Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

Romance language family learning sequence

 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
23 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3  Next >>
FuroraCeltica
Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 6824 days ago

1187 posts - 1427 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, French

 
 Message 1 of 23
16 March 2006 at 2:51pm | IP Logged 
Hi. I'm currently involved in studying Spanish, and have been managing 3 or 4 forty minute sessions per day, which I'm finding massively enjoyable and effective. I have no plans to start learning any more for the forseeable future until I feel secure in my Spanish. Howeber, I have one eye on a future romance language after Spanish. I'm torn between Italian and Portuguese, though I must admit French has also enterred my thoughts.

Your ideas and/or recommendations?
1 person has voted this message useful



kiwi
Diglot
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 6799 days ago

15 posts - 15 votes
1 sounds
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin

 
 Message 2 of 23
16 March 2006 at 2:58pm | IP Logged 
In terms of difficulty, you have started with the "easiest" of the romance languages. It really depends what you want to do with your language. If you want to learn a language that is going to be very useful then french is the way to go. Portugese may be a little to simple if you have a sound knowledge in Spanish as they are very alike. I would go for French as it seems to be the most useful and most widely spoken of the rest of the Romance family. Italian is the language of the arts, history and religion. Unless you have any real desire to look into these topics then French is probably your best bet. I am learning French at the moment and had - almost - the same problem as you; I was trying to decide between Italian and Spanish. I chose Spanish as this would mean I would be able to speak the 3 most influential languages in the world.
1 person has voted this message useful



Sir Nigel
Senior Member
United States
Joined 7063 days ago

1126 posts - 1102 votes 
2 sounds

 
 Message 3 of 23
16 March 2006 at 5:07pm | IP Logged 
Portuguese would be the closest match and most natural language to learn next, however you should make the choice based on which language will serve you the best.

If you do take up French, I will say, based on personal experience that the closeness to Spanish sometimes appears to be nonexistent. At least with Italian you get closer sounding vowels and it has a sane writing system, somewhat on level with Spanish.
1 person has voted this message useful



jtmc18
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 7204 days ago

119 posts - 140 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish

 
 Message 4 of 23
16 March 2006 at 5:15pm | IP Logged 
I am in a similar situation. My Spanish is progessing quite well and I am wondering which language to start next. I am leaning towards Portuguese, given its similarites with Spanish and the fact that it is fast becoming a major world language (if I'm not mistaken, there are more speakers of Portuguese than either French or Italian).

If I were in Europe, however, I would probably agree that French is the most useful of the lot. I have studied it a little and, as far as I can tell, it is much different from Spanish than either Portuguese or Italian.

As for Portuguese being too simple for a Spanish-speaker, I see this as an asset that encourages me all the more to study it. I can practically read it as it is, although I don't yet understand the spoken form. Why not pick it up and then continue with French?

1 person has voted this message useful



luke
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 7164 days ago

3133 posts - 4351 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Esperanto, French

 
 Message 5 of 23
16 March 2006 at 5:33pm | IP Logged 
Ardaschir wrote:
French
Spanish
Latin
Italian
Catalan
Portuguese
Occitan
Romanian

There is a very interesting thread with the same name, "Romance language learning sequence". The whole thread is great, and Ardaschir's megaposts may give you some insight.

My plan is to get Spanish down very well before I study another romance language.
1 person has voted this message useful



Frisco
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6815 days ago

380 posts - 398 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Norwegian, Italian, Turkish, Mandarin

 
 Message 6 of 23
16 March 2006 at 10:48pm | IP Logged 
Here's how I've done it:

Spanish - Portuguese - Italian - French

I think I picked the right sequence. Portuguese came almost effortlessly after Spanish. Italian has more devations from the previous two, but once you get those down and move to French you've discovered that French often behaves in the same way.

I may take on Romanian some time in the future, too. Unfortunately, the Romanians don't seem to be too eager to share their language judging from the serious lack of materials.

I would say if you're looking for a heavier change in pronunciation, try Portuguese. If you're looking for a heavier change in grammar, try Italian. If you want both, go with French.
3 persons have voted this message useful



sapedro
Triglot
Senior Member
Portugal
descredito.blogspot.
Joined 7077 days ago

216 posts - 219 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, English, French
Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Greek

 
 Message 7 of 23
17 March 2006 at 5:43am | IP Logged 
Written Portuguese is easy for those who speak Spanish, but speaking it correctly is far more difficult.
1 person has voted this message useful



patuco
Diglot
Moderator
Gibraltar
Joined 6974 days ago

3795 posts - 4268 votes 
Speaks: Spanish, English*
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 8 of 23
17 March 2006 at 6:07am | IP Logged 
I agree with Frisco, except that since I had already studied French in school, I did it before Italian.


1 person has voted this message useful



This discussion contains 23 messages over 3 pages: 2 3  Next >>


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.3594 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.