Did you know that 40% of the people in the world can only speak one language? Monolingualism is especially common in countries where one language is used widely in domestic and official settings. Examples include the United States and Japan. However, while many people may speak only one language, statistics show that 43% of the world’s population is bilingual, which is slightly higher than the number of people who speak one language. If you think that’s interesting, 17% of people in the world speak more than two languages, and this percentage has been growing over the years as more people seek to expand their language mastery. But is the jump from bilingualism to multilingualism easy? Let’s find out.
Learning a Third Language: The Ups and Downs
Third language learning comes with many perks, from enhanced creativity to more effective communication. But the move from bilingualism to multilingualism is a double-edged sword in the following ways:
The Opportunities along the Way
As you may have already guessed, being bilingual offers you an advantage when you approach any other language. Here’s how:
- Your cognitive skills are often sharp. The more languages that you speak, the better you become at recognizing speech patterns and retaining new information. These skills make it easier for you to pay attention to aspects such as pronunciation, making the acquisition of another language quite easy.
- You can compare language similarities. Have you ever heard of metalinguistic awareness? This skill applies to people who speak different languages. Since you already know how languages function, you can use similarities to group languages based on grammar, syntax, and other important factors that can make recognition and recall easier.
- You can rely on knowledge transfer. Some languages are closely related in their pronunciations, vocabularies, and grammar. Take the example of Spanish acquisition for a native Portuguese speaker. Since the two share a lot of grammar rules, you can apply one’s rules to the other. This language transfer works for other pairs, such as Dutch and German, Mandarin and Cantonese, and Ukrainian and Russian.
- You have experience language learning. Seeing as you have already learned two languages in the past, you will have come up with different ways to understand contexts and put new words into practice. These are the same skills that will apply to your new learning experience.
The Potential Stumbling Blocks
While bilingualism gives you an upper hand, it can also serve as a challenge as you embark on learning a new language. How so?
- Your previous language patterns may be different. Say that you have learned Spanish and English and now want to learn Turkish. You will soon realize that your previous learning experiences are not transferrable. For example, in English, the verb (doing word) comes after the subject, while in Turkish, it comes at the end of the sentence. Such differences can result in confusion and mistakes.
- Your previous language patterns may be too similar. Earlier, we stated that previous language experience is a good thing as it facilitates language transfer. However, this cross-linguistic influence can be problematic. Say, for example, that you learn Spanish and then start learning Italian. It’s not uncommon to start using the two in place of each other, which can make mastering the new language quite hard.
- You may make honest mistakes. Sometimes, languages are so similar that you think that they relate to each other. For example, during Spanish acquisition, you may think that “embarazada” is a way of saying that you are embarrassed. Yet, it implies pregnancy. So, when you are thinking you’re expressing embarrassment, you may be announcing a pregnancy to other people. Such false cognates are quite common for bilinguals as they often juggle many languages and may think they can find words that hold the same meaning across the various languages.
- You may face divergence in the language roots. Language roots differ. For example, languages like English and Spanish have Indo-European roots, while those like Hebrew and Arabic have Afro-Asiatic roots. These origins play a crucial role in the ease of cross-linguistic reference. For example, if your language dominance is in Indo-European roots and you choose yet another language in this category, you will have an easy time with the speech patterns. But if you were to choose an Afro-Asiatic language, you’d be starting from scratch, and this would affect your ability to learn the language as fast as you would have in the former example.
Conclusion
In short, being bilingual gives you a real head start when learning a third language. Your brain is already trained to pick up new languages, and you can use what you’ve learned before to make the process smoother. Of course, there will be challenges, like confusing similar languages or differences in grammar, but with patience and practice, you can push through.