So I was listening to my favorite language loving podcast (I Will Teach You a Language) and Olly was discussing language laddering.  He mentioned in his episode (here for those interested) that there really aren’t any good articles out there about it. I decided to endeavor to fill that void.

First, a preface.  AJATT had a pretty great article about this at one point, but while I can find the title of said blog article, I can’t get it to come up.  AJATT may be an internet ghost at this point. :(

What exactly is laddering?

Laddering is the idea of learning one target language using another L2 that you’ve already acquired with higher degree of proficiency.  For example, I have studied Spanish for many years (over half my life at this point- craziness).  So while it’s not my native tongue, I’m quite comfortable in it.  Early in my Japanese study, I made the decision to make my flashcards with Japanese on one side and Spanish on the other, rather than English. (I’ll talk about why in a bit.)  I also set up Erin’s Challenge (review here) in Spanish to Japanese.

Why could it be a GOOD idea?

1. You have concerns about maintaining a previous L2.
   This is what happened with me.  I had studied Spanish intensively in college, taught it for 2 years, and then switched to special education full time.  I wasn’t sure I’d ever return to teaching Spanish and I lived in an area without a lot of native speakers.  And dear readers, this was before services like italki really came into being.  I had a Spanish channel and started watching a telenovela nightly, but wanted more. 
   
   Cue reading AJATT’s article and deciding to give this a try with my flashcards.
   
   I’ll be honest, a lot of people cite problems with this (more on that later), but it really has worked for me overall.  I’ve strengthened a lot of vocabulary in Spanish that I might have otherwise ignored. Yes, on occasion I get a card where I forget both the Japanese AND the Spanish, but we have additional resources to solve that problem (aka Google Translate to give my brain the minimal refresh it needs).  Bonus- the extra effort to learn what the card means again generally means I won’t forget it next time.
   
   
2. You can make a concept/word more clear using a different language.
   An example I often give for this is the word that in English versus Japanese or Spanish.  In English, we just have the word that.  In Spanish, there is a set of words (ese/esa/esos/esas) that mean that, but generally mean either close to the listener of the conversation OR at least within a field of vision.  There is a second set of words (aquel/aquella/aquellos/aquellas) that also mean that but this time the item in question is far from both participants in the conversation or out of the general area.  Guess what?  Japanese ALSO has two thats very similar to Spanish (その/あの).  I can put that in English on my flashcard with a bunch of extra information (or none and hope the difference isn’t important) OR I can put one of the Spanish words for each (ese/aquel) and solve my problem.
   
   Here’s where laddering does NOT have to be an all or nothing deal.  One of my cards is for 寝台 (shindai) with English on the back for sleeper berth (pictured above).   I have a visual reference in my head for this idea, that doesn’t really exist in American culture, and I can tie it to the English words “sleeper berth”.  But I’ve never found a Spanish equivalent I liked. So that one stays in English. Similarly I have some slang words for things like “spaced out” and “totally” from a manga I was reading.  Trying to pick a slang equivalent in Spanish is much harder for me, so those stay in English.  
   
   Richard Simcott in this interview with Olly mentioned that if you have 2 languages with a lot of similarities, particularly similar grammar that is very different from your native grammar, it may be worth using this technique to circumvent confusion.  Example: If I start learning another language with subjunctive use similar to Spanish, I’m likely to use Spanish translations over English because it conveys the point better and more clearly.
   
   
3. Practicality- the tools you need aren’t in your native language.
   For many language learners around the world, laddering is way of polyglot life. Why?  Because while there are LOTS of tools in almost any major tongue to learn English (due to its global economic importance), there are less tools to learn other languages.  It may be difficult to find a book in Korean about learning German or a book in Mandarin to learn Russian.   Sometimes they are out there, but may be expensive or require extra shipping.  It may be cheaper to use one’s newly acquired English tongue to take on another new language.
   
   Us native English speakers aren’t off scot free.  One of the speakers at the Polyglot Conference talked about learning African languages such as Twi and Oromo.  Often if you are searching for resources for these languages (which are still quite limited in written form), you are best off doing so using the official language of the country where it’s spoken.  For some countries that may be English, for others it could be French.  You might even try Swahili.  At some point I would like to tackle Quichiwa (the Ecuadorian dialect of Quechua, spelled differently due to elimination of sounds by the conquered tribal people who adopted it).  There are NOT a lot of resources out there for Quichiwa and what is out there is generally in Spanish.  Thus this is the more logical choice.
   
