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Usefulness: Spanish vs Portuguese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| jiajia Newbie China Joined 4858 days ago 17 posts - 26 votes Speaks: Mandarin* | Message 9 of 34 26 January 2012 at 12:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
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From a non- American perspective, I would think Brazilian Portuguese could be equally important as Spanish, because there wouldn't be a lot of Hispanic communities settling in China or in Asia. Neither Br Portuguese nor Spanish is compulsory at school or at university in China, there are few Hispanic companies which may offer good positions and a high salary, though the career prospects of simultaneous interpreters don't look bad for the moment. Actually it isn't hard to judge which might be relatively more useful, since choosing the right language depends on which region (for example Mexico/Argentina or Brazil) you're more interested in, whether it's of some help to you while working, as well as where you're going to live, for the most part, Mexico and Argentina, where were considered two promising developing countries and where can roughly represent the whole Spanish-speaking world, haven't really kept up with the developmental power of Brazil. Also, in Europe, Spain's economic performance hasn't even matched that of Italy, and at most Spain would be tied with Italy in some respects (not only economic facts). Apart from the usefulness, I personally find Portuguese (Br) a bit more pleasant to hear than Spanish (no offence), because BP sounds softer, slower and nasal as a whole. And besides, I can hardly pronounce rolling r/rr (in Spanish) exactly, maybe it's another reason why I'd recommend choosing Br Portuguese.
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| Acut Tetraglot Groupie Brazil Joined 4700 days ago 53 posts - 101 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish, French | Message 10 of 34 26 January 2012 at 1:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
I highly doubt that. But I would still agree with you that Spanish tends to me more useful; 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6552 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 11 of 34 26 January 2012 at 2:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
Well, that is exactly true, in my case. When I work in Brazil I use mostly Spanish as do the French on my team. English is reserved for Senior Management, Spanish works well with the Sales/Marketing team discussions. -- As my father used to say about working in Brazil "we know you guys all speak secretly Spanish when we are not around." It meant that the Brazilians, in a business context, often have a generally good sense of Spanish. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| jean-luc Senior Member France Joined 4960 days ago 100 posts - 150 votes Speaks: French* Studies: German | Message 12 of 34 26 January 2012 at 2:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I agree with Serpent: you will get nowhere by looking for general usefulness. It's either obvious (for example English vs occitan) or irrelevant. What is important is what is the most useful according to *your need*. It could be important for your work or for your hobby, or for you own enjoyment, but knowing that a language could be potentially useful in a more or less distant future is not going to help you. If you like the culture of a language, or if you're going to need to speak it for your job, it will help you to keep the motivation.
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| petteri Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4932 days ago 117 posts - 208 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: German, Spanish | Message 13 of 34 26 January 2012 at 2:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If learner uses 1000 hours or more to learn Spanish to the level (C1+) where the language is useful in serious business, it is minor task to use maybe 300 hours to learn also Portuguese to good level. Or vice versa.
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| Carisma Diglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 5622 days ago 104 posts - 161 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC1 Studies: Italian, Mandarin | Message 14 of 34 26 January 2012 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well the most obvious answer would be to study Spanish, given as it would allow you to
visit far more countries and there are so many immigrants from Latin American countries in the States. Maybe it's a lot more required than Portuguese when you want to find a job. However, Brazil is a really powerful force. This country was recently proved to be more wealthy than the United Kingdom. And the language would not only do wonders for your resumé (given as it is more unique than Spanish) and allow you to get some exciting laboral and travel opportunities, but also give you the key to relaxed, fun and happy culture. My opinion is that you choose not thinking about economical or travel benefits, but bearing in mind which language do you like best and what culture you would like the most to get to know better. Edited by Carisma on 26 January 2012 at 5:36pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| KimG Diglot Groupie Norway Joined 4977 days ago 88 posts - 104 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Portuguese, Swahili | Message 15 of 34 26 January 2012 at 8:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, I can be one of the few, if not the only one so far I have noticed here on this forum, who's studied Portuguese without any other Romance language first. I did it since I simply got attracted to it since I started training Capoeira, and, unlike almost every other MA I've seen so far, there is more stronger connection to the "home country", and way more people who speak it, compared to TKD or Karate, where I've not seen many, if any, who learned their sport's "language".
I for long wanted to learn some foregin language, and just followed my heart when encountering Capoeira, and saw an oppurtunity for practicing an foregin language often.¨ Why travel to foregin lands, when you sometime see native Brazilians every 2. or 3. months as visiting trainers, and sometime, I've encountered native speakers every week. :D 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 16 of 34 26 January 2012 at 11:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
As for MA, perhaps that's because Portuguese is much easier, at least for native speakers of Western languages? When I did taekwondo I learned to count in Korean but nothing else. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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