Learning your third language

[elmonorojo]

For those of you are trilingual, how did you become that way? Did you grow up in this manner? What languages do you speak?

Did you experience great difficulty progressing from bilingual to trilingual ability?

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Para ustedes que son trilingües, cómo lo hicieron? Hablaban múltiples lenguas en casa de niño? Cuales lenguas hablan?

Era muy difícil para obtener fluidéz en un tercera idioma?

[Premium]

Well, I grew up speaking three languages. I learned Albanian and Serbian as an infant, as my parents are from Kosovo and Montenegro. German would be my third language, though I was born and raised in Austria.

[difinturGM]

I am American by blood. So American english (notice the lowercase e) is my base. But I understand basic Latin and have a decent enough vocabulary. I know a little Chinese,
but Spanish is my best held extra language. It's not difficult to learn another, in conversation it can be difficult if you are nervous. Because you may swap a word or two haha. I do it all the time.

[Felino]

My mother tonge is German. At school I learn English as my first foreign language and (unfortunately) Latin as my second. Spanish (which I learn by myself) is my fourth language, and I can say, it's not very difficult to get along with four languages. My grandmother even speaks eight languages: Her mother tongue is German. At school she learned English, French and Latin (but her French isn't that good and I think she cannot really speak Latin because they only translated texts at school.) Then she became a teacher of Russian and English. Because she was interested in those Slavonic languages she also learned Polish, Czech and Ukrainian, which she fluently speeks until now. My grandma takes away my doubts that your brain sometime is full and you only can learn a few languages.

[Esppiral]

Spanish is my mother tongue, I started learning catalan at the age of 3 or so... so I speak it fluently, at native level , english and german came way later at school.

Dicho esto me da bastante vergüenza escribir en inglés en este foro con la cantidad de nativos que hay y lo bien que hablan el castellano comparado con mi paupérrimo inglés.

[Villa]

Originally Posted by elmonorojo

For those of you are trilingual, how did you become that way? Did you grow up in this manner? What languages do you speak?

Did you experience great difficulty progressing from bilingual to trilingual ability?

_____________________________________________

Para ustedes que son trilingües, cómo lo hicieron? Hablaban múltiples lenguas en casa de niño? Cuales lenguas hablan?

Era muy difícil para obtener fluidéz en un tercera idioma?

Elmonorojo,

No, no era difícil para mi aprender un tercer idioma.
Aprendí italiano cuando viví dos años en Italia. Luego volví a
los EE.UU. y aprendí español. La transición de la lengua italiana
a la lengua española fue bastante fácil para mí. (Un amigo mexicano
mio que habia vivido conmigo en Italia aprendió italiano en tres semanas.
El español y el italiano son 70+% similar.)
Entonces aprendí a hablar portugués y el francés, porque sabía el italiano
y el español.
Esta es otra buena razón para aprender español.

En resumen, no es difícil aprender un tercer idioma especialmente cuando tu tercera
lengua después del español es el italiano, portugués, francés u otro idioma que
proviene de la lengua latina.

[Mkkl]

I think you should learn other languages when you are young. I'm Dutch, so I speak Dutch, can speak fluently English, can speak a little German and French and now I'm trying to learn Spanish on my own. We learn three other languages at school when we are 12 years old.

[Premium]

Originally Posted by Mkkl

We learn three other languages at school when we are 12 years old.

I highly doubt that's efficient.

[poli]

I think that becoming polyglot is very possible, but it's culturally defined.
In countries like the Netherlands, so many native speakers also know a second or third language. This, of course, is not the case in nearby Great Britain. I don't think it's because Dutch people are smarter than British people; it's because people are expected to learn other languages there.

[Liquinn3]

I was going to learn Catalan but I think learning Italian, French or something else would be better to learn. Thoughts?