How to Maintain Multiple Languages at Once When You're Busy

You know multiple languages; now what?

In my almost 2 decades of learning languages, there are 2 things I've learned about learning multiple languages:

1. When it comes to language learning, if you don't use it, you'll lose it.
2. Once a language learner, always a language learner.

The slogan, 'if you don't use it, you lose it,' might sound cliché, but it's absolutely true. I had spent 25 years living in Haiti, so I'm Haitian through and through. Yet, when I went to university in Canada, I was so focused on mastering English that my first language deteriorated.

And I only realized that after 2 years, during a conversation with another Haitian student. My brain froze when said student started speaking to me. And I was literally at a loss for words.

If you're a language enthusiast, you know that one of the best parts of learning a new language is the sense of awe you tend to feel when you hear a native speaker use your target language.

So, this is precisely what started to happen to me when I went back to Haiti. I started analyzing my own native tongue as if I had to decipher every single word of a conversation. And whenever someone spoke Haitian Creole, I felt that same sense of awe and curiosity I used to feel with English.

Now, let's talk about language learning being a never-ending endeavor.

This statement is truer for L2 (second language), L3, etc. It doesn't mean that you can't reach a near-native level in your target language. This just means there will always be something to learn. And this isn't to discourage you. There are differences in fluency EVEN among native speakers.

But what do you do when you are in a situation where you have to maintain multiple languages?

For example, I speak 4 languages, and in my current job, I get to use 3 of them. So, I'm going to tell you how I've maintained those languages and how you can do the same if you're a polyglot.

Practice Fast Reading

There are multiple ways to read a book or written content in general. You can easily skim it as you glide over the text to catch the gist of what's going on.

You can do an intensive read of the material where you pull out a short text and try to extract as much information as possible. A good intensive reading session consists of:

• Looking up words,
• Taking notes,
• Extracting grammar, and
• Making a vocabulary list

On the other hand, you could do an extensive reading where you pick i + 1 materials, meaning materials that are only one level above your competency, and read as much of it as possible.

The trick here is for you to have already known about 80% of the vocabulary that you'll encounter.

Fast reading is a little bit different from that. The only goal here is to read as fast as possible.

Here is a step-by-step guide to effective fast reading:

• Pick a short passage of your liking (depending on your goals and what you want to work on).
• Make sure you can read it slowly with at least a near-perfect pronunciation. If your text is in English, go to tophonetics.com and paste your text there. It will transcribe the text for you in its IPA format.
• If your text is in another language, you may ask ChatGPT or any other AI to transcribe it for you.
• In case you can't read IPA, you can use any text-to-speech software to read your text out loud. ElevenLabs would be a good choice here!
• Once you're able to read the text out loud, go to accelareader.com and paste your text there.
• Adjust the speed and the number of chunks that appear on screen. Make sure you start slow at first and increase the speed as you go.
• Pick a similar text in another language, and start over.

One of the obvious benefits of fast reading is that you read tons of stuff. You see more ideas, and you encounter more vocabulary in a very short period of time.

If you pick multiple texts from the same topic, you'll be building your topic fluency even faster since you're being exposed to the same themes over and over again. This is great for people wanting to make specialized language feel normal.

Get technical

I know this may sound basic, but speaking is an art

This might not be so obvious to you since most people over the age of 1 can speak, but we can clearly see that there are huge differences in the way people express themselves.

Part of it has to do with the knowledge base of the speaker, but a lot of it is about mastering the different techniques of pronunciation and enunciation.

Now, the way to improve those things is to do articulation exercises. This will allow your body and facial muscles to relax and support your speech production as a whole.

Here are the most effective articulation exercises:

• Stretch and shoulder lift: Stand in an upright position, and move your shoulder up and down as if you were trying to look like a cute penguin. This will release tensions around your neck muscles.
• Lip rolling: This is probably one of the most effective pronunciation exercises I've come across in years. It warms up your throat and relaxes your lips. It may feel a little weird at first, and you might not be able to keep it up for a long time. But the more you do it, the better you'll get at it.
• Vocal warmups: There is a series of vocal warmups you can do to put your facial muscles at ease. Jacobs Vocal Academy is my go-to YouTube channel for vocal warmups. I usually put the speed at 2x so I can do as many exercises as possible.
• Tongue twisters: These are fun little exercises that you can do to enunciate better. Each tongue twister focuses on a specific sound. So, make sure you do at least 10 per session. For English, I usually use these ones: 50 tongue twisters to improve your pronunciation.
• Diction drills: Drills used to be the standard exercises for diplomats to learn languages. They allow us to automate chunks of words or phrases so we don't think about every single thing we say in a conversation. Here is how to practice your language drills: 1. Take a short random phrase ……. I go to the beach 2. Practice it to perfection …………… (Repeat the sentence 5–10 times.) 3. Now, switch the subject (5 times)… He/She/It goes to the beach 4. Next, switch the verb (5 times) …… I walk/drive/head to the beach 5. Switch the complement (5 times). I go to the park/gym/to work 6. Turn it into a negative phrase… I/you/he/she don't/doesn't go to the park. 7. Turn the phrase into a question…. Do you go to the beach/park/city? 8. Say it in the past tense…… You/she/it/we/they went to the beach

Now, pick a simple sentence in each of the languages you speak and do the same.

Mimic Short Real-Life Conversations

This is one of my favorite exercises to do. It's quick, simple, and effective. Here, I'm not talking about shadowing, by the way. There's a reason why I specifically left this term out.

Shadowing usually involves listening to a rather mid-length piece of material and simultaneously repeating what the speaker is saying. There are some benefits to shadowing:

• It improves your timing,
• It helps with stress patterns,
• It makes listening less stressful.

But I want to talk more about mimicking. This is more like a role-play exercise. While shadowing is about improving your rhythm, mimicking is about putting yourself in the shoes of the speaker. It's like acting in a way where you intentionally enter the context of the native speaker.

How to mimic a conversation?

• Find a piece of authentic material. It can be an interview, a podcast, an actual movie scene, a 911 call, a comedy bit, etc. If you're learning English, ESL Lab is a good resource.
• Without looking at the transcript, listen to the conversation carefully and pay attention to the rhythm, tone, and voice inflection of each speaker.
• Read the transcript
• Look up any word or phrase that looks unfamiliar.
• Role-play each character involved.

You can do the same for each of the languages you speak and are trying to maintain.

Final Thoughts

Language learning is a lifelong endeavor. Once you start learning a language, you enter a long-term relationship with a new world.

The good thing is when you learn a language well, you get to experience things that you would never have experienced otherwise. It's a very rewarding adventure!

When you learn multiple languages, it opens your mind and makes you a much more complete individual. And sometimes, it's just discouraging because you don't have time to keep up with all of them.

But if you pick even one of the exercises mentioned above, you'll be able to maintain those languages that I know you've worked so hard to learn in the first place.

You might like this article on learning multiple languages at once as well: