How and Why I Will Learn 8 Languages This Summer (2024) - Join Me!

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[@cristinatontini9816]

I'm learning English, français, español, Deutsch, 日本語　and 中文. It's hard but funny too. Thanks for the encouragement!

[@RobbieKunz]

You're welcome and nice choices, Cristina! What is your native language? Keep at it!

[@cito2820]

I’m studying Latin, Persian, Russian, Modern Greek, German, and I’ll be starting Uzbek soon (not joking). I try to use my French every day as well. Let’s go!

[@RobbieKunz]

Persian is very cool. Uzbek is an interesting choice! What prompted you to want to learn that?

[@cito2820]

@@RobbieKunz I’m applying for a scholarship in Uzbekistan! It’s great that if I get it, I’ll likely be able to use Persian, Uzbek, and Russian while there. There are a few cities that have lots of ethnic Tajiks, so you can speak Persian! I’ve also just graduated from Undergrad, and I’m interested in doing masters / PHD in either Linguistics or Comparative Literature, so if I learn Uzbek, I’ll have a whole world of very (relatively) unexplored Literary territory (at least in Western / English Language scholarship. It will also connect me possibly to Chagatai, which is an older, literary form of Uzbek / Uyghur, in which there are many religious and poetic texts! It’s very exciting. Only struggle is that there aren’t a ton of resources, but I’ll be starting with a tutor soon!

[@rinaldir8628]

I'll join. My languages list: Arabic, Greek, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Persian (Farsi), Spanish, Syriac and Turkish. Wish me luck :)

[@RobbieKunz]

Very nice! Syriac is certainly an interesting choice. Also, Persian is great, too!

[@hijackbyejack1729]

Let's do it! I am learning Norwegian, Icelandic, and Spanish.

[@RobbieKunz]

Alright! Great choices, check out my book on learning Swedish, Norwegian and Danish at the same time (link in description), you would probably enjoy it!

[@hijackbyejack1729]

@@RobbieKunz You know, I am going to be honest that I was kind of skeptical about that book. What is your actual knowledge of those languages? Or, did you have someone help you with it? What, exactly?

[@RobbieKunz]

@@hijackbyejack1729 Please watch my video on my channel for more information on the book!

[@dangmefinnish]

I'm going to super focus on Dangme this summer. But might do some light revision of French and swedish. And sprinkle some basic ASL on top just for fun.

[@RobbieKunz]

Dangme is so exotic, great choice! If you ever get interested in Norwegian and Danish in comparison to Swedish, check out my comparative grammar of the three languages (link in description).

[@Rebecca-kg6vd]

Thanks so much for making this video and sharing. It’s very motivating. I really appreciated hearing more about what you do on busy days. I’m studying 5 languages and while I always seem to manage to get in studying for some of the languages, getting to all of them on a busy day is really hard. On those days I struggle with how little is too little to even be worth it. I like your approach of thinking about it as a streak. :)

[@RobbieKunz]

Thanks for that, Rebecca! On the busy days, I like to think of it as playing "defense" and keeping the streak going so that when you get a good day, you can get some good studying in. Also, even if you study 5 minutes a day, over a year, that becomes 30 hours of study which is certainly something!

[@sarah_maritza]

also doing the same thing started a month ago, learning dutch and arab, i can speak deutsch and english,just adding my list,thank you for encouraging us,good luck and have fun

[@RobbieKunz]

Thank you, good luck with Arabic, a great language!

[@duolingogrinder]

Keep it up! 👍

[@RobbieKunz]

Thank you, I will!

[@-NiamhWitch-]

I'm not learning 8... mostly just 2 (Irish and Japanese), but that's good too. ☺ Good luck in your journey! I'm also reading 夢をかなえるゾウ！ Book 0 for me.

[@RobbieKunz]

Irish is such a great choice! I was aware there were sequels to 夢をかなえるゾウ but didn't know there was a prequel, very nice! How do you study Irish?

[@4d4341]

I've been skimming through your book and I'm already acquiring a lot from those three languages. I really recommend it. I only missed a comparison with Icelandic, but I get that it would deviate too much from the scope of the book, since it has a much more complicated grammar.

