learning, maintaining & compartmentalizing different languages

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]My hormones are crazy, crazy. I forgot how uncomfortable it is to record yourself in public.

[00:00:13]I'm not a big proponent of learning multiple languages at the same time, but today I'm actually going to talk about learning, maintaining, and compartmentalizing different languages.

[00:00:26]>> [music] >> This expression of like learning languages at the same time it feels like it's done exactly at the same time with the same intensity and because of the same reasons and I wanted to give a little bit of nuance to that. I'm not sure when my passion for English started rising. I know it was definitely high school so say I was 13, 14 years old.

[00:00:44]Like it was so organic and so interest driven that it doesn't feel like it had a decisive starting point, but let's say just 13, 14 years old and from that point up until 2021, I did not have any other languages competing for my time and energy. Like I'm bilingual from birth, but that doesn't count obviously.

[00:01:02]So I was really focused on one single language and before starting French and Hungarian in 2021, I already had a solid foundation in English. It didn't need daily exposure so I didn't it didn't need as much attention. And even when I started French and Hungarian, like it didn't start at the same time. Like French started a bit earlier and then Hungarian later in the year and it it didn't have the same intensity. So just to again put you in her perspective, it took me four months to get to an A2 in French and three years to get to an A2 plus in Hungarian. Like four months versus three years. Like I know obviously French was way easier because of Spanish and Romanian. Like it has another rhythm, but still four months, three years. You can see the intensity there was very different especially in the beginning. And also my motives were different. Um like as I said, English was just I'm really interested in this language. I like how it sounds and it offers plenty of opportunities. And French, for example, was also very like I remember being in at uni, I was studying international relations and every teacher was like you need to learn French. Like French is mandatory with this degree. Like it's the language of diplomacy diplomacy and so on and so forth. So I was like, okay, I am going to go for for those higher certificate so I have better opportunities. And then Hungarian, it was just curiosity for my roots. Like I wanted to be able to talk to my grandparents in their native tongue. And I say all of this because it's also important to understand why you do certain things. Because to me it was just it was also like I obviously fell in love with French and Hungarian while learning them and I'm really passionate about those two, but it really had some meaning into my life.

[00:02:51]Like I had this some sort of vision. So every time I was tired or I don't know when it got difficult cuz it it is hard to learn a language no matter your linguistic background. When it got harder, it was easier to say, okay, like this is important for me because of this, this and that. Like I have a whole list of reasons to as to why I need to do this right now. And all that being said, still for me everything came down to organization.

[00:03:21]So I'm the type of person that needs to organize everything because yes, like we can talk a lot about like self-discipline, potential, creative ideas and so on. But if I don't have a way of channeling all those ideas and all those goals I want to achieve, like it gets me nowhere. I know other people are not like me. Like I definitely have a lot of friends that choose to work without a calendar and that's impressive to me and they achieve things and it works brilliantly for them. But it's not my case. A framework that really helped me was having one main language as a priority and another one is having it in the background. And what do I mean by that?

[00:04:02]So, priority for me means having a routine. I organize. I say, "Okay, I'm going to do 1 hour of this almost every day. I'm going to do this, this, and this." I've already talked about my routines in this channel and it's just as simple as like the simplest routine is going to be the best one. Like, for me it's just like, I don't know, 40 45 minutes of some sort of input reading or listening to something and 15 minutes of thinking in the language, trying to express what I just heard or what I just read and something like that. And you know, in the background just means at random. Like, I don't plan for it. It's more like an impulse. Like, "Oh, I really want to listen to this episode even though my priority is this one. I really want to watch a movie in this other language that's not my main focus." And I also know some people have like different study sessions in one same day. Like, say 1 hour and a half of French and the next hour and a half of Hungarian. For me, that's too messy. Like, I've tried it, but it hasn't really worked out. Like, especially in the beginning I really need to have just one main focus. I guess it really helped me like this academic division of the year. You know, like you start in September and then for example, I remember saying "Okay, so now from January I'm going to start with French.

[00:05:22]I'm going to be doing this, this, and that." And then when summer comes, Hungarian is going to be in more important. And then again when September starts, French is You know, this kind of dance back and forth of like, now this is the priority, then that is the priority and so on. And I have to say that as you get more and more proficient with your languages, this is like this sort of juggle, it's way easier to do. Like, now I'm in a point where I can do 1 hour of reading in French and then the next one reading in Hungarian. Like I'm now comfortable with that. But in the beginning it's like I really need to separate my different goals and my different um periods of focus and intensity. I don't want to really go into the needy-greedy of organization because I know this is very personal.

[00:06:08]Like everyone works differently. You really need to be aware of your life constraints and um I think being realistic about your life is the it's a good first step to make.

[00:06:23]So every time I want to integrate something new in my life, I I first track a little bit my behavior. Like what does my life actually look like on paper? And then from that on I decide, okay, what's my energy level through the day? When is the best time to study this language? I'm a morning person, so I prefer to do it before starting school.

