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Usefulness: Spanish vs Portuguese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| K2n Newbie United States Joined 4503 days ago 5 posts - 7 votes | Message 1 of 34 25 January 2012 at 7:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi all,
What do you think would be a more useful language for an American to learn in the future: Spanish or Portuguese? I know this is really a Brazil vs the rest of Latin America debate; it just seems to me that Brazil is the country with the most to offer and yet still the most potential for growth into a major economic center 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Voodie Tetraglot Newbie Russian Federation Joined 4600 days ago 17 posts - 40 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, GermanC1, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Written), Greek | Message 2 of 34 25 January 2012 at 7:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm sure Brazil can become one of the world's centers in future.
But it is not the only country in the region that is developing so rapidly. The whole Latin American market is growing. And Spanish will give you access to many countries at the same time, so it would probably be a safer investment, if we put it in terms of business. If you are determined to deal with Latin America, it would be a good idea to learn both. But still I would start with Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Acut Tetraglot Groupie Brazil Joined 4496 days ago 53 posts - 101 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish, French | Message 3 of 34 26 January 2012 at 12:01am | IP Logged | ||
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Unless you have some special interest in mineral resources (manganese, iron and the like), agriculture or cattle, choose Spanish. It is more widely spoken and will make a eventual transition to Portuguese easier.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mad Max Tetraglot Groupie Spain Joined 4847 days ago 79 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Spanish*, French, English, Russian Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 4 of 34 26 January 2012 at 12:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, Spanish is spoken by 50 million people in USA, and Spanish speakers will be 135
million in 2050 in the United States. Spanish is official language in NAFTA (North America), official in European Union, and the lingua franca of Latin America (UNASUR). It is very spoken and studied in these areas: it is the first or second language of some 500 million people, more spoken than English (500 million of potential customers). Besides, it is official in African Union, CARICOM (Caribbean), Central American Common Market (Central America) and Antarctic Treatry (Antarctica). It is not official in APEC (Asia-Pacific), but Chinese and Spanish are promoted in this organization. So, Spanish is becoming a World lingua franca, like English. The business language between a Brazilian and a French can be Spanish, or between an American from Miami and an Italian, or between a Portuguese and a Moroccan, etc. It is also official in United Nations and the World Trade Organization. Spanish is compulsory subject in the school system of Brazil (190 million people) and it will be also compulsory in the Philippines (100 million people). It is also very studied in the United States, the European Union, Morocco or Australia. Finally, Spanish will be the World most spoken language by 2045 (more than Chinese), according to several reports (10% of the World population), perhaps more. Anyway, Portuguese will be also an important language in the near future. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Chevalier Diglot Groupie Brazil Joined 4503 days ago 53 posts - 104 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English | Message 5 of 34 26 January 2012 at 2:18am | IP Logged | ||
Because we have Spanish at school doesn't mean we (190 million people) will be able to speak it. If I ask my friends - those who have studied Spanish at school - no one of them can actually speak it well. We all know one can't learn a language just by going to school, and it's the same with English. Those who have learnt English to a conversational level studied in English courses or by themselves. We go for English when we think about international business, Spanish is the second option if one already speaks English or isn't good at it. If you already speak English you should go for Spanish first. It has more native speakers and also a huge community in the US. Learning Portuguese after that won't be an issue. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| FireViN Diglot Senior Member Brazil missaoitaliano.wordpRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5025 days ago 196 posts - 292 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2 Studies: Italian | Message 6 of 34 26 January 2012 at 2:51am | IP Logged | ||
Well, Spanish is optional for the students. It is compulsory for the school to offer this subject, only in high school, and it's 'being implanted' since 2005, but I'm not aware of any public school offering Spanish in my city. Brazil has a population of 190 million people, but only 8.3 million students in high school (2010). Actually, that surprised me a bit, I thought this number would be higher, but my data comes from the Brazilian gov. website. Anyway, 86% of these students were at public schools, and the majority of public schools won't offer Spanish, even if it's 'compulsory'. That's just the school system, of course, but I'm sure there are many people learning Spanish outside school in Brazil (like myself), but it would be hard to estimate a number of 'possible speakers'. Regarding the main subject, I think it would be more useful to learn Spanish if you aren't planning on coming to Brazil. It's a very big language in the US, as Mad Max pointed, and certainly more important than portuguese internationally today. If you become interested in Portuguese, after Spanish learning it will be way easier. Sorry if I went a bit off-topic, just wanted to clear it out. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Rajsinhasan Diglot Newbie Joined 4494 days ago 24 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English*, Creole (English) Studies: Portuguese | Message 7 of 34 26 January 2012 at 7:12am | IP Logged | ||
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I would definitely say that Spanish is overall a bit more useful but not by any wide margin at all. Anyway, Spanish and Portuguese are the fastest growing of the European languages along with English so I'd say you couldn't go wrong with either one. Besides, if everyone is learning Spanish, who'll be left to take advantage of the economic and business opportunities that Brazil has to offer along with the other Portuguese speaking nations like Angola? But personally, I'm learning Portuguese just for enjoyment of what the culture itself has to offer and I'm inclined to go against the grain in this case.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6393 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 8 of 34 26 January 2012 at 9:05am | IP Logged | ||
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Pure usefulness won't get you very far.
If anyone who's reading this happens to like Portuguese but keeps hearing Spanish is more useful - go ahead and learn Portuguese. Even if it's less useful, it's still one of the most useful languages to learn, one of the languages with most speakers. If you want to learn Portuguese but force yourself to learn Spanish instead, chances are you'll fail. 11 persons have voted this message useful |
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