Foundations of language learning

Why a strong first foundation matters before you add languages

Kungfucius's advice for anyone who plans to learn several languages: make the first foreign language properly strong before you add the next. Most of what you need for language two is learned in language one.

• You learn how you learn. The first language teaches you which routine you actually keep, how you remember words and how much input you need. The second language inherits all of it.
• A strong language survives neglect. Something you can read and follow comfortably fades slowly. A language abandoned at beginner level fades fast.
• It can carry the next one. Vocabulary, script and grammar concepts transfer, and the more solid they are, the more they carry. Solid Mandarin characters make Japanese kanji far lighter. Solid Japanese grammar makes Korean feel familiar.
• Weak foundations blur. Two half-learned languages interfere with each other far more than one strong and one new one.

Stacking, laddering and chaining

This idea has several names among learners.

• Language stacking: build one strong language, then place the next on top of it.
• Language laddering: study the new language through textbooks and dictionaries written in a foreign language you already know.
• Language chaining: link each new language to the one learned just before it, not back to your native language. It is explained together with stacking.

All three rest on the same condition, a first language at roughly upper-intermediate level or better. A sage who builds the second floor before the first has invented the basement.

The basics that make a first foundation strong are on the pages below, starting with how language acquisition works.