[00:06:44]So it's all up to you how you do it.

[00:06:45]It's also important to take into consideration distraction because I don't know, maybe it's just me, but a couple of years ago it was like I had more problems carving out a bit of time out of my schedule and knowing exactly what I want to do during the study session. Like but now I feel like a layer of distraction has been added of like, okay, I also need to be aware of certain distractions that that I have cuz Okay, one second.

[00:07:18]I don't know what I was saying.

[00:07:21]Why do people need to use loud speakers to listen to music? Do they know about the existence of headphones?

[00:07:31]Just asking. What was I saying?

[00:07:33]Um Yeah, that you organize your life depending on your life, your blah blah. Oh, distraction.

[00:07:41]Exactly. I was talking about distraction while getting distracted. I don't know.

[00:07:45]I I feel like now there are so many resources to like good resources to actually study to get your input from.

[00:07:53]Like there are so many competing activities that you could be doing in that study session. Sometimes I find like I find myself just going from one thing to another. Just not tolerating boredom very much and I'm trying to address that. So I think it's important to also also say, "Okay, I'm planning this and this and that, but also let's take into account distraction."

[00:08:20]So I want to land this video on compartmentalizing cuz it's funny to me how some people think that you just have different drawers in your brain and they're beautifully separated. This couldn't be further from the truth. Like the moment you start learning another language, it's going to color your other language at some point and vice versa.

[00:08:42]So the brain operates at the level of meaning and you have different words across multiple languages that kind of have the same meaning. So it's like the words are competing between each other.

[00:08:54]It's not like you're speaking one language and you're completely shutting off the other ones. It's more like the brain grabs the one that is most activated and all this to say that it takes a lot of effort and control to like speak one language and to try to um make as little mistakes as possible and some interference is just unavoidable. But um I do believe like there are ways of trying to minimize this language transfer. So first of all, I got really lucky that I got interested in languages that are so different from each other like a West Germanic language, English, Romans language, French, and Hungarian Fino-Ugric. So it doesn't happen a lot to me to be speaking a language and to suddenly just have a word popping out of a different language of a oh Jesus of a different language but I do have a lot of like logic transfer especially I see it still with like phrasal verbs in English just because sometimes I say into or for or something like that just because in Spanish I think it would make more sense but one thing I do is I also avoid translating. Now I know it's debatable some people think it's a good way to learn la la la but I personally try to avoid it as much as possible. In the beginning of course it's harder when you don't understand something you you need to look up the word. For some reason I started doing that with both French and Hungarian in English like I have my bridges built built in English. I I don't know why maybe because it's so omnipresent in my life right now. My brain just took it kind like kind of took it as a working language. I don't know. Then I also try to prime myself so when I know I'm going to meet someone with whom I'm going to speak um some language I'm like okay first I want to like get in the zone you know like I put a podcast on I read I read out loud or something like that and I feel like it makes the switch for my brain and also this is a little silly maybe but I kind of step into an identity if I'm going to speak French I'm like okay now I'm stepping into my French identity like Things like that maybe it's like some sort of placebo like effect but I feel like it works and a last thing to take into account is that context matters a lot. So when a language is tied to a specific role place or person in your life your brain will anchor it there. So for example if I know that someone is bilingual in French and Hungarian I would not have them as my language partner for both languages. It's like no Like, I I want a clear language-to-person association. I don't want to start having to code-switch between different languages. Like, I want to speak only Hungarian with you or only French with you. And I'm sure there are different creative ways of making your language depend on on some sort of context. For example, I'm now experimenting with cooking shows. So, I'm watching cooking shows only in Hungarian. Like, I've never really watched cooking shows before. And now, while I'm cooking, I like to listen to something Hungarian. So, I'm trying to base Hungarian into that cooking context. I don't know. I'll I'll experiment in many different ways. But, when it comes to people, like, I'm I'm really strict on that. Like, no. We're speaking this language.

[00:12:18]>> [music] >> You know, as much as I myself am a little bit of a perfectionist when it comes to, like, okay, this this here and here, compartmentalizing, the more I say compartmentalizing, the weirder it sounds. Compartmentalizing, compartmentalizing.

[00:12:34]Anyways, but you know, like, I know this is an illusion. Like, I started getting so frustrated when I um started to realize that even my Spanish was kind of being colored by these other languages cuz it was like, okay, so I'm not 100% confident in this language and this other one. And now, I'm not even confident in my native language. Like, it's very frustrating.

[00:12:56]But, yeah, I think I have to accept this. Like, my specific idiolect is also influenced by all the languages that I carry. And I think that could be a beautiful thing, you know? Like, this is a reminder that your brain is working across multiple logic systems. Like, that's a cool fact to have. So, yeah, it's not the end of the world if you're mixing your languages.

[00:13:21]And >> [music] >> I think that's all. I hope this helped you somehow. I hope you can help someone. And I will see you in the next one.

[00:13:28]>> [music] [music]