When you speak more than one lanuguage, how are they organised in the brain?
When I leared Italian I seemed to forget Portuguese, or maybe I just took it apart and rebuilt it as Italian, they are very similar, and it has been 9 years now since I really spoke Portuguese. My Italian is good, I speak it on an daily basis, and I'm immersing myself in Irish now, but don't want to lose my Italian. I'm not asking how to learn a language, I taught English as a second langage for years so I'm familiar with the process, my question is about how you think languages are mapped into/onto/through each other in the brain. What happens when you learn a third or fourth language, how do they connect with your mother language or other languages you've learned when they are a. the same language family b. different language families. Thanks oops, excuse the typos Fascinating! I'll get back to addressing each of these individually. The metaphor about standing between rooms is a very good one I think... if you go from Portuguese to Italian etc... even English to romance languages, they're not a million miles away really. An interesting point is going from Hiberno-English to Irish (we always call it Irish not Gaelic), a broad country dialect has interference in intonations, rhythm and grammar from Irish, even if the speaker doesn't speak Irish! The point about translating between second languages is also a good point, it's difficult to do if they are from different families, though it's easy to go from manger to mangare to mangar etc.

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How to learn a language within 6 months to a point of fluency?
Okay, I live in Sweden and I want to learn Swedish...QUICK! And I am not starting from scratch, because I can understand the main stuff that my Swedish teacher says, and I can read easy books. My grammar stinks though and I can barely babble in Swedish. I am in 9th grade now and there will be a Swedish test really soon and I have to be able to get pass, and to get that I have to be able to: 1. Understand text (Okay I obviously need to learn more words) 2. Write an essay about sth (My grammar stinks and I have a narrow vocab) 3. Speak (I can't put words together since my grammar stinks) Please help me by suggesting ways to study. If I don't pass I'll stay in High School!! Thanks!

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Why is it that when people ask how to learn a language indepently, people always respond "go to x country"?
I mean seriously, anyone who has even picked up a language book already knows this. If we could do so we would so why do people always respond the same way. I mean Id appreciate a "flash cards" or "movies" but study abroad? If you asked me how to sew I wouldn't tell you to go to a sweat shop in India, and in the same manner, if you asked "how to I moonwalk, I wouldnt recommend you visit nasa or go to michael jacksons house so....I mean can we just be a bit more reasonable? Could we say "Ideally you would study abroad but.." and then give a long paragraph of self study tips rather than a two page expose about your experience, your parents, grandmas, teachers and neighbors study abroad experience and maybe finish it off with a "but (insert useless and completely unthorough website here) might help". Im just so frustrated..... So does anyone know how to study a language independently? Anyone I guess but french and spanish in particular.

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