Once you learn, how do you maintain the language? I'm currently in Brazil speaking Portuguese a lot. I used to speak more Spanish. Right now, if I want to switch back to Spanish it takes me a lot of time. They're so similar I still keep on mixing them up quite often. I even started a small project (https://glot.space) to try to keep training vocabulary in two languages at the same time to keep the distinction in my brain.
It is hard when they are such close languages! But maintaining is always hard. I compare it to building with clay while it's mildly raining. You need to keep re building chunks that fall off what you've built. Eventually some chunks dry enough that they are solid forever and you use them as a base to keep going.
I don't think you need to put a lot of time and effort in maintenance but you do have to put some with certain regularity
I’m working on phrasing.app partially to solve this problem. My solutions are:
- study flashcards from l3 <-> l4 to cut down on time
- practice switching between the languages and distinguishing between them (I use interleaved flashcards on phrasing)
- have a really painless audio review (to get a lot of your reviews done quickly)
- listen to input every now and then (tv, podcast, something). A little bit every now and then goes a long way
OP here. I'll just say what I'm currently doing. I read a book in french , a second book in Spanish and I'm watching an Italian tv series on Netflix. Doesn't have to be more than 10mins per language per day. The only way you don't forget a language is to reach a high level. Even if I don't speak Spanish for months I won't forget it. But I'll surely forget Italian.
