Hi! So far, I speak 2 languages. My native language, and English as a 2nd language that I speak fluently. And I crave for more!
I love learning languages. I’ve been learning Spanish for 3 years. While doing that, I’m distracted to Portuguese. It’s awesome to understand written Portuguese (based on the similarity to Spanish) without ever learning it. Then I decided to learn Portuguese also. Not easy, the similarity often confused me.
Is it possible to learn similar languages at the same time? Do you have any experience to share?
“Those who dares to teach must never cease to learn”
My personal experience is that, yes, there is no problem studying two (e.g. romance) languages at the same time. I’ve been doing it with French , Spanish and Portuguese. In my opinion, the only important thing to remember is never to START learning 2 NEW similar languages at the same time. My French was already intermediate when I started with Spanish and so was my Spanish when I started learning Portuguese. I actually believe that the knowledge of each of these languages help me understand the others better.
I don’t say I never get confused, which I do, and this only is a personal experience. But I will continue working this way until I have tackled at least Italian and Catalan also. I even have no problem switching from one language to another and back several times a day while learning. This is a bit more difficult while talking, especially if you are not that comfortable talking yet anyhow, but I am sure that with time the switching will be as easy for me as it now is between German and English.
Hope I could be of some help or at least motivation from you. Just don’t start learning two new and similar languages at the same time and I think you’ll be fine!
I’m learning Italian and is a language very similar to Portuguese.
I can learn Italian without problems and can say that I was studying Italian and I had more progress in 1 month that I had studying german for 3 months .
I like Italian and want to learn other languages similar to French and Spanish
This is a very interesting point. My native language is Portuguese. Some months ago I started to learn Spanish, just for fun. These are two really similar languages. However, it was interesting to notice that I had a huge difficult to separate the Spanish language from Portuguese language. I got very confused. In my brain, it was easier to organize my English learning than to organize my Spanish learning.
I agree with Chaoskind when he said that it’s a personal experience. I think that it would be more difficult for me to learn these two languages at the same time, but this is just my point of view based on my experience…
In my own experience: the more similar the language to my native tongue, the easiest it is for me to learn it. Believe me, I’m not bragging, for me it was really easy to learn Portuguese, not confusing at all and a real pleasure.
Saudações!
Chaoskind is right. Start more than 1 new similar language is hard! Which is that what I do. Kinda. I wasn’t intermediate yet in Spanish (only a year Spanish learning) when I started to learn Portuguese. Now I’m distracted in Italian. Well, those 3 romance languages have been in my wishing list for a long time, it was hard for me to pick which one first. I finally picked Spanish first, but can’t wait to learn the other 2! Especially I’m surrounded by online buddies who are native in those 3 languages…
BrazilianPolyglot, you have the language (Portuguese) firmly grasped. That’s why you learn Italian easily
I have many foreign friends that speak spanish very well and when They go Brazil, They can conversation with native people. Of course, that first month is dificult, but after is very easy.
So, between spanish and portuguese, my advice for you would be that you learn spanish and don’t worry: when you will go Brasil or other country that speak portuguese, you can live there with your spanish.
For exemplo, I have a friend from USA, and he went to Brasil only speaking spanish (spanish very well, but nothing portuguese). He stayed here, in Brasil, for 1 year and when he went back 2 months ago, He were speaking fluent portuguese.
But, If you decide learn portuguese too, I would like to help you.
The “surviving” level won’t do good to anyone, in any decent job it won’t be enough, neither for leisure purposes. The question is: if you already know Spanish, why don’t you do that little effort for grabbing that “easy reachable fruit” that is Portuguese? That would show more respect for the country and its people. After all, you have lingQ for the same fee, what else do you need?
Vamos aprender e curtir a língua portuguesa! Diga não ao portunhol!
I wasn’t intermediate yet in Spanish (only a year Spanish learning) when I started to learn Portuguese. Now I’m distracted in Italian. Well, those 3 romance languages have been in my wishing list for a long time, it was hard for me to pick which one first. I finally picked Spanish first, but can’t wait to learn the other 2! 