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[kitano]

I am Canadian and had to learn French in school (and failed).  I worked in Quebec for awhile and had to learn French and was starting to be successful.

I came to China and started to learn Mandarin, I found it easier than French however, while learning I frequently would remember a French word when trying to remember a new Chinese word. I used to get in trouble with my teacher for 2nd and 4th tones. 

I do that with Italian. Italian has a lot of 'da' and 'di' and things and I'm constantly sticking those into my Chinese to fill in the gaps. It's all foreign right?

[NATO]

Very interesting thread this one. I did ask this initially but no ones addressed it yet - I'd love to hear what people think. Do you think it's a good idea to learn languages concurrently, that is, to start learning another (in this case related) language whilst your level of the other one is still not up to your aspirations?

[dragonsaver]

I have one online student who is doing her PhD in Germany.  She is from Brazil and her first language is Portuguese. She is learning German and has lessons every day.  She finds German is logical and easy to learn.  She MUST learn English to do her PhD but hates English.

She had found she can speak German easily but finds reading German very difficult.  She also can read English much easier but has great difficulty in speaking English easily.

[The Local Dialect]

I am Canadian and had to learn French in school (and failed).  I worked in Quebec for awhile and had to learn French and was starting to be successful.

I came to China and started to learn Mandarin, I found it easier than French however, while learning I frequently would remember a French word when trying to remember a new Chinese word. I used to get in trouble with my teacher for 2nd and 4th tones. 

I do that with Italian. Italian has a lot of 'da' and 'di' and things and I'm constantly sticking those into my Chinese to fill in the gaps. It's all foreign right?

That's really really common when people start learning a 3rd or 4th language. I used to do it all the time with Spanish words when I was first learning Chinese. Now I do it with Chinese when I'm trying to remember Spanish or Japanese. It seems our brains just automatically try to fill in the gaps and will pull up whatever is available in that part where language is stored.

[gonzo]

Very interesting thread this one. I did ask this initially but no ones addressed it yet - I'd love to hear what people think. Do you think it's a good idea to learn languages concurrently, that is, to start learning another (in this case related) language whilst your level of the other one is still not up to your aspirations?

European kids manage it. I've taught Germans who have studied English and French or Spanish very successfully. It depends on your aspirations [ie, what level you hope to reach], your learning style and strategies, affective personality factors, whether you're in the target language community, if you're talking speaking only, or want literacy...........
The list goes on, and there are so many variables. Try it and see is the best advice. There's no reason why not as far as I can tell. Pre-schoolers can become multilingual if they are getting the required input. Adults aren't too different, pronunciation aside, and do have cognitive advantages over children.