Learning Spanish and Portuguese

[Vanbcanthony]

After learning Spanish for about 6 months and finally getting more comfortable conversing in Spanish, I think I'm ready to take on the challenge of learning Portuguese. Even though both are Ibero-Romance languages, I find them actually quite different in spoken form, especially after watching music videos on YouTube and miniseries on Netflix. How important do you think knowing Portuguese is in traveling in Brazil? Any resources besides YouTube videos you can recommend? I plan to travel in Brazil in Nov this year. Hopefully I can be at least conversational by the end I'm in Brazil. 

[Axiom2020]

I know neither language (spoken or written).  ...have traveled to countries where Espanol is the prime language, and have ventured to many parts of Brasil.  I got along OK for the most part, but would have had a much more enriching experience overall and all around if I'd known the language, esp. when speaking with the natives.  [My being on the shy side impeded communication as well.]

Since the learning of another language seemingly comes easy for you, I'd highly encourage your learning to speak Brazilian Portuguese.  It'll be highly valuable when conversing, and perhaps, reading as well.  "Go for it!"

My good friend with whom I've traveled to Brazil picked up the language in part and helped me.  He knew how to converse in Spanish and hired for me while we were in Buenos Aires.  He was one hell of a sweetheart, and I appreciated his assistance.  But if I, myself, knew some of the native tongue, I would have gotten along in many areas.

[scott456]

Before the COVID pandemic hit, I was planning on long staying in Brazil and attending their language school.  Unfortunately, this plan doesn't seem to be viable in the near future.

[Vanbcanthony]

22 hours ago, Axiom2020 said:

I know neither language (spoken or written).  ...have traveled to countries where Espanol is the prime language, and have ventured to many parts of Brasil.  I got along OK for the most part, but would have had a much more enriching experience overall and all around if I'd known the language, esp. when speaking with the natives.  [My being on the shy side impeded communication as well.]

Since the learning of another language seemingly comes easy for you, I'd highly encourage your learning to speak Brazilian Portuguese.  It'll be highly valuable when conversing, and perhaps, reading as well.  "Go for it!"

My good friend with whom I've traveled to Brazil picked up the language in part and helped me.  He knew how to converse in Spanish and hired for me while we were in Buenos Aires.  He was one hell of a sweetheart, and I appreciated his assistance.  But if I, myself, knew some of the native tongue, I would have gotten along in many areas.

I wouldn't say learning another language is easy for me. All I can say is that having to learn English as a second language, I kinda know some of the tricks to quickly have some level of fluency to carry small talks. 

If you had to travel all by yourself without any help, how different would your experience be? The best is to pretend that you don't know the language and observe how people act differently when they find out you actually completely know what's going on all the time. It helps a lot when it comes to bargaining and negotiating. lol

[branleur]

Vanbcanthony, spanish and portugues have quite the same sytanxs so if you can speak spanish, learning portugues is easier.

There are many words that match in both languages, some have the opposite meaning!! (eg.: exquisito) but which makes the big difference is pronuntiation.

Even more, slang in Brazil is different in every state, Brazil is huge!

Anyway, if you know the language traveling is more fun.

I will send you a link by PM.

 

 

[Vanbcanthony]

2 hours ago, branleur said:

Vanbcanthony, spanish and portugues have quite the same sytanxs so if you can speak spanish, learning portugues is easier.

There are many words that match in both languages, some have the opposite meaning!! (eg.: exquisito) but which makes the big difference is pronuntiation.

Even more, slang in Brazil is different in every state, Brazil is huge!

Anyway, if you know the language traveling is more fun.

I will send you a link by PM.

 

 

You are absolutely right.

I must say knowing a little Spanish definitely helps a lot when it comes to reading. Now, I just have to resist the temptation to thrill my R and RR in Portuguese and get a good grip of the open and close vowels and nasalization. Embaracada means ashamed or confused in Portuguese but Embarazada means you are pregnant in Spanish. Would be funny if you actually say estoy embarazado to a Spanish speaker. He would be like what?!

