)

So in the end of it all, be encouraged. You will find success. And remember, the only sure failure is if you do not try.

Native: English Intermediate: Finnish, Spanish, German Beginner: Japanese, Russian Flirting with in 2012: French, Hungarian

July 16, 2011
06:42

Polyglottally

Canada

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jdmoncada said:

If you really did learn it to that level, you won't lose it, and if a few words go missing… that's okay.

Absolutely. If you have a core which you can fall back on, then have no fear about "losing" your German. If you once knew it at the C1 level, you will always have the tools to rebuild even if you do forget a lot. Sure, you may be a bit rusty, but you will know how to say, "What's this called again?" and "What's that?" in German, and then you'll think, "Oh yeah! Now I remember!"

So by all means go for Spanish. Don't worry, your German will be there when you need it.

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July 16, 2011
09:12

Mjsielerjr

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Hey guys thanks for all the inspiring words! I love this forum already.

Everything you said is totally right. Jdmoncada, You're so right about the R's! Poly, I totally agree with you too.

Thanks…. or Gracias

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July 16, 2011
09:47

libresco

St. Petersburg, Russia

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I think that watching movies in German or reading some blogs or reading books (if you do it on the everyweek practice) will help you to be in the field of a language for a long time. I'm not native English speaker and for people like me it's vitally to have some English-diving all the time not to lose practice.

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July 16, 2011
10:10

Aleena

Australia

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Yes, everyone's right. Once you reach a certain level in a language it is harder to forget it than you think. The only way you would forget it is if you never used that language again. But even then, you would have built up a foundation for the language and you'll find it much easier to pick it up the second time around.

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July 16, 2011
15:31

JWood424

CT, USA

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Hola a todos! I had a crazy idea the other day and when I saw this post, I thought I would pass it along. Many of us talk about language exchanges as a way to improve our speaking abilities. Well, if you are learning Spanish, but don't want to lose your fluency in German, why not consider finding a native Spanish speaker who is learning German and set up a meeting with them? Ok, that might be hard to come by, but with so many people available online to talk, there has to be someone who speaks both, right? My personal plan for the remainder of the summer is to reach a conversational level of Italian talking only with either native Italian speakers who want to learn Spanish, or anyone who speaks both of those languages. Keep English out of the mix entirely if you can. Any thoughts on this plan?

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July 16, 2011
17:48

Mjsielerjr

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Jwood: Hey man, I totally had thoughts about this too! I bought this simple little Spanish Grammar/Phrase book in Germany and it's all in German/Spanish. I thought… hey why not try and learn spanish through German. That way I would some kind of triangle language connection thing going on in my brain I don't see why not.. If we can do it in English, why not in our second langauge? Interesting idea!

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July 16, 2011
19:31

rajith

Colombo, Sri Lanka

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Just keep in touch with it. You'll be okay. Learning Spanish through German is a good idea though, quite interesting. Let us know how different it is, compared to learning it through English.

I too am learning Spanish through English, which is not my native language. But I never thought of it that way.

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July 16, 2011
20:33

Mjsielerjr

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Would anybody happen to know how to edit an Anki Deck? I have an Anki deck English/German. If I could open up this deck and edit it, I would replace the english words with German words.

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July 16, 2011
23:27

JWood424

CT, USA

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Hey there….for your Anki deck, open the deck you want to edit. (It should show you the study options page) and at the top, click edit, then scroll down to browse items and that should open another window where you can edit all you like. Good luck, Buena Suerte, y Viel Glück!

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July 17, 2011
04:16

Mjsielerjr

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Is there anyway to export the deck to Excel?

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July 17, 2011
18:09

Sprachfanatikerin

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Hi Michael,

I spent a year in Germany then came back to the UK for my final year of uni. In my first year of work in the 'real world' I really felt like I was losing my German so I got satellite TV and watched one or two fo the soaps – my excuse is that it is educational, I don't watch any English ones.

It's great for keeping your brain in toush with the language and I'm not at all worried about losing the languge now. I may be a little slower at speaking if I don't practice regularly, but I've not really forgotten anything.

I can also recommend learning your Spanish through a German. I did this with Hungarian.

Good luck

Karen

Speaks: English, German, Russian, Hungarian Learning: Welsh, French, Turkish

July 17, 2011
19:35

Silenz

Australia

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I like the l3 through l2 idea. I wish to try this with French or German – more likely German – in the future.

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July 17, 2011
20:01

whipback

Omaha, Nebraska, USA

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Also if you are worrying about losing your German now then that is a sign you won't lose it. If something is important enough to you then you will maintain it.

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