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The generally accepted point of view says that learning two foreign languages inevitably leads to confusion and the emergence of "porridge" in the head, however, from my own experience and the experience of many professional philologists, I can say with confidence that this is not the case.
In order to effectively learn two foreign languages at once, the following conditions must be met:
1. At least one of the languages studied must be at least an average level of proficiency. You can learn both languages from scratch, but in this case the task becomes more complicated, and the method loses its effectiveness. It is better to first learn one language to an intermediate level, and then move on to the next point.
2. Use reference materials for translation from language No. 1 to language No. 2, or just explanatory dictionaries without translation with an extended explanation. Any educational and methodological materials, books, podcasts and so on will be great here.
3. Divide the entire study time into fast and slow phases. During the fast phase, try to minimize the use of your native language. Immerse yourself in the language you are learning. If you are learning a bunch of "English-Chinese" – forget completely about the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet. Read English-language resources, study the methods of learning Chinese offered by English-speaking authors. You will very quickly notice how English will gradually become a more native language for you than before. You will be able to memorize many phrases, stable expressions calmly, without any "memorization", just meeting them over and over again in the text. During the slow phase – continue studying according to the scheme described above, just do it less intensively. Otherwise, a situation may arise when the very process of learning a language will become disgusting to you, and this will inevitably lead to a loss of motivation and the development of depression. After all, we easily and simply do only what brings us joy and pleasure.
4. Forget about the stereotype that it is best to study languages of the same group at the same time, for example, Germanic or Romance. The most important thing is to learn the languages that are interesting. Only in this case it is possible to keep the "fuse" in order to reach an acceptable level.
5. Devote from half an hour (during the slow phase) to 3-4 hours a day (fast phase) to learning foreign languages. This condition must be met both on weekdays and weekends.
It should be noted that the movement will occur abruptly. It is ok. The goal of the fast phase is a quick vocabulary set, vocabulary expansion. While the slow phase serves to consolidate the learned material and prepare for the next "jump".
This method allows you not only to learn two languages at once, but also to keep them constantly in your head, without giving you the opportunity to forget any of them.
And what tricks do you use to learn two languages at once?
