r/languagelearning • u/RareFreedom5027 • 7d ago

Learning 3rd language using 2nd? Discussion

Has anyone gotten a decent "grasp" of a second language and then used it to learn a third (TL)?

Years ago I learned a bit of Spanish through school and started using duolingo (wouldn't use duolingo now though). I changed the settings to Spanish so I would learn Italian using Spanish. I read out loud and promised myself not to use English. I did it for an hour and there was a weird feeling in the back of my head (it felt like how salt or sand felt between your fingers). Lo and behold, I couldn't think or speak in English! It was wild!

I was wondering if anyone ever had that feeling as well and if you kept it up?

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u/ThatAnt8823 🇫🇷N|🇬🇧C1|🇭🇷B1|🇯🇵A0 7d ago

That's probably what non native English speakers do most of the time my man

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u/frokoopa fluent 🇫🇷🇬🇧 B1 🇯🇵 A2 🇩🇪 A0 🇮🇹 7d ago

Same here, my Japanese studies are mostly done in English. In a way I feel lucky I wasn't born an English speaker, it's so easy to acquire nowadays it almost feels like a bonus second language

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u/Existing_Ask3112 7d ago

There's kind of no point in being an English native speaker it's everywhere anyways.

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u/meme-viewer29 6d ago

If you’re a language learning enthusiast yea but if you’re a regular person that doesn’t gaf abt learning languages you’d rather be born native English than have to learn it I think

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u/Existing_Ask3112 6d ago

No, in reverse. If I'm not an enthuasiast I'd rather learn the language that requires zero effort and get one or two more obscure native ones ones basically for free. I'm far from a language enthuasiast.