Learning a Language

[LaceyLady]

Hi Burbuja, I cannot answer your question since I have not taught myself a language. But I am currently learning Portuguese myself. Maybe we could help each other...

I love the romance languages, too, especially Portuguese. I would like to learn (in this order) Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, then maybe Latin or French.

It will be much easier to learn Portuguese since you already know Spanish. My mother is fluent in Portuguese (she is from Portugal) and she can communicate in Spanish although she never really learned Spanish. The two languages do have a lot in common. Many of the words are the same or similar but the pronunciation is quite different. To me Portuguese is pronounced like English, but softer. For instance, "s" has a slight "sh" sound, the vowels are short (ah for a, etc.), j and g are soft like the g in beige (I really dislike the way j is pronounced in Spanish), x sounds like s or sh, etc. Some letters are pronounced the same as Spanish, like r. There are some difficult combinations like lh (pronounced similar to ll in Spanish but with more of an "l" sound), but mostly it is not difficult. You should have no problem reading Portuguese and understanding what the words mean, so you will have to focus on pronunciation, speaking and listening. It is the same way with me, I can read Spanish (very limited) but don't ask me to speak Spanish!

As for accent, the accent in Mexico is different than Argentina which is different than Catalan Spain which is different than Galicia Spain, etc. Even the pronunciation can be different. Likewise Brazilian Portuguese is quite different than European Portuguese (the pronunciation is different, too - the pronunciation I gave might not apply completely to Brazilian Portuguese, since I don't know Brazilian Portuguese). Since you know Mexican Spanish you should not have a problem with Portuguese (From Portugal, at least - I don't know about Brazil). Mexican Spanish is closer to Portuguese than Spanish from Spain and some other countries.

As I said, my mother is fluent in Portuguese, and she has being teaching my brother and I, but we don't seem to pick up languages very well. My mother, on the other hand, is good with languages. In addition to knowing Portuguese and English fluently, my mother can communicate in Spanish and French, and she used to know Afrikaans (a version of Dutch spoken in South Africa) although she can't remember much because she hasn't used Afrikaans in many years. I believe she also used to be able to communicate in Dutch and she was able to communicate when she was in Germany... somehow!

I am sorry for turning this post into an essay! milelol:

Hope this helps!