I've been learning 3 languages at the same time for 2 years. This is my experience.

I found an old chambers account of mine which I haven't logged on in over a year, and I remembered the language learning community I used to be part of. After a few days of lurking, I decided to tell you about my own experience learning 3 languages at the same time.<br><br> <br><br>A little context first: I'm Uruguayan (a country in South America), and our mother tongue is Spanish. Most people in Uruguay have little to no English proficiency.<br><br> <br><br>I'm 25 years old and I've always been passionate about languages. When I was a teenager, my family used to travel a lot to Brazil, where we'd talk in Portuguese, so Portuguese is actually my third language. I've been studying English for over 10 years, but I've never really practiced it because I'm Uruguayan, and we all know how hard it is to practice English in South America.<br><br> <br><br>2 years ago I decided to learn 3 languages at the same time. I know that's not recommended by most of the people in the language learning community, but I have a passion for languages and I think I'm good at it. I had this idea that if I spent 10 minutes a day of my life studying a language, in 5 years I'd be able to understand and speak that language. It sounds silly, I know.<br><br> <br><br>The reason I wanted to study 3 languages at the same time was because I already spoke 3 languages (Spanish, Portuguese and basic English), and I felt like I could do it. I knew I had to choose 3 languages with different grammar and roots, so I decided to learn Arabic, German and Italian. Arabic (Semitic family), German (Germanic family) and Italian (Romance family). My goal was to study 30 minutes a day, 10 minutes per language. I have a full time job and a family to support, so it's hard to find more time than that.<br><br> <br><br>My methodology was to buy 3 different books for beginners (Colloquial Arabic, German for dummies and Italian for dummies), and to study 10 minutes of 1 language each day, rotating everyday (Monday: Arabic, Tuesday: German, Wednesday: Italian, Thursday: Arabic, Friday: German, Saturday: Italian, Sunday: no studying).<br><br> <br><br>The first few months arealways overwhelming. Grammar is hard in all 3 languages (especially Arabic), and it takes time to learn the alphabets of German (basically the same as ours), Italian (also the same) and Arabic (very different). After a few months, I decided to use duolingo for Italian and German and to focus on the book for Arabic. To be honest, I barely use the duolingo apps (maybe once or twice a week, and I play for 5 minutes at a time), but it helped to get the basics.<br><br> <br><br>After 6 or 8 months, I decided to start listening to music in those languages. I downloaded Spotify and started listening to Arabic, German and Italian music. I still don't fully understand the lyrics, but it's a good exercise to acknowledge the different sounds and intonations of the languages. To this day, I listen to Middle Eastern and German music almost everyday (Italian music is not my cup of tea).<br><br> <br><br>After a year, I decided to watch a movie in each language. I watched Aladdin in Arabic (with no subtitles), a movie based on a play by Brecht in German (with English subtitles), and Life is Beautiful in Italian (with English subtitles). It's a great way to get used to the sounds and intonations of the languages.<br><br> <br><br>So here I am now, after two years of studying 10 minutes per language, 3 days per week. I can understand a little bit of Arabic (though it's very different and it's a hard language to learn), I can have a conversation in German (it's not so hard once you learn the grammar), and I can understand and talk in Italian (which is a beautiful language, but it's romance-based, so it's easier for me since Spanish and Portuguese are also romance-based).<br><br> <br><br>When I had my first conversation in German, I realized that I wasn't wasting my time. It took a while, but I can have a conversation in a foreign language, and that's an amazing feeling. I still study everyday, and I enjoy it. I've watched a few movies and I've read some news articles in German and Italian, and I even try to say random things in Arabic. I still have a lot to learn, but I feel like I'm improving everyday.<br><br> <br><br>I know this isn't recommended, but I recommend learning another language if you can. It's fun, it's rewarding and it's amazing.<br><br> <br><br>That's it. Thank you very much.<br><br> <br>EDIT: Wow, thank you for the gold and the awards, I didn't expect this. I'm overwhelmed by all the comments, messages and upvotes. I still can't believe this blew up. Thank you very much, and I'm happy everyone found this helpful.