learn-2-languages

Can you learn 2 languages at the same time? French & Italian

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Many people are curious to know: “Can you learn 2 languages at the same time?”

The short answer is: yes! You can learn up to two languages at once, even more, if you put in enough time to practice. We look at French and Italian as examples.

In This Article

Can you learn 2 languages at the same time? Why, yes, you can!

More than half of the people around the world know two languages or more. Our minds can definitely learn two languages at once because as human beings, we are wired to pick up new languages. We have already adopted our native language by passively absorbing phonetics, listening, and interacting with others after birth. Ultimately, this leads to associating a variety of words with meaning.

Learning a new language can be compared to going through a jungle with a large knife and carving your path. And, that’s only the beginning. You will eventually come to a well-trod walking path and perhaps a dirt road or two. Once you pave the road, you’re bound to find a super highway, and that’s when you’re almost completely fluent in the language.

Which 2 languages to learn?

Many people tend to gravitate towards English when it comes to learning a second language, although French and Italian both happen to be among the most learned languages around the world, especially for fluent English speakers.

But you may ask: Is French a hard language to learn? Is Italian a hard language to learn? Are French and Italian similar?

Is French a hard language to learn?

Well, French is probably somewhat challenging. But that also depends on many factors including what your native language is. People who have grown up in native-English speaking countries, for example, may pick up French faster. And if you already know a romance language like Spanish or Italian, then you will probably have a sizable advantage over other totally beginners!

The main reason is attributed to the Norman Conquest of England in the eleventh century. As a result of that, the English language borrowed a lot of French words. French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929) famously claimed that “English is just badly pronounced French.” French, like Spanish, is a Romance language and shares Latin roots, and thus a lot of vocabulary, with Spanish. You can see the connection here between Spanish and English via the French language. This is why the US Foreign Service Institute (FSI), which provides language training to diplomats and government employees, ranks French among the top 10 easiest languages to learn and use for English-speaking learners.

Is Italian a hard language to learn?

Now, as for Italian, it is also not that difficult to learn and use, especially if you already speak English. This is because both English and Italian share a rather rich vocabulary across common words and terms. So, as you learn, you’ll come across many of these terms or words, making learning Italian easier. Same as in the case of French, if you already know another romance language like Spanish or Portuguese, that can help a lot with Italian!

According to the US Foreign Service Institute (FSI), Italian is also a ‘tier one’ language. This means that Italian is also one of the easiest languages to pick up and use for native English speakers.

This makes sense because both French and Italian belong to the same group of languages, called Romance languages. They got the name “Romance” from “Rome,” not romantic love. The shared Latin source explains the similarity between the two languages.

Why are cognates useful in language learning?

There are a lot of English cognates in both French and Italian. English cognates are words that are directly descended from a common ancestor language, in this case, mostly French. Moreover, since English has become a universal language, some English words have obviously found their way directly into many languages, including French and Italian.

Although cognates will often have the same meaning in French and Italian as in English, it is important to note that this is not always the case, as languages have evolved separately. There are also false friends or false cognates.

What is a false cognate?

Simply put, false cognates are word pairs that seem similar in written form or in sound but have different meaning in different languages.

Let us look at some examples:

  1. The Italian word “camera” means room, not the device you use to take photos. That would be “macchina fotografica.”
  2. The word “fabbrica” in Italian means “factory” and not “fabric,” as you may have guessed.
  3. The French word “déception” means “disappointment” or “disillusion,” not “deception.” That would be “tromperie.”
  4. The word “location” in French means “rental” and not “location.”

Despite that, recognizing English cognates is a powerful tool that can enhance the Italian or French vocabulary of any English-speaking learner.

Refer to our lists of cognates and false friends in French and Italian:

List of cognates and false cognates in French

List of cognates and false cognates in Italian

Improve your French and Italian quickly using Anki flashcards

Now that we’ve answered important questions like “Can you learn 2 languages at the same time?” along with “Is French a hard language to learn?” and “Is Italian a hard language to learn?” – did you know that one of the easiest ways to learn new vocabulary and start using both languages practically is through Anki cards which use the spaced-repetition technique? Check out our range of Anki Flashcards for French and Italian, and start speaking like a pro.

For each language, there is also a book covering six graduating levels from beginner to fluent, provides an intuitive path to effortlessly improving your language comprehension, memory, and grammar skills. The Anki flashcards together with the book provide the proper introduction, the learning progression, and the grammar knowledge to make sense of the information you are trying to memorize. To achieve that, we make use of different customized Anki card types: basic, cloze, and image occlusion. We believe that this is the optimal way to learn a foreign language with spaced repetition and Anki flashcards.