|
 |
Spanish and Italian together | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 9 of 18 19 April 2010 at 2:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
This one is tough, isn't it. There are so many possible turns and twists. When I started learning Italian I was already fluent in Spanish and French, having lived in both countries. I read 3000 pages of crime novels in Italian, in order to have a passive vocabulary. I then went for a two week's holiday to Italy. I did not find my Spanish to be any inconvenience, as what I did was to use all the Italian words I knew, and then simply fill in the gaps with Spanish. It sounded extremely impressive to my Norwegian friend, who was travelling wih me, but must have sounded very strange to all the Italians we met. I was however understood. During those two weeks I hooked up with an Italian boy friend, and towards the end I had shifted from speaking "Spantalian" to Italian.
I then had a major surprise when I got home though. My Spanish, which I considered my second native language, and which I had spoken without an accent since age 11 was gone. Vanished. I still understood absolutely everything people said in Spanish, but I could only answer in Italian. It took 6 months before my brain got out of the "I only want to focus on Italian mode", and my Spanish returned. Fortunately, it returned as strong as ever, but the first two, three conversations I had attempting to speak Spanish after coming home from Italy were pure torture. I simply could not accept that this had happened. My honest advice? I do not know if anyone has the one and only correct answer to your question. I would probably say: It will be very tough, but if you really want to, go for it, and tell us later how it went. I recently had the same predicament, as I am trying to learn Russian, and my 15-year old Polish, which I thought was practically extinct, suddenly popped up and caused havoc. I therefore asked a professor at the University of Oslo, whether it might be a good idea to read up on my Polish, in order to help my poor brain to differenciate between the two languages. He was opposed to the idea, but I think that was a gut reaction more than based on real experience. I have learned French and Arabic at the same time, which was no problem, as they were so different, and I was fluent in French when I started with Arabic. I have studied German and English at the same time but again I had a good knowledge of English before I started with German. I think the only two languages I have done from the beginning in paralell was German and French, and they are not that close that they are a problem to each other. Good luck, anyhow! Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 21 April 2010 at 3:59pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Carisma Diglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 5622 days ago 104 posts - 161 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC1 Studies: Italian, Mandarin | Message 10 of 18 21 April 2010 at 12:36am | IP Logged | |||||
|
I would recommend not to start with Italian until you have, at least, an intermediate knowledge of Spanish (B1 or B2), because they are way too similar and it is really possible that you'll mix them up and get confused.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Akao aka FailArtist Senior Member United States Joined 5336 days ago 315 posts - 347 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona | Message 11 of 18 21 April 2010 at 4:30am | IP Logged | |||||
|
There are many similarities in basic Italian and basic Spanish, but the extremely
different accents will help you remember when to use which word for which language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6472 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 12 of 18 22 April 2010 at 2:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
There are many similarities between advanced Italian and advanced Spanish, too. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Mafouz Diglot Groupie Spain Joined 5325 days ago 56 posts - 64 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: German, Japanese, French | Message 13 of 18 30 April 2010 at 5:42am | IP Logged | |||||
The technical term is "Itañol" ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 14 of 18 30 April 2010 at 9:26am | IP Logged | |||||
I stand corrected :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| noriyuki_nomura Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5340 days ago 304 posts - 465 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, FrenchC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, SpanishB2, DutchB1 Studies: TurkishA1, Korean | Message 15 of 18 30 April 2010 at 10:52am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Personally, I think it is possible to learn both languages at the same time, though I think it would be wiser to concentrate on one language first to an intermediate level before embarking on the second one.
I did experience situations where I used the Spanish 'leche' instead of the Italian 'latte' in Italian conversations, for example. Btw, don't you guys find that many Spanish speakers tend to speak, well, at TGV speed? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 16 of 18 30 April 2010 at 12:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
Is there any other way? :-) 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