[@RobbieKunz]

Thank you for that! Yes, Icelandic (and Faroese) are a bit more different than Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. However, I did make sure to include them in the final section of the book for comparison's sake. (If anyone else is interested in the book, see the description of this video for the Amazon link to my comparative grammar for learning Swedish, Norwegian and Danish at the same time). I'm very happy to hear that you are getting a lot out of it. That was my purpose for writing it.

[@duolingogrinder]

You and I have the same philosophy. I will be using these languages until I die so why not start now? I will be doing the same thing once I am older any how. We'll be traveling back and forth countries, people, resources, communication styles, and personalities. You can't learn a language fully then watch the language become deconstructed over time since you're focused on a new one after you're finished with the one you have finally accomplished fluency in. We need more people who think like this if they are looking to become fluent or juggle multiple languages. That said, I could at least have them in my back pocket at all times regardless whether they're not "fluent as a native or whatever". Every other thing to juggle is similar to that anyhow. 👍

[@RobbieKunz]

Yes, language learning is a lifelong process. If you stop, the language will begin to decay... even if it's your native language! Glad to see you agree with me. Enjoy the studying!

[@aldareii]

Hi, my native language is polish. Learning japanese (N4/N3), spanish (A2/B1), french (A1), korean (I know hangul and some basics). Good luck to us 😊

[@RobbieKunz]

Great language choices! Keep up the good work and yes, good luck to us!

[@pedrocouto4643]

I'm a native Portuguese speaker. I've started to practice English one year ago. I believe i can communicate me in English and now I'll start Italian French and Spanish.

[@RobbieKunz]

Penso que o teu ingles e muito bom! Italiano, frances e espanhol serao faceis para ti.

[@marianavytvytska6998]

That's impressive! I have a problem to manage to use or learn all my languages equally. My native language is Ukrainian, I am currently studying in German university (nothing connected to language studies). I use English and German for my research a lot. At the current stage I try to read a lot in French, just to break the barrier and be comfortable with the language (I am almost there). I attended A1-2 courses in Spanisch, because I had a chance to, and use it to watch some youtube videos. I feel very comfortable listening to Polish... BUT. It's really difficult to balance all these languages. I always feel, that I don't have enough time in a day or in a week to use every single one of them. Normally I use 4 language a day including my mothertongue, i wonder whether it gets easier to manage all them during a day once one is advanced in all of them.

[@RobbieKunz]

It can be hard to balance a lot of languages if you are busy in life. If you are pressed for time, even reviewing a language for 5 minutes in a day is enough to "touch" it and keep it alive. Also 5 minutes of study a day adds up to 30 hours over a year which is certainly something!

[@m3talhe4d72]

Armenian, Romanian, Italian, Ukrainian, Irish, Egyptian and Standard Arabic, Greek. I'm fluent in English and French, and to a lesser degree Naijà and Spanish, so I will be maintaining those languages as well. Happy learning everyone!

[@RobbieKunz]

Very interesting selection of languages, keep at it! Naijà is cool. Hope your studies go well this summer!

[@Cas_sy1783]

I’m learning English, Spanish, Japanese, LIS (italian sign language), and korean. I have a good level in Spanish and English. But I’m a completely beginner in Korean. As a 14yrs, let’s do it!

[@RobbieKunz]

Those are all great languages to learn. By "14yrs", do you mean you are 14 years old? If so, wow, what a great time to start learning! Keep at it!

[@Sunny_Sammie]

That’s not fair at all! I don’t know why KZbin hasn’t been recommending your AMAZING channel to me all that time! … This evening, I was searching for languages learning videos and one of your great videos popped up. It is 100% true when you said "Even tomorrow is not guaranteed. So, if not now, then when?" You’re a lifesaver, Robbie! I won’t forget your advice forever!

[@RobbieKunz]

Thank you for your kind comment, I appreciate that. Yes, if you really want to learn the language, you may as well begin now!

[@sweet_yellowstrawberry_moo9126]

I wanna continue my studies in Japanese, French, Italian and start with Chinese Mandarin, Portuguese and German. I would wanna do Korean, Ukrainian and Turkish too but idk if it’ll be too much 😅. I already know 4 languages (Spanish, Dutch, English and Papiamentu) and I’m planning to put more on the list! Thanks for the tips!