[Lonely_John]

While trying to learn Spanish and Portuguese I've found both languages to be fairly similar in all aspects except pronunciation. I would love to improve my skills in both languages to interact better with hot Latin guys.

[davet]

I consider written Spanish and Portuguese to be very similar. Grasp a few conversions, like j->lh, io'n->ao~, and you can read a portuguese newspaper. Spoken language, however, sounds very different. This might be a bit obnoxious of me, but I often speak straight Spanish to a Brazilian and they pretty much understand. As someone once said, a native Spanish, native Portugues, and native Italian speaker can each speak their own language at a table and they'd all understand each other.

[JunNJ]

On 6/7/2021 at 10:29 PM, Vanbcanthony said:

After learning Spanish for about 6 months and finally getting more comfortable conversing in Spanish, I think I'm ready to take on the challenge of learning Portuguese. Even though both are Ibero-Romance languages, I find them actually quite different in spoken form, especially after watching music videos on YouTube and miniseries on Netflix. How important do you think knowing Portuguese is in traveling in Brazil? Any resources besides YouTube videos you can recommend? I plan to travel in Brazil in Nov this year. Hopefully I can be at least conversational by the end I'm in Brazil. 

You can try using Pimsleur Portuguese Lessons I, II, & III Audio CD's,  the used ones costs $99 for 30 CD's , 30 minutes each CD.  and I bought all 3. so  I finished 90 CD's.  My motivation is the Brazilian hot boys in Sauna !   The first time I visited Rio and SP, it was not easy to talk so I decided to learn to speak their language, although I am not very fluent but I can converse with the GP's and in the restaurant. And now with You Tube videos, it is easy to follow and polish your Portuguese.  Just remember to learn to read and write as well not only listening, it really helps !   Good Luck.   I can't wait to come back this September.  Tchau!

[Vanbcanthony]

2 hours ago, JunNJ said:

You can try using Pimsleur Portuguese Lessons I, II, & III Audio CD's,  the used ones costs $99 for 30 CD's , 30 minutes each CD.  and I bought all 3. so  I finished 90 CD's.  My motivation is the Brazilian hot boys in Sauna !   The first time I visited Rio and SP, it was not easy to talk so I decided to learn to speak their language, although I am not very fluent but I can converse with the GP's and in the restaurant. And now with You Tube videos, it is easy to follow and polish your Portuguese.  Just remember to learn to read and write as well not only listening, it really helps !   Good Luck.   I can't wait to come back this September.  Tchau!

The only issue is that I don't have any devices that can play CD these days. I really hope that these course providers can update their offering and make it more online friendly. 

The good thing is that written Portuguese is so similar to written Spanish. I even bought a book called Comparative Grammar of Portuguese and Spanish, hoping to advance my skills to another level. Youtube and Netflix really help though. 

[Vanbcanthony]

7 hours ago, davet said:

I consider written Spanish and Portuguese to be very similar. Grasp a few conversions, like j->lh, io'n->ao~, and you can read a portuguese newspaper. Spoken language, however, sounds very different. This might be a bit obnoxious of me, but I often speak straight Spanish to a Brazilian and they pretty much understand. As someone once said, a native Spanish, native Portugues, and native Italian speaker can each speak their own language at a table and they'd all understand each other.

You just force yourself on them! lol. But even if they can understand your Spanish, the reverse is not necessarily true. How do you deal with that?

[scott456]

1 hour ago, Vanbcanthony said:

You just force yourself on them! lol. But even if they can understand your Spanish, the reverse is not necessarily true. How do you deal with that?

Exactly...after a few trips to Brazil, I could actually speak a few words in Portuguese, but I still rarely spoke it.  I always got into confusing (worse) situations when others talked back to me in Portuguese with enthusiasm, and I still had to disappoint them.