Internationally, you can serve as a translator, advisor, and even in human resources. At home, you can work with bilingual communities, organizations, and companies with Spanish speaking clients. As the second most spoken language in the world, it is also one of the most useful you can ever learn, no matter your purpose.
But while they do have many similarities, how you learn, and why you learn, can be rather different. Spanish and Portuguese are both romance languages, but there are some key differences , including:. As a romance language, Portuguese is still considered among one of the easiest languages for a native English speaker to learn. Compared to English, Portuguese has fewer prepositions, and interrogative phrases are simpler. While pronunciation uses slightly more nasal sounds, it is not considered exceptionally difficult for English speakers.
Grammatical word order is also more flexible than English. The most obvious place where Portuguese is spoken is in Portugal, where it is the official language. These locations are also popular for travel and are especially helpful if you are thinking of traveling, living, or working with Brazil. In Brazil, there are not dialects, so Portuguese will be understood; Brazil is exceptionally pleased with anyone who attempts to learn Portuguese.
While slightly more limited than Spanish, knowing Portuguese is arguably rarer and thus more specialized. If you already know Spanish, the decision to also learn Portuguese can make you that much more useful for overseas work and volunteering.
In order to decide whether to learn Spanish or Portuguese, ultimately, you need to weigh the pros and cons of each. While more people overall speak Spanish and Spanish is a little easier to learn, Portuguese is a slightly more specialized skill to have and is more useful for different countries, including Brazil. There is also a general preference: while some love the sound of Spanish, others prefer Portuguese. Depending on your purpose, whether it is travel, employment, or simply self-improvement, the decision to learn with Spanish or Portuguese can change your life.
And both can help launch exciting careers in a wide range of fields and industries. While this list was accrued with Spanish in mind, the same list is also applicable for Portuguese. Keep in mind that simply taking some courses will not qualify you for a career, and most do require at least some form of higher education. However, making the first decision to learn Spanish or Portuguese online can be a low cost, low commitment way to introduce you to the language, get your feet wet, and help you decide if you want to make a long-term investment.
What are some low cost, low commitment online courses in Spanish and Portuguese to get me started? While there are many online courses offered for Spanish, you may be pleasantly surprised to learn that there are many for Portuguese as well.
In the world of languages, Spanish and Portuguese are like cousins. They both come from the same family essentially but have their noticeable differences. It's often said that when you learn languages at the same time or one after another. Aim for languages that are different spectrums, such as French or Japanese. But there's nothing wrong with bending the rules to fit your needs. If you are looking to learn commonly spoken languages, Portuguese and Spanish will put you on the right track.
Learning a new language is already overwhelming enough, especially if you are embarking on the journey of self-studying. Now you have to choose which language to learn first! Part of you choosing which language to learn first should be about your personal preference. Having fun is an important part of the process. However, if you want to be practical, you want to think about the mutual relationship between the two languages. Which should you learn first, Portuguese or Spanish? Spanish is NOT spoken officially in any of the above mentioned countries.
I speak five languages fluently English, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese — in order of learning and two conversationally Italian and Arabic. In the large scheme of things, attitude is most important when learning any language. If you set out with the attitude that you are going to learn one language first and that is your goal, then more power to you. Focusing on one language at a time has its benefits and depending on the inspiration or need to learn it, can be crucial.
Everyone learns differently and Spanish and Portuguese are so similar that it would be difficult not to either mix or have an accent Spanish in Portuguese or vice-versa.
An error in syntax, could give you away too, even f your pronunciation is unbelievably on point. Truth of the matter is, unless you grow up speaking both languages from childhood, you are likely to make errors, A good attitude and maturity are the healthiest attributes to encounter the challenge, because we all learn at different levels and make mistakes.
A healthy attitude is one that will help you get up after falling and applying the lesson learned in the future, as a result of the fall. You can fine tune your single-language-at-a-time goal as time, resources and opportunity permit.
Watching Brazilian satellite TV, social events with Brazilian friends, reading news and entertainment articles online, watching Youtube videos, listening to Brazilian music, etc.
Why limit yourself? Make it fun. Boa Sorte! Buena Suerte! Yes, I guess it comes down to convenience and how much pressure of necessity there is or is perceived to be to learn another language. Many people would probably do a very similar thing in Italy. We just take advantage of the fact that these are three more or less intelligible languages we can communicate in.
Of course this has to be done with respect and not just assuming that a bar tender in Lisbon has to absolutely understand everything you say to them in Spanish. Throwing in a few simple Portuguese words or phrases would be a very nice sign of respect I think. Thanks, Bea! Some very good points. The best of both worlds hahaha. The reason my English accent is good is because, besides the classes I had with a British teacher to do the CAE exam, my obsession started with the movies I watched, specially one franchise in particular, Harry Potter.
I loved the way they talked so I set myself to do all that I could to even come close to speaking like they did. To me, movies helped a lot. Thanks for the comment, Kevin! Did you find studying both together reinforced both or was it hard to keep them apart? I have to admit I am really surprised by your blog, it looks to me like if you have a big problem with Spain or anybody from that country. Why do you need to put down a language, a country or a culture in order to give an argument to learn the other one?