[@RobbieKunz]

Papiamentu is such a great language. You shouldn't have too much trouble with French, Italian and Portuguese then! I'm also interested in Japanese, Mandarin and Korean.

[@sweet_yellowstrawberry_moo9126]

@@RobbieKunz Yes, I hope so too, even though I do notice how similar they are which makes me be more encouraged. German is similar to Dutch too, so I hope it’s alright. Good luck with your study journey!

[@marianavytvytska6998]

Just a question out of curiosity: why do you want Ukrainian? It's a rare choice. I am Ukrainian native speaker and it suprises me a lot, when foreigners can speak or understand our language.

[@gytan2221]

And I’m learning German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Norwegian

[@RobbieKunz]

Excellent choices! If you are learning Norwegian, you should check out my book on learning Swedish, Norwegian and Danish at the same time (link in description). I think you will find it very interesting!

[@ladonnatutt7851]

I’m mad I just found you! I’m learning the Romance languages.

[@yworld3840]

Hi, I think you can do that because your level in those languages is high. Reading big books is not possible for beginners.

[@RobbieKunz]

It's true beginners can't start with big books but if I were at a beginning level, I would be doing other activities like studying an Assimil manual or other beginner's materials. For example, I went through the 3 different versions of the German Assimil before I started reading native books.

[@tombaryla]

I'd love to know what your Anki flashcards look like.

[@RobbieKunz]

Thanks! I may do a video on this. One type is cloze deletion cards where the vocabulary item is a blank space in the sentence on the front side with the definition and the actual word on the back side. The other type is created automatically from Migaku which is just the entire sentence in the foreign language with the word and definition on the back side.

[@amkhathavongsa517]

I am studying 38 languages on Duolingo now.

[@RobbieKunz]

How do you balance them? 2 min for each? :p

[@duolingogrinder]

[@OlivierStrohl-r5w]

It’s unrealistic. How many languages can you speak with natives and read ? To learn Arabic if you are an English speaker, you need 2200 h with the Arabic.

[@RobbieKunz]

@@OlivierStrohl-r5w Watch my video and find out for the details. I plan on reading in Spanish, German, French, Japanese and talking to native speakers in Chinese. I studied Arabic for about 300 hours which was mostly studying the two versions of Assimil (1975 and 2006). Now I am reading Arabic children's stories and summarizing what I read in Arabic.

[@gytan2221]

Ich wünsche dir viel Glück beim Sprachenlernen

[@RobbieKunz]

Vielen Dank!

[@mirae9163]

I was surprised that you're learning Teochew, not Cantonese, even not Hokkien.... 😯 Actually i am learning Taiwanese Hokkien, which is also a Min language as Teochew. I think it's completely posible to learn many languages at once if you have enough time.... during the pandemic i wasn't working and i learned 10 languages at once, including English. And it worked well. But now i am busy for job, so i just can learn 2 languages at once, which are Taiwanese Hokkien and Finnish.

[@RobbieKunz]

That's cool you are learning Taiwanese Hokkien. I don't know a lot about that language but I have also heard that it is similar to Teochew in some ways. Yes, I agree it's definitely doable to learn 10 languages at once. Finnish is an interesting choice for a language to learn. Any particular reason for that one?

[@mirae9163]

@@RobbieKunz There're some reasons that i wanted to learn Finnish. First, i have heard that Finnish grammar is somewhat similar to Turkish, even Japanese/Korean, so i was very curious about if it is ture. Second, i wanted to learn a language, which is quite different from the languages i know(including grammar and vocabulary). Third, i have heard that Finnish is one of the most difficult languages in the world, so i wanted to know how hard it is. Which language was hardest to learn so far for you?

[@dianahammoud1190]

Hi, I am a polyglot too. Can you tell me which languages do you know ?

[@mirae9163]

@@dianahammoud1190 Hi, it depends on which level did you mean "know" 🤔 By the way, which languages do you know? 😁

[@ingela_injeela]

Wow, two really intense languages to learn! I'm impressed. 😊

[@hajarimloul5716]

not 3, not 5, you said 8 ???? that's amazing! I'm a native Arabic speaker and I want to ask you how did you find Arabic?

