Should I stop studying my languages to pick up a different one?

on

Spanish vs Arabic

Asking because I've previously gotten good advice here that I wouldn't have thought of on my own. Please don't tell me to learn Uzbek.

Question: I'm debating whether I should drop learning Arabic and French to learn Spanish for the next ~1-2 years. Should I?

*Reasons for Spanish:

  • I currently live in an apartment above a Spanish school, and I will probably live in this apartment for another year.

  • I live in the US, and there's a large Spanish speaking population where I live.

  • I would love to visit Mexico and other Latin American countries. Latin America seems to have similarities with the ME that I like (warm weather, warm people, community oriented), but I don't know for sure. At some point I would love to leave the US, and I wonder if a Spanish-speaking country would be a good option.

  • I also pick up Spanish really easily, especially compared to Arabic. It feels like I could learn a lot in just a year.

**Reasons against Spanish:

  • I would have to start from the very beginning.

  • I've never really spent time in Latin America. I don't know if I would like the culture or the media.

  • A year spent learning Spanish is a year NOT spent learning Arabic.

  • I worry about being able to maintain the languages I already know. I don't want to learn Spanish if it's going to take over my French. I've already noticed that when I focus on Arabic for long periods of time, it erases my ability to speak French, and vice versa.

*Reasons for French & Arabic:

  • I already have a decent background in both languages, so I'm past most of the slog of the A level. I'm at a good enough level in French that I could keep reading books and watching TV without talking to native speakers and still enjoy the language.

  • I'm really interested in Levantine (Syria, Lebanese, etc) culture. I'm less interested in French culture, but I do like the food and I like African/MENA countries that were colonized by France.

  • I would love to get to a full C1 level in French, but I don't think I can do it without moving to a place with more native French speakers.

**Reasons against French & Arabic:

  • I'm frustrated that I basically never meet any native French or Arabic speakers where I live now. I was considering moving to Montreal, but I'm not sure. I used to work with refugees & spend time in the Middle East, so French and Arabic were useful to me. I'm no longer on that career path. Maybe I'll go back to a similar job, maybe not.

  • I'm losing motivation for Arabic because it feels like I'm learning a difficult language for no reason. Since I'm sort of learning two languages at once, and I have to go slowly with Arabic, I feel like I'm not making any progress whatsoever.

Thoughts?

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