Calling all genuinely proficient Linguits. I am taking on quite a lot I would like to learn , French, German?

Question

and Spanish by CD. Is it best that I do one at a time or run all three concurrently . I am doing this in hope of getting a Cabin Crew Job . Thanks for helpful and skillfull answers

Answer 1

I'm a linguist.
In my opinion there is no reason for not to run all three concurrently.
My only piece of advice is:
Do not learn each many hours a day.
Better 30 minutes each - with a pause - every day rather than hours and hours each language on different days.
If you learn 10 new words in each language a day, you will have about 70 new words in each a week.
To start conversating in a language (in simple colloquial situations, first ) one needs about 500 different terms only.

Your learning "capability" will diminuish drastically after one hour of full immersion, and after 2 hours you will hear, possibly undestand, but not any longer learn .
.

Answer 2

Personally I would suggest that if you're serious about learning a language, particularly if you want to be able to add it to your CV, you would probably be better taking an evening class at college. That way you'll be working towards qualifications which will look good on your CV, plus you'll get more support (a CD can't answer your questions or give you extra help on the areas you find most difficult) and you'll be more likely to continue because you'll get to know other people on your course. Learning from a CD isn't a realistic long-term way to learn a language (believe me, I've tried!). You start out motivated, but then you quickly get bored, or find it too difficult, or tell yourself you're too tired and you'll work on it tomorrow. Once you start doing that, it's very difficult to get yourself motivated again. If you go to a class regularly, it'll be part of your weekly routine, and you'll be more likely to keep it up.
If you don't speak any of the languages already, I'd say try and concentrate on one at a time, or learn French and German together at first. French and Spanish could be a bit confusing if you try and learn them from scratch at the same time, although it's not impossible.
Out of interest, are you sure that you need to speak a language to get a cabin crew job? This may not be typical, but I've flown a lot with Easyjet recently (was working in France and Germany for a year as part of my course) and I never heard any of the cabin crew speak anything but English. The safety announcement in French/German was a recording. I realise other airlines may be different, but I just thought it was worth mentioning.

Answer 3

If this is your first attempt to learn a foreign language, then it might be better to get one well under way before tackling a second or third, other wise you could become confused. Once you have a true comprehension of learning another language, the others will be easier. At some stage you are going to have to take lessons, preferably from a native speaker.

I started learning French when I was 7, and German when I was 17. I am now proficient in German, French and, of course, my mother tongue which is English. I can converse in Spanish and Turkish and can read Italian and Portuguese. I am a professional translator, but I can't go straight from a German text to a French text without taking a break.

The younger you start the better. My granddaughter (29 months) is already speaking sentences in Turkish and has started to speak German.
Child's play!

Answer 4

I am currently learning 3 languages at the moment (German, Russian, Italian) and i will tell you that it can be confusing at times but it is possible.

It would probably be more conventional to learn them in a class room situation but if that's not possible i see no reason why you can't learn them by cd.

As long as you are dedicated and are able to structure your everyday learning of the languages (as in 20 to 30 mins each day of the languages and pick topics to focus on everyweek) it should be no problem!

Good Luck with it and hope you get the job!

Answer 5

Go ahead with all the three at a time.
Dedicate half an hour to one, then another half hour to the next... You'll find a lot of fun, more than learning a single second language

Answer 6

if you get those speak language-learning cds authored by one as speak-german/speak-french/speak-spanish of berlitz, the style may be the same and then might it be ok to go at it simultaneously