   
4. You’d like the brain boost.
   Feel that a new language is too easy?  Laddering might be a way to challenge yourself.  Highly unlikely that it is truly too easy, but maybe you are wanting more of a challenge all the same.  Maybe you are actually trying to RESTRICT your study time (as I am with Italian) so you want to make it extra challenging to ensure you really want to do it.
   
   
5. You want to reap an extra reward.
   
   Italian is not my language of focus right now- Japanese is.  But the Italian bug bit me pretty hard last year, so I signed up for it on Duolingo.  I wanted to make sure I gained something of immediate use out of this action, so I made the course Spanish-Italian.  This way I keep running into some of those really little grammar points that are so easy to mess up in both Spanish and Italian.  I have to be really conscious of making those right or the whole sentence is often marked wrong.  This could be accents, adjective agreement, verb forms in past tense, prepositional use, and so much more.
   

When is this NOT such a good idea?

1. The language you are trying to use isn’t fully solidified yet.
   Is my Spanish perfect?  Of course not.  But it is consistent and advanced enough that I can be fairly certain I’m not screwing up my Japanese learning.  I use Spanish with Japanese for vocabulary learning, on a platform designed by professional translators, and occasionally for subtitles.  I do not use it for major grammar points with Japanese- that is confusing enough for me WITHOUT the addition of another L2.  (I should note I also have Duolingo set Spanish to Italian, but the grammar is more inductive on that platform and the languages are more similar to begin with.)
   
   I don’t recommend that right after you hit an Intermediate (B1) level, you decide to use your new language to ladder.  (Unless you lack options as mentioned above.) I’d wait until you were at least Intermediate High (High B2) or even Advanced Low (C1) to do so with any prevalence. Again, don’t feel this has to be an all or nothing game.  If you have a word that BETTER correlates to your L3+ from your L2, go for it.  Just don’t use it all over the place without a proper foundation, or the whole multilingual house may fall at your feet.
   
   
2. You find yourself getting confused.
   Right now I’m just “playing” with Italian.  Last summer that pesky little beautiful language kept nagging at me until I finally gave it some space in my life.  But I didn’t want to risk abandoning Japanese again.  So I opened up the Italian language course on Duolingo, with translations in Spanish.  And for what I want right now with Italian (that is just to play around and learn a handful of words) this is great.  
   
   But I can already tell that if I want to get serious about Italian, I’m going to want a good Italian-English textbook to solidify the grammar.  My brain makes better frameworks for grammar from my native language, and I’m much more of a deductive than inductive learner in this regard.  There are also words that if I make my own flashcards I may opt for the English simply because the Spanish is too close.  I’m not a huge stickler about spelling, but when words are only a letter apart or the pronunciation is one phoneme different, it helps to have a higher contrast for better retention.
   
   
3. It isn’t enjoyable.
   This should be obvious but it often isn’t.  Many people decide to give laddering a go, only to find they are miserable studying their new language because progress is slower.  Laddering is mostly a luxury (except if tools are a pain to find, and even then you can make your own over time) and therefore needn’t be used if it doesn’t feel as such.  If it’s becoming a barrier to your language acquisition, chuck it.
   
   
4. The tools are hard to find.
   Brad had planned to use Japanese to learn Mandarin Chinese.   Yet tools were not in great supply.  He found a lot of grammar books of far better quality in English-Mandarin (especially given the recent push in the States for people to learn it) and when it comes to flashcards, Brad is all about efficiency.  He uses his computer programming skills to find lists of vocabulary and push it through to Anki in a way that makes the computer make the cards for him.  More vocabulary lists available in English-Mandarin, plus there isn’t the issue of the same Kanji/Hanzi on both sides with no pronunciation or other differentiating factor.  In addition, he’d feel the need to check every card for accuracy, which would slow down the entire process.  Definitely not fun for him. 

Laddering is not for everyone.  Olly is pretty against it, Richard Simcott has used it with some success (though he prefers to get away from translations altogether as quick as possible), and AJATT wrote a later post arguing for depth of language study over breadth. That said, it can open doors to languages you might otherwise not have access to or help you get some extra practice in an advanced tongue while picking up a new one.

Ultimately, if it appeals to you and you meet the “solidified” condition, give it a go.  Just don’t buy 12 books off the back- buy one, make some flashcards, and see how it goes.  If you love it, the other 11 books will likely still be there.  If not, well then you won’t have wasted your hard earned cash on books that will gather dust.  Regardless of your methodology, I wish you all luck on climb up the ladder of language success.

Rock on, Polyglottians!

P.S. Here are few other resources I did find related to laddering: 

Reddit Forum Discussion

Lingq Forum Discussion

Duolingo Tips for Using Laddering on Their Site