[@RobbieKunz]

Yes, 8! Professor Arguelles at his language academy offered a class in self-study Arabic so I took the opportunity. We are learning Modern Standard Arabic but I hope to also learn some dialects, too!

[@hajarimloul5716]

@@RobbieKunz that's amazing! I'm currently learning Korean and I want to add German but I'm feeling hesitant as I find Korean a demanding language, but seeing your video and how easily you're joggling between 8 LANGUAGES !!! I thought why can't I learn just 2.

[@Indra.511]

I'm learning Spanish and Japanese.

[@RobbieKunz]

Very nice, when I first started learning languages, these were the two I started with, too.

[@Remiraremi]

I'm learning Japanese, Swedish, Korean, Arabic, Chinese and Bangla. Everything else is ok, no problems, but there are zero good resources for Bangla (Bengali). I want to learn Bangladesh Bangla but all the apps and books are for the Bangla spoken in India, which is TOTALLY different 😭 especially no resources for an absolute beginner. Even learning the alphabet is hard bc there is no set translation like in japanese, you just need to know the sound 🥲

[@RobbieKunz]

I had the same problem with Teochew! Basically I had to make my own Teochew material to learn from. I created some dialogues I wanted to study then paid a translator to translate it to Teochew. I also found someone who spoke Teochew in my city (and on italki) to go over the language with me. I also studied Bengali a bit from a friend I worked with. I just know a few phrases like "kemon acho" and "bhalo achi" (probably spelled differently). So you can definitely learn Bengali, it's just not served on a platter to you like the other languages!

[@jakewood5475]

What was that Chinese language (or maybe a dialect) you mentioned in the list. I'm just curious.

[@RobbieKunz]

Teochew or 潮州话. Spoken by about 15 million people. I found that I had several friends who spoke this language and so I took that as a hint to start learning it.

[@enochang8463]

There is a big Teochew group, Gaginang, out of California. Mostly Vietnamese Chinese young people. Le hor boh?

[@OlivierStrohl-r5w]

You can study 8 languages at the same time only if you have a good level in 6 languages and study 2 languages at beginner level.. You can’t study more than 2 or 3 languages at a beginner level.at the same time plus reviewing 5 or 6 languages

[@RobbieKunz]

I think it's possible. If you have never learned a language before, you may want to start with just one in order to learn the "meta skill" of language learning first. As for me, I started Arabic, Sanskrit, Italian, Swedish, Teochew and some others at around the same time and have made progress.

[@helenescholsberg1421]

I'm learning Spanish and French. I also would like to learn Turkish and Arabic.

[@RobbieKunz]

Very nice! Turkish and Arabic are certainly different from the Romance languages but if you're up for a challenge, go for them.

[@galavizK]

I can help you learn speak spanish or anything you have doubts in

[@RobbieKunz]

Gracias, enviame un mensaje en IG. Si tengo una pregunta, te envio un mensaje alli.

[@galavizK]

@@RobbieKunz Está bien 😹💚

[@leparkour8896]

I'm learning French and Spanish at the same time 😂😂

[@RobbieKunz]

Great choices! Once you get good at those, I'd also go for Italian and Portuguese, too.

[@Rationalific]

That AI site...I think "Your Teacher", not "My Teacher" if that's the one I found...appears to include Japanese. Have you tried that, and does it sound natural and do you feel that the site is helpful? Also, can you choose the gender of the voice?

[@RobbieKunz]

Yes, it's at yourteacher.ai - the accent is a little wonky. I last tried the Japanese when it was in beta and it had some problems with saying random words in English, etc. Perhaps they have fixed that by now. The best part of it is that it will correct your speech immediately every time. I think that's very useful for improving speaking ability. As far as the conversation goes, it does a good job at keeping the conversation going by asking questions but after the initial thrill of talking to an AI wears off, the personality is very predictable and, of course, it will never tell you stories about itself or give opinions like a real person would. Also there is no cultural nuance. The 50 year old German guy will give the same answers in the same way as the 22 year old Japanese girl, just in their respective languages. Also, the app is built on ChatGPT so you can just use ChatGPT to do the same thing. In fact, ChatGPT is better in some ways as ChatGPT's accent is flawless whereas yourteacher.ai's accent is not native (particularly problematic for Chinese when it gets the tones wrong). The main use I have for it is to improve my ability to make correct sentences in German as the word order is different. So the immediate corrections are quite helpful. I also use it recently for Swedish just to practice and learn more Swedish for fun.