If you want to learn Portuguese, do it! Enjoy it! If you want to learn Spanish, do it, enjoy it too! But, please, leave your complexes at home. Hi Michael, thanks for reading the post and taking the time to comment. The connection, as I see it, is that Portuguese often comes across as the poor relation of Spanish. Gareth: I so enjoyed your article.
I am no trying to learn it on my own, because there is no one in this small town that could tutor me. I am multi-lingual and Spanish is among the languages I have learned. I agree so much with what you said about Spanish people being resistant to learning other languages, yet I did come across some Spanish people that wanted to learn English more than any other group of Latinos….
I love Fado, with Amalia Rodrigues singing…. Uma Casa is an example of a Fado, yet different from the typical rhythm. Thanks for sharing so much about the culture, the article enthralled me. I am 79 years old and I loved the way you presented the material. Many thanks for your comment, Isabelle. So glad you enjoyed the article. I have a humorous dig at Spanish but only because I think Portuguese is under appreciated and could do with a bit of a boost.
Take a look under my Recommended Resources tab for information about italki. You can either use it to find and book a fee-charging teacher or to set up an excahnge for English with a native Portuguese speaker. What I miss in these intense contributions is the internal strength of the languages concerned.
The intricate tense structures of English, German and Italian perhaps ever so slightly less in French encourage a certain type of clear and somewhat legalistic thinking. Apparently Latin does the same, but in a more difficult and irregular way.
Dutch is extremely irregular, basic and vernacular, but it has a way of reducing nature to practical, farmer-like descriptions — expect no subtlety. What can Portuguese express that another language cannot? Crooning folksongs cannot be its greatest and most subtle mode of expression, I do sincerely hope, and neither are beaches and sex opportunities. Its musical pronunciation, at least in some dialects, is second to none, and that may be the reason to get involved.
I finally got to go to Portugal for two weeks in September on. Trafalgar group tour. I also took a six week elementary Portuguese class 41 years ago in grad school.
I had read in travel books and posts that the Portuguese do not like to be addressed in Spanish as the Portuguese are very proud of their language, culture, and history. Over the centuries, various Spanish crowned heads have tried to invade Portugal.
In face Felipe II did so for 60 years. I think that that has something to do with it, too. Besides our bus driver, I was the only one who could speak some Portuguese.
Before going, I reviewed my conversational Portuguese, verbs and grammar. Also, reread up on Portuguese music and cuisine. Being with an anglophone group, the Portuguese might sometimes start out in English.
I told them that I could speak some elementary, basic Portuguese and wanted to practice my Portuguese. They were always helpful and appreciative.
I made a conscious effort to brush up on these tenses: present indicative and present subjunctive, imperfect, preterit, present perfect, gerund and past participle. Also, the high frequency irregular verbs. I had a great time. Of course, I could read all the signs, etc, easily. I really appreciated the opportunity to learn about Portugal through the history of the Portuguese people. Portugal is the size of the US state of Indiana.
In the 12 days of the tour, we made a big oval through Portugal, hitting all the regions in the north, central and south. Algarve, alentejo, and other regions. Thanks for this sharing opportunity. I am trying to learn Portuguese because my wife is Brasilian. She has me reading books in Portuguese and after a couple of months I can sometimes read a few paragraphs without needing help from the translator. I am hoping one day I will be able to have a basic conversation with my Brasilian family.
Good luck, Jim. You have a strong, clear reason for wanting to learn. Success is only a matter of sticking at it, practising a lot and stretching your comfort zone in using the language. Thanks for the interesting comment, Lucas. Which regional accent of Brazil is the hardest for people from other parts of the country to understand, would you say?
Sure we can understand each other most of the time but accents and pronunciations can also make understanding difficult sometimes. I find it extremely helpful to have similar languages laid out side by side, because seeing similarities and differences reinforce my knowledge of both of them. Also, I notice that studying Catalan from Spanish has not adversely affected my Spanish, even though studying Portuguese from English may have, at least temporarily. Learn Portuguese through Spanish. Since you speak Spanish already, it will help point out the differences between the two languages, while helping you continue to practice your Spanish.
You could then do Spanish through Portuguese in a reverse tree just to reinforce each a little more. I'm a native speaker of Portuguese and if I spend the whole day studying Spanish I mix it up a little.
In my experience, studying two similar languages can cause problems if the two languages are at similar learning levels. Since your Spanish is advanced then you should be fine. In fact, knowledge of Portuguese should reinforce your Spanish: I recommend that you work on the Portuguese-from-Spanish tree so that you can easily learn the similarities and differences. For me it's the opposite, my Pt is better than my Spanish and only go slowly through the spanish -pt tree and focus more on what is different to not starting to mix up both.
I think you can learn it without many problems since you already have a good knowledge of Spanish. I am a Portuguese native speaker, and sometimes it's difficult to remember if a word is similar in both the languages or a false friend.
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