Language laddering explained

Laddering is what happens when you stop using your native language as the starting point for everything. You pick up a Japanese textbook written for Chinese speakers, or a Korean course taught in Japanese, and learn the new language through a foreign one you already have.

Done at the right moment, it gives two languages a workout in the time of one. Done too early, it gives you two sets of problems in the time of one. The difference is almost entirely the level of the language you climb from.

What language laddering is

The language you already know and learn through is the base language. The new one is the target language. In laddering, explanations, glosses, dictionary entries and flashcard answers are all in the base language, and your native language stays out of the room.

The picture is a ladder: each language is a rung, and you step onto the next one from the last. English speaker learns Mandarin, then learns Japanese through Mandarin, then perhaps Korean through Japanese.

The term was popularised among self-taught learners by Khatzumoto's blog All Japanese All The Time, where it was presented as a way to learn several languages without confusing them. The practice is much older. Anyone who learned Latin through French, or Japanese at a university in Beijing, was laddering without the label.

Laddering versus language stacking

The two terms are often used as if they were one. They answer different questions.

	Language laddering	Language stacking
Question it answers	Through which language do you learn the new one?	How do you fit several languages into one week?
Core idea	Use a foreign base language instead of your native one	Give each language its own regular time block
Needs	One strong foreign language	A schedule and some discipline
Main risk	Base language too weak to explain anything	Too many languages, too little time for each

You can stack without laddering (Mandarin in the morning, Korean in the evening, both through English) and ladder without stacking (only Japanese, studied through Mandarin). Scheduling is covered under language stacking, and the wider question of whether to run two beginners' languages in parallel is on the page about two languages at once.

Does language laddering work

Kungfucius knows of no controlled study that compares laddering with learning through the native language, so the honest answer rests on learner reports and on reasoning. Both point the same way: it works when two conditions are met.

The base language is strong. You need to read grammar explanations in it without a dictionary. That means roughly upper-intermediate or better: B2 on the CEFR scale, and preferably higher. Below that, every unclear sentence raises the question of which language you have failed to understand.

The base language is closer to the target than your native language is. This is where laddering pays best. A Chinese-language Japanese textbook does not waste forty pages explaining what a character is. A Japanese-language Korean textbook can say "this particle works like に" and move on. Several experienced learners, Olly Richards among them, argue that closely related pairs are the one case where laddering is clearly worth it.

When neither condition holds, for example learning Thai through shaky Spanish, laddering is a hobby inside a hobby. Pleasant, but slow.

Laddering is for the sage who knows the lower rung well. Stand on a rung you have only read about, and you will study gravity instead.

Learning Japanese through Chinese, and Korean through Japanese

For readers of this site, two ladders matter most.

Japanese through Chinese

If your Mandarin reading is solid, Japanese materials for Chinese speakers assume you already know the characters and concentrate on what is new: kana, readings and grammar. A large share of Japanese vocabulary is Sino-Japanese, so many words differ mainly in pronunciation.

Chinese	Pinyin	Japanese	Romaji	English
圖書館 (图书馆)	túshūguǎn	図書館	toshokan	library
電話 (电话)	diànhuà	電話	denwa	telephone
學生 (学生)	xuésheng	学生	gakusei	student
準備 (准备)	zhǔnbèi	準備	junbi	preparation

The widely used course Minna no Nihongo has Chinese-language editions, published as 大家的日本語 (Dàjiā de Rìběnyǔ) in Taiwan and 大家的日语 (Dàjiā de Rìyǔ) in mainland China, and publishers in both places offer many more. The shared characters also set traps, which are covered in the comparison on learning Chinese and Japanese at the same time.

Korean through Japanese

Japanese and Korean share word order, particles, verb endings stacked at the end of the sentence and a system of politeness levels. Explaining Korean through Japanese is therefore far shorter than explaining it through English. The Sino-Korean vocabulary lines up as well.

Japanese	Romaji	Korean	Romanization	English
図書館	toshokan	도서관	doseogwan	library
約束	yakusoku	약속	yaksok	promise, appointment
無料	muryō	무료	muryo	free of charge
準備	junbi	준비	junbi	preparation

Bookshops in Japan carry shelves of Korean textbooks, and they are generally more compact than English-language equivalents because so much can be taken as known.

Where to find laddering materials

• Textbooks written for speakers of the base language. Search in the base language itself: 日語 教材 or 韓国語 テキスト finds more than any English query.
• Bilingual dictionaries between the two languages. A Chinese-Japanese or Japanese-Korean dictionary is the simplest laddering tool, and usually more precise than going through English.
• Courses with other interface languages. Some large apps, Duolingo among them, offer Japanese and Korean courses for Chinese speakers. Course lists change, so check the current catalogue in the app.
• Video lessons by teachers from the base-language country. A Taiwanese teacher explaining Japanese grammar on YouTube is listening practice for Mandarin and a grammar class for Japanese in one sitting.
• Flashcards with base-language answers. If you use spaced repetition, write the back of the card in the base language.

Common ways laddering goes wrong

Starting from too low a rung. This is the usual failure. If you are translating the explanation into English in your head, you are not laddering. You are learning through English with extra steps.

Importing the base language's mistakes. Whatever is shaky in your base language can travel upwards. An English speaker laddering from Mandarin to Japanese may read every kanji compound with a Mandarin sound for months. The neighbouring problem, a foreign language intruding on another, is described under language interference.

Never hearing the target language on its own terms. Laddering is a way of studying. It is not a replacement for input in the target language itself. The textbook can be in Chinese. The dramas still need to be in Japanese.

Chasing efficiency. Laddering is sometimes sold as two languages for the price of one. The base language does get reading and listening practice, but only in the narrow register of textbook explanations. You will become very good at Mandarin words for "transitive verb".

How to start laddering

1. Test the base language first: read three pages of a grammar explanation in it, about any language. If you needed a dictionary more than a few times per page, wait.
2. Choose one resource in the base language, ideally a textbook with audio, and keep one English-language reference grammar as a safety net for the first month.
3. Switch your dictionary and your flashcard answers to the base language.
4. After four weeks, check whether you still reach for English. If hardly ever, remove the safety net. If constantly, go back to English materials without guilt and return to the ladder a level later.