Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

Two similar languages, is it a bad idea?

 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center Post Reply
primosanchez
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 6290 days ago

32 posts - 32 votes
Speaks: English*, Spanish

 
 Message 1 of 7
30 December 2015 at 2:16pm | IP Logged 
what would you recommend as a method to maintain some ability in one while focusing
mostly on the other?

I learned Spanish growing up. Never became truly fluent but could have non-advanced
conversations no problem. I since married someone who speaks Portuguese and then
started focusing mostly on that language.

Now my Portuguese is decent, still not as good as my Spanish used to be but I can have
somewhat normal conversations.

However, we're now moving to a Spanish speaking country so I need to get back to
Spanish. I tried having a conversation the other day and I still retained most of it,
but I spoke much slower and Portuguese words snuck in here and there.

Long story short, I need to get my Spanish to a good level (preferably low level
advanced) but definitely want to still be able to speak Portuguese with my wife.

Bad idea? Sure, but what technique do you think would help the most? Keep them
separated, study Spanish on my own and still talk to my wife in Portuguese? Spanish 5
days a week, Portuguese 2?

Appreciate any ideas

Edited by Fasulye on 19 January 2016 at 9:39pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6581 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 2 of 7
30 December 2015 at 2:33pm | IP Logged 
See this wikia article.

You need to learn to switch between them, so don't artificially keep them separate. Be sure to watch movies or other stuff in Portuguese with your wife. Make sure she understands it's important for you not to speak Portuñol (she probably won't correct you much if at all).

If you have any interest in linguistics, learning more about how Spanish and Portuguese developed from Latin should help. I really like the book "Spanish vocabulary: an etymological approach" which has a lot of examples from Portuguese too.
4 persons have voted this message useful



primosanchez
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 6290 days ago

32 posts - 32 votes
Speaks: English*, Spanish

 
 Message 3 of 7
04 January 2016 at 12:20pm | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
See
this
wikia article.


You need to learn to switch between them, so don't artificially keep them separate. Be
sure to watch movies or other stuff in Portuguese with your wife. Make sure she
understands it's important for you not to speak Portuñol (she probably won't correct
you much if at all).

If you have any interest in linguistics, learning more about how Spanish and
Portuguese developed from Latin should help. I really like the book "Spanish
vocabulary: an etymological approach" which has a lot of examples from Portuguese too.


Thanks for the link. I feel like I need to keep them artificially separated in order
to not mix words, but we'll see.
1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6581 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 4 of 7
04 January 2016 at 2:29pm | IP Logged 
By artificial I mostly meant separating by the day of the week, which limits your chances to practise them. It's fine to associate them with different colours, places or whatever if you don't overdo it. Much like with mnemonics, these associations should eventually just create your Spanish or Portuguese "feeling".
1 person has voted this message useful



Expugnator
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 5150 days ago

3335 posts - 4349 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento
Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian

 
 Message 5 of 7
05 January 2016 at 12:57pm | IP Logged 
Try writing some short texts/paragraphs about the same subjects (it can be yourself, daily life) in both languages alternately. You can start once with Spanish and then write Portuguese, next time start with Portuguese to avoid one language influencing the other all the time.
2 persons have voted this message useful



hulk___smash
Newbie
United Kingdom
fsi-language-courses
Joined 3257 days ago

2 posts - 5 votes
Speaks: Portuguese

 
 Message 6 of 7
05 January 2016 at 5:04pm | IP Logged 
I learnt Brazilian Portuguese after living in Brazil for two years. I've been in
Medellin, Colombia for 6 months now and i'm still having problems separating the
languages.

However, while learning Spanish, I make sure to practice Portuguese with a tutor once
a week here in Colombia. Its a real mental strain to switch between the two languages,
but constant practice is making this easier.

I don't have any real problems remembering what words belong to what language. It's
just a case of Portuguese words slipping into Spanish conversations. I recognize the
error, acknowledge it and move on.

Practice with both languages at the same time is a must. Its getting easier and
easier, the fact that its hard to do, I see as a good thing...i'm learning.
1 person has voted this message useful



Medulin
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Croatia
Joined 4652 days ago

1199 posts - 2192 votes 
Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali

 
 Message 7 of 7
06 January 2016 at 1:31pm | IP Logged 
Basically, you need good Pt-Sp dictionaries like this one:


http://tinyurl.com/dicbrptsp

It is a small dictionary to learn from (and not exactly a reference dictionary to look up words from),
with a strong focus on differences and false friends between Spanish and Portuguese.

Edited by Medulin on 06 January 2016 at 1:35pm



2 persons have voted this message useful



If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register


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 0.2500 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.