Is it a bad idea to study 2 languages at the same time?

[GrumpyCatt]

I've been studying Japanese on my own for around 2 years now and considering to start learning Korean as well. Will it take away from what I've been learning so far? Is it better to just wait until I've become more fluent in Japanese?

[Oliver]

No.... it depends on how much effort you put into it and practice..... learning korean doesn't make you unlearn japanese ^^

[angy]

I have been learning japanese for around 2 years as well and I started learning korean for 2 weeks but I got bored~

 

It depends on the person, I guess

[redheart]

depends are you studying on your own?

I think if you're classes it should be ok

but if you'll be studying both on your own

maybe concentrate one language at the time

[Ddeona Oneul Bame]

Depends on how similar the languages are~

[memeyoongi]

I was going to say yes but japanese and korean have some similar points so it might actually help you with grammar and chinese origin words 

 

but eventually you will like one language more and put more effort towards that one so in the greater end it is completely pointless

 

 

- personal experience learning japanese/korean/mandarin

[Pyo Hyemi]

it's not a bad idea

 

 

ps: you probably have/had 2 foreign languages in your school so

[sakurahanabira]

depends on whether you can handle it. I'm currently taking Korean and French at the same time and have no trouble with keeping up with both, and I'm self-studying advanced Japanese on the side so I can pass the JLPT N2 or N1 (I majored in Japanese at uni, but my level is around N3). Since I was born and raised into a bilingual environment I'm used to learning two languages at the same time. 

[Lol_]

No.... it depends on how much effort you put into it and practice..... learning korean doesn't make you unlearn japanese ^^

[Hwayoung]

it really depends on u and the languages 

 

like for japanese and korean it shouldn't be that bad because there r similarities and a lot of compare and contrast goes on when learning them (also applies to chinese)

 

but something like japanese and spanish will be a lot more tough (personal exp)

[EXOSUS]

I once tried studying Korean (on top of majoring Japanese in university), but both languages have a lot of words with similar pronunciation and too many grammar rules so I gave up Korean. But may be that's just because I'm alazy ass .

I was going to say yes but japanese and korean have some similar points so it might actually help you with grammar and chinese origin words 

Won't it make you even more confused?

[haiying4lyfe]

It mostly depends on yourself I guess. I have some friends who get their head all mixed up if they had to study two different languages on the same day at school, while I didn't get mixed up at all (sometimes having even 3 different languages on the same day + self studying a 4th one at home).

If you think you can handle it then why not

[sakurahanabira]

it really depends on u and the languages 

 

like for japanese and korean it shouldn't be that bad because there r similarities and a lot of compare and contrast goes on when learning them (also applies to chinese)

 

but something like japanese and spanish will be a lot more tough (personal exp)

 

but similarities can lead to mixing up vocabularies sometimes. Since there are Korean words that are similar to Japanese, I sometimes have to stop and think about whether I'm spelling it the correct Korean way or if I'm accidentally spelling it the Japanese way. For example, newspaper in Korean is 신문 (shinmun) whereas in Japanese it's ã—ã‚“ã¶ã‚“ (shinbun). They're almost exactly the same except for one letter. 

[totally-seopies]

I feel like it depends like everyone said. 

 

Are you learning them on your own or in classes? I think having classes in them (at least one of them) kind of helps you get practice and gets you used to thinking in different languages at different times. 

 

For me, I had French classes for five years, but now in uni I've been taking Japanese so I've forgotten a lot of French. But thats more because I didn't keep up with it, than it being due to having two different languages. I can still understand when people speak French though, I just can't speak very well anymore. 

 

I wouldn't say Korean and Japanese are extremely similar, but there are enough similarities there that I don't think learning one would hinder you from learning the other. As long as you are able to separate the two from each other, which may be difficult with some of the words. 

[Hwayoung]

but similarities can lead to mixing up vocabularies sometimes. Since there are Korean words that are similar to Japanese, I sometimes have to stop and think about whether I'm spelling it the correct Korean way or if I'm accidentally spelling it the Japanese way. For example, newspaper in Korean is 신문 (shinmun) whereas in Japanese it's ã—ã‚“ã¶ã‚“ (shinbun). They're almost exactly the same except for one letter. 

 

i never really had this problem but i see what u mean

[Hosh]

it's not a "bad idea". whether or not it will work for you personally is individual, and if you keep up with both languages you shouldn't have a problem. korean and japanese are morpho-syntactically (grammatically) similar, with some shared vocabulary (esp. adopted words from the colonial period, and a large amount of chinese-derived vocab in both languages), but they aren't considered very closely related so you won't necessarily get them "confused". it's all about what works for you.

[Coja]

Like most people already said, it completely depends on you.

 

I was learning English and French at school as foreign languages and I did get them mixed up. Saying that, I never particularly liked French and I put a lot more effort into English. Now I'm learning Japanese on my own and actually think it helps a lot wrapping my head around the fact that the grammar etc. is completely different from English or German (my native language).

 

If you can afford classes, I would really recommend taking them though. I don't know if you can practice your spoken Japanese, but personally I think you learn a language a lot easier and quicker if you can talk to someone. It might also help with not getting them mixed up when there's a clear line between learning one in class and one at home.