Learning a foreign language through a foreign language

Learning a foreign language through a foreign language

It may sound tricky and weird but using this method we may be able to kill two birds with one stone.

Suppose your mother tongue is Amharic, and let´s say that your command of French is not the best, but still you can make yourself understood and you understand and read it fairly well. You are still in the process of learning it. Then you decide to acquire a third language, German, for instance, and you also decide to do it through the medium of French. You get hold of a German grammar in French, where the German vocabulary will be in French as well as the grammatical explanations, idiomatic expressions and exercises.

Certainly some words in German will also be unknown to you in French. So you can learn two words instead of only one. Here is where the expression to kill two birds with one stone makes sense. Likewise you will be able to practice French when trying to understand German grammar.

Give it a try but only if your knowledge of French is fairly acceptable. And when reading German, check a French-German dictionary only instead of an Amharic-German one.

It is not a harebrained idea. I have tried it myself and it works. And it is fun.