Portuguese

Portuguese
 

Has anyone here studied Portuguese after studying Spanish? I'm planning on a big South America trip in about a year and would love to visit Brazil as well and I'm thinking about studying Portuguese. I love the sound of the language.

I'm worried I will confuse the languages. So I thought that my Spanish should be on a pretty good level before I attempt to add another similar language, but I was wondering if anyone else has tried it and if you have any tips or recommendations.

Thanks.

I briefly studied Portuguese after learning Spanish and had no problem keeping them straight in my head. I've also studied other languages and found that I can keep them all compartmentalized. Practicing all of them is the hard part. :rolleyes:

Thanks Rusty! For some reason I had thought you grew up bilingual. Yeah, putting in the time will be hard. Did you study Portuguese after you were completely fluent in Spanish?

There are many things we didn't know about Rusty. :)
At least for the average member.

I studied Portuguese after I learned Spanish (which is what I wrote above).

I learned Italian first, then Spanish and then Portuguese. A long the way I also learned French. I lived in Italy for two years and have been to France four times. My point is I see similarities in all these languages. If you speak one Latin language you can learn anyone of the others or all of them as I have.

Portuguese is closest to Spanish of the other Latin based languages. Spanish and Portuguese are some 80% the same.(Italian/Spanish 70 some % the same. However Italian is easier to pronounce because it has the exact same vowel sounds as Spanish. Spanish and Italian have 5 vowel sounds while Portuguese has more than 5. Maybe this is why they say it is even easier for Portuguese speakers to learn Spanish then visa versa. I taught ESL to adult Spanish speakers and then started getting a lot of Brazilian students. They would come in the class speaking no Spanish but then after only a couple of weeks they were speaking Spanish just from being around the Spanish speakers with no studying of Spanish per se.

Just today I was talking to an Ecuadorian friend who speaks fluent Spanish, pretty fluent Italian and is learning Portuguese on her own. She was saying how she sees the similarities in the 3 languages Spanish/Protuguese/Italian and was giving me examples.

Here are just a few examples of Portuguese and Italian similarities:
Posso is both the same
in Portuguese and Italian. Posso=puedo=I can

Hoje=hoy=oggi The letter h is silent in Portuguese, Spanish and Italian. Just another example of the similarities.
In Italian we spell it oggi but it is pronounced the same in Portuguese.

Hoje posso ir o ginásio. Oggi posso andare in palestra. Hoy puedo ir al gimnasio.

I know you never really finish learning, but I guess what I'm mostly wondering is when is a good time to start studying a similar language. It seems that most people learn one after the other. So at what point can you say, I'm solid in this language, let's try the next. At the end of the day, I suppose there's only one way, try and see how it goes. Thanks for the input.

I wouldn't think think that a native speaker would end up with confusing similar languages, or at least it never happened to me when I studied a bit of Dutch, but with two foreign languages that are similar to each other, it seems like a real danger.

Maybe you'd get confused if you pick up Dutch and Afrikaans or Flemish at the same time. I can't really compare those three languages but they must be very similar.
I wanted to learn Portuguese, too, but firstly I barely have time to learn Spanish and secondly the similarities would drive me nuts.
As you mentioned once that your Spanish level should be around B2, I don't really think you'll have any struggle with Portuguese.

It wouldn't take me long if I'd learn Russian, Polish, Slovakian or any other Slavic language as they are all a bit similar, some less some more.

Estoy de acurdo contigo.

Villa, ¿Por qué te gusta la lengua portugués? :)

They say people learn best when there is a need to learn or an opportunity to learn. I lived in Italy so I had a need and a desire to learn Italian. I live in California where there are many Spanish speakers so I learned Spanish. I was around Brazilian Portuguese speakers so I learned Portuguese.

Learn Spanish well and then if you ever have a need to learn Portuguese, Italian or French you'll have a strong background to do so with your Spanish. Learning one of any of the Latin based languages is at the same time learning some of all of them. This is the beauty of learning Spanish it's will help you learn all the Latin based languages. Just another good reason to learn Spanish.

Buena pregunta, mi amiguito. Me gusta la cultura brasileña. La música, el baile y la gente. Tengo amigos que han ido a Brasil y no quieren volver.

Hace años mi sobrino fue a Brasil como estudiante de intercambio. Vivía con una familia brasileña y iba a una escuela brasileña. Le escribia en español y él me escribia en portugués. Yo le entendía y el me podía entender. A su regreso de Brasil vivió conmigo por un tiempo. Le enseñé español y él me enseñó portugués. Fuimos a los restaurantes brasileños, partidos de fútbol de Brasil y al carnaval brasileño en Hollywood, California. Más tarde tuve estudiantes brasileños en mis clases de inglés y aprendí más Portugures con ellos. Finalmente empecé a tomar clases de Jiu-Jitsu brasileño con los Gracies y los Machado de Brasil y hablaba portugués con ellos. La mayoría, si no todos los hablantes de portugués aquí en California han aprendido a hablar español porque es facil para ellos. ¿Qué te parece amigo?

