[Nom_De_Guerre]

I’ve been studying Portuguese for the last few months, with the idea of going to Brazil for a few months and really mastering it. I’m near fluent in Spanish, to the point that I can convince girls that it is my first language (for short periods of time). I spend usually about an hour a day listening to tapes, or reading. My Portuguese is ok, I read extremely well because it is so close to Spanish, and I can communicate on a basic level. But I don’t have anyone to practice regularly, so it’s not going to get great until I go to Brazil. At my level, pulling a high quality Minera or Carioca that only speaks Portuguese would be very, very difficult.

However, I recently got a gig in Madrid, Spain and I will be moving there in the Fall. I’ll be there for a few years, so Brazil probably isn’t in the cards for the foreseeable future. My question is whether it would make sense to spend the next few months, and then the next few years, learning French. French would open up girls all over Europe, and parts of Northern Africa like Morocco and Lebanon.

The problem, of course, is French is really hard. English is my first language, so even though I’m near fluent in Spanish, it is from working my ass off for years to get there. I’ve learned it as an adult, and all bullshit aside, learning a foreign language as an adult is a challenge. You have to be enormously committed and be willing to sound like an idiot for a long time, until it really pays off. The payoff is big, but it’s at the end of a very long road. I think it might just be too difficult to learn both languages, while working, going to the gym, trying to bang Spanish chicks, etc. I’m all about challenges, but they have to be reasonable as well. Also, I see myself long term in Latin America, as opposed to Europe.

Any thoughts or insights? Has anybody done anything similar?

Random thoughts on Madrid would also be appreciated.

[Deb Auchery]

Well based on your long term aspirations of living in S America, then ot does not make sense to learn French.

You already speak Spanish so should be able to understand some French anyway I presume?, certainly enough for pantie removal.

I would think that Spanish is.more widely spoken in Europe than French.

Not sure its worth learning a language just to bang in Morocco and Lebanon unless you had long term plans there.

Stick to Portuguese in my opinion.

[Tigre]

Other RVF posters have reported good results using LiveMocha for language exchange (use forum search).

Brazilian Portuguese uses lots of localized words and slang. You can get part of the way using Latin-based Portuguese. Like, the same root words as in Spanish. Then there's a further learning curve to understand Brazilians speaking, because so many of their phrases don't conform to that.

I'd say stick with Portuguese for now.

Use your vacation to spend time in Brazil, a few weeks every year. It's a direct and affordable flight from Madrid. You will want to escape Madrid's winters anyway, so do it in a place that has gorgeous weather at that time of year.

If you could only reach intermediate level in either Portuguese or French, choose Portuguese. While French speakers find it hard to listen to French unless it's spoken flawlessly, Brazilians will be impressed you learned their native language up to a conversational standard.

[Nom_De_Guerre]

Thanks for the replies. What about learning Portuguese in Portugal? While Brazil is just a plant ride from Madrid, Lisbon is just a train ride. I'm only hesitant because I dated a Brazilian girl and she said Portuguese from Portugal is almost an entirely different language from Brazilian Portuguese, because Brazilian Portuguese has so many idiomatic expressions. While I learned Spanish is Latin America, I have no problem understanding Peninsular Spanish. Is Portuguese really that different? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[Amsterdao!]

(05-28-2012 12:13 PM)Nom_De_Guerre Wrote:  

Thanks for the replies. What about learning Portuguese in Portugal? While Brazil is just a plant ride from Madrid, Lisbon is just a train ride. I'm only hesitant because I dated a Brazilian girl and she said Portuguese from Portugal is almost an entirely different language from Brazilian Portuguese, because Brazilian Portuguese has so many idiomatic expressions. While I learned Spanish is Latin America, I have no problem understanding Peninsular Spanish. Is Portuguese really that different? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

stick to portuguese and don't worry about the small differences between original portuguese and brazilian...most important of all is you can do your approaches in fluent portuguese.

[qazwsx]

(05-28-2012 12:13 PM)Nom_De_Guerre Wrote:  

Thanks for the replies. What about learning Portuguese in Portugal? While Brazil is just a plant ride from Madrid, Lisbon is just a train ride. I'm only hesitant because I dated a Brazilian girl and she said Portuguese from Portugal is almost an entirely different language from Brazilian Portuguese, because Brazilian Portuguese has so many idiomatic expressions. While I learned Spanish is Latin America, I have no problem understanding Peninsular Spanish. Is Portuguese really that different? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I'm Portuguese. The differences are mainly in the accent. Brazilian people speak as if they had sugar in mouth. Open vowels. It's a more tropical thing. Portuguese people speak in a kind of more neutral accent in vowels.

Other significant difference is the words which end with an "L" like "Brasil", "mal", "Portugal" "sol", "Miguel", etc. Portuguese say it as it's written, but Brazilians say change the "L" sound by an "U", so in the examples above Brazilian say it as "Brásiú" ("-iew" sound), "máu" (like "Mao"), "Portugau", "sóu" and "Miguéu" (Mi-g-e-w).