[@Rationalific]

​@@RobbieKunz Thanks for the detailed reply! I think it's cool that it can be set to correct your speech every time. However, the most disappointing thing is that "he 50 year old German guy will give the same answers in the same way as the 22 year old Japanese girl". So really, no cultural or personality nuances, it seems... The "all you can use" aspect is good, though... I'll have to do some more considering (and waiting) before either paying for ChatGPT (that would let me speak to it naturally) or paying for the YourTeacher service. (I've not had comments go through before due to putting in a URL, but yours appears to have worked.) Thanks for the info!

[@pleasestopcreatingmoresent3328]

How long on average is your typical study section? 1 hour or less?

[@RobbieKunz]

I study in 15 minute blocks of time. However, I might do a few blocks in a row but I will change the language or material each block.

[@Sinologist-uq7pv]

你好，我朋友。 我正在学习普通话。

[@RobbieKunz]

你好！努力学习！

[@ingela_injeela]

I'm not studying, just familiarizing myself with Hebrew, Korean, and a bit of Mandarin. I also try to listen to videos in the languages I do know, to keep them. I would *not* learn Arabic and Sanskrit at the same time. Arabic needs more focus.

[@RobbieKunz]

All great languages... Well, it's too late, I have been studying Arabic and Sanskrit at the same time for more than a year now and still making good progress!

[@ingela_injeela]

@@RobbieKunz That's very impressive!

[@Lulimpiavidrios]

Ok, if you insist 😊

[@RobbieKunz]

I do!

[@user-zm9gc1kt8b]

Sorry it didn't work out for you! But for me I'm learning Thai, lao, Mandarin, Cambodian and Vietnamese ! A variety of languages keeps my passion fresh instead of having stale periods with just one.

[@eobardthawne7126]

Swahili and Isizulu

[@RobbieKunz]

Isizulu is an interesting choice! Swahili is always great, too.

[@eobardthawne7126]

@@RobbieKunz if I may ask you a question. How important is reading a language you are learning to speak it well? I hope my question make sense 😂

[@RobbieKunz]

@@eobardthawne7126 Generally if you just want to speak, you should practice speaking. Although it is also true that reading is a good way to build vocabulary that you can then use in speech.

[@eobardthawne7126]

@@RobbieKunz I appreciate you Robbie

[@seishonagon8170]

Hai mai letto qualche libro in italiano ?

[@RobbieKunz]

Quando ho iniziato per la prima volta a imparare l'italiano, ero in Giappone. Ho letto il libro "Twilight" perche era facile. Pero, non ho letto un libro in italiano da allora. Hai qualche raccomandazione?

[@seishonagon8170]

@@RobbieKunz Un romanzo che amo è " L ' isola di Arturo" di Elsa Morante. Ma non c è che l' imbarazzo della scelta 🙂📖📚

[@misoadeio]

Memento Mori. At 52 yo, learning even one language has diminished return on investment. Prefer to move my body every day, delay loss of muscle through resistance training and enjoy my time with friends and family. Language learning is a young man’s game!

[@RobbieKunz]

Strongly disagree! Check out Steve Kaufman, he learned most of his languages after the age of 60, I believe. It is important to exercise both our physical bodies and our minds. You can still get benefit and enjoyment out of learning languages even at the age of 52.

[@yuno555gasai5]

Tell that to steve Kaufman. Learning can improve creating new connections in the brain and push away demencia etc

[@misoadeio]

@@yuno555gasai5 no doubt about that, but at what cost. Body health and muscle preservation deserves priority after 50. Kaufman is not interested in muscular maintenance

[@aldareii]

You just do both 😉