Muchas gracias por tu información, Villa. :) Muy bien. Quiero ir a Portugal pero prefiero España. Entiendo tu razón. :) Por ahora, estoy interesado en la lengua español. Quiero aprender japonés, español y otras idiomas pero no mucho tiempo. Por ahora, estoy contento con mi segundo idioma. :) Los idiomas son muy fascinantes para mí.

¿Prefieres el español o el portugués? :)

Yes exactly, Premium. I'm sure that if I had started to learn Portuguese and Spanish at the same time I would have ended up with a 'Kauderwelsch', same as other similar languages. But like you say, there are clear advantages if you speak one language of a language family.
In any case I've signed up for Portuguese lessons and I'll see how I go.
(btw I did pass the DELE, so officially a B2 :D)

I was going to learn a bit of French... but the problem is, is finding the time to speak French. I have a hard enough problem with speaking Spanish (as in, finding the time, I only get to do that about 10 hours a month).

I would love to eventually go back to French and improve that too, but one thing at a time. :) I know, finding time is not easy, but I do speak with a number of Spanish speakers on Skype on almost a daily basis, so I should be able to fit in some Portuguese too. We will see. It's a bit of an experiment, but I have nothing to lose. If it works out great, if not, no big deal.

True. I forgot about Skype. That way I could speak it at home. Might be easier than speaking it out of the house. I guess with writing, you don't have to keep up with both sides of the conversation. :)

I wonder if French or Portuguese would be better to learn? I want to be better in Spanish though, personally. :P

Me gusta más el español pero paso el tiempo hablando español
todo el tiempo asi que el portugués es algo diferente. También
hablo el italiano con algunos amigos. Veo mucho en común con
los tres idiomas. ¿Entiendes Mendes o te explico Federico?=Understand rubber band?

Entiendo tus palabras.
¿Habla japonés? ¿Por qué aprender español? :)
Quiero aprender portugués, pero no tengo tiempo. :(

Era un chiste eso de entiendes Mendes.

Tomé classes de Judo en un centro de cultura japones. Tuvimos que
aprender todo los throws in japones. Había gente japones ahí que no sabian hablar inglese. California es el estado con mas gente de Japon. Por ejemplo nombres come esto teniamos que aprender:

• Ashi Guruma Leg Wheel
• Daki Wakare High Lift and Separate
• Deashi Harai Advancing Foot Sweep
• Hane Goshi Spring Hip Throw
• Hane Makikomi Spring Wrap-around Throw
• Harai Goshi Sweeping Hip Throw
• Harai Makikomi Sweeping Wraparound
• Harai Tsurikomi Ashi Lifting Pulling Foot Sweep
• Hikikomi Gaeshi Pulling-in Reversal
• Hiza Guruma Knee Wheel
• Ippon Seoinage One Arm Shoulder Throw
• Kata Guruma Shoulder Wheel
• Kibisu Gaeshi Heel Trip Reversal
• Koshi Guruma Hip Wheel
• Kosoto Gake Small Outside Hook
• Kosoto Gari Small Outside Reap
• Kouchi Gari Small Inner Reap
• Kouchi Gaeshi Small Inner Reversal
• Morote Seoinage Two Arm Shoulder Throw
• Morote Gari Two Hand Reaping
• Obi Otoshi Belt Drop
• O Goshi Large Hip Throw
• O Guruma Large Wheel
• Okuriashi Harai Following Foot Sweep
• Osoto Gari Large Outer Reaping
• Osoto Guruma Large Outer Wheel
• Osoto Otoshi Large Outer Drop
• Ouchi Gaeshi Large Inner Reversal
• Ouchi Gari Large Inner Reaping
• Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi Lifting Pulling Ankle Block
• Seoinage Shoulder Throw (spread leg version)
• Sode Tsurikomi Goshi Sleeve Lifting Pulling Hip
• Soto Makikomi Outer Wrap Around
• Sukui Nage Scoop Throw
• Sumi Gaeshi Corner Reversal
• Sumi Otoshi Corner Drop
• Tai Otoshi Body Drop
• Tani Otoshi Valley Drop
• Tawara Gaeshi Rice Bale Reversal
• Tomoe Nage Circle Throw
• Tsubame Gaeshi Swallow's Flight Reversal
• Tsuri Goshi Lifting Hip
• Tsurikomi Goshi Lifting Pulling Hip
• Uchi Makikomi Inner Wraparound
• Uchi Mata Inner Thigh Throw
• Uki Goshi Floating Hip
• Uki Otoshi Floating Drop
• Uki Waza Floating Technique
• Ura Nage Rear Throw
• Ushiro Goshi Rear Hip Throw
• Utsuri Goshi Changing Hip Throw
• Yama Arashi Mountain Storm
• Yoko Gake Side Hook
• Yoko Guruma Side Wheel
• Yoko Otoshi Side Drop
• Yoko Wakare Side Separation

Congratulations! :)

Which do you like more?
It's just a matter of preference.

French, personally. Though Portuguese would be cool to learn. I do remember learning it in school and I hated it. I guess it's different when you want to learn it. :)