For most foreigners it's easier to learn with the Brazilian accent. For Portuguese people is really easy to pick Brazilian accent, but most Brazilians are not used to the accent, so at first they feel a little confused.

But I'd say if you are able to speak well with the Portuguese accent it will be even more easy to catch and understand whatever Brazilians say and you will get a so hard train that you are able to recognize and speak all the accents of all regions of Portugal and Brazil, and Africa (Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé).

[YoungGunner]

I have a friend who speaks both, but learned french before portuguese. He said he was glad he learned it in that order rather than the other way around, but then again he didn't know spanish like you do. Personally, from looking at the grammar of both languages, I would say learn french first since its more complex and portuguese will be comparatively easier. Plus, some of the interrogatives, sentence structures, adverbs and such will have equivalents in both languages. Also, I would stick to Brazilian Portuguese since you seem to be more interested in Brazil

[Timoteo]

I always thought that French was a more practical language to learn, as opposed to Portuguese (I'd like to also learn both). I belong to Gilt Groupe, a shopping site, and they also have a partner site called Gilt City, that offers classes for reduced prices. Their latest offer is for a beginning Portuguese course at a language school called Brazil Station. This is what they offer:

•A 10-week Basic Beginner Level One Portuguese language course for the English speaker or Spanish and/or Italian speaker
•Classes meet once or twice a week (depending on selection) for 90 minutes
•Focuses on building fluency in Portuguese grammar and verb tenses

•Special classes for native Spanish and Italian speakers take into account that those fluent in Romance languages learn Portuguese faster, and in different ways.

So, according to the teachers at this school, if you already know one of the other romance languages, Portuguese is easier to learn. Though they don't mention French, my guess is that it would still be the case. Since you're going to be in the Mediterranean for a while, French might be the more practical move for you.

[Mrs. Chocolate]

Em português a gente faz biquinho é pra beijar, não pra conversar! hahaha vem pro português você também.

[xmlenigma]

(05-26-2012 01:21 PM)Nom_De_Guerre Wrote:  

I’ve been studying Portuguese for the last few months, with the idea of going to Brazil for a few months and really mastering it. I’m near fluent in Spanish, to the point that I can convince girls that it is my first language (for short periods of time). I spend usually about an hour a day listening to tapes, or reading. My Portuguese is ok, I read extremely well because it is so close to Spanish, and I can communicate on a basic level. But I don’t have anyone to practice regularly, so it’s not going to get great until I go to Brazil. At my level, pulling a high quality Minera or Carioca that only speaks Portuguese would be very, very difficult.

However, I recently got a gig in Madrid, Spain and I will be moving there in the Fall. I’ll be there for a few years, so Brazil probably isn’t in the cards for the foreseeable future. My question is whether it would make sense to spend the next few months, and then the next few years, learning French. French would open up girls all over Europe, and parts of Northern Africa like Morocco and Lebanon.

The problem, of course, is French is really hard. English is my first language, so even though I’m near fluent in Spanish, it is from working my ass off for years to get there. I’ve learned it as an adult, and all bullshit aside, learning a foreign language as an adult is a challenge. You have to be enormously committed and be willing to sound like an idiot for a long time, until it really pays off. The payoff is big, but it’s at the end of a very long road. I think it might just be too difficult to learn both languages, while working, going to the gym, trying to bang Spanish chicks, etc. I’m all about challenges, but they have to be reasonable as well. Also, I see myself long term in Latin America, as opposed to Europe.

Any thoughts or insights? Has anybody done anything similar?

Random thoughts on Madrid would also be appreciated.

What kind of work/ job/ gig have you got in Madrid? I'd like to target Madrid as well.

[Brosemite]

Unless you're in the fashion industry (useful for France) or have good professional prospects in Quebec, I'd stick to Portuguese as that, Russian, and Spanish are in the top 10 of most commonly spoken ones in the world not to mention are the most prominent business languages now too. At least in the case of Russian/Portuguese, those are also classified as languages in critical demand as commonly spoken ones yet with very few avenues to learn them. Other languages in critical demand these days are Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, etc.

They used to say Americans that studied Political Science and French throughout high school/college in the 70s through 90s would have great professional prospects in life, but that's something that has totally changed in the 2000s as my friends going that route are screwed as I'd say the languages in critical demand will improve your job prospects exponentially moreso aforementioned above. It's almost near impossible for a fluent American French speaker to find work in France nowadays unless they marry a gal/dude there while waiting 7 years to get citizenship. I personally think French speaking women in France/Quebec are really hot, but it's a language that doesn't really open doors like it did in the past.

As for Portuguese, I recommend you go the Brazilian route first. Buy the book Ponto de Encontro along with the workbook off Amazon.com. I'm 28 now, but I started taking Spanish & Portuguese classes only 2 years ago as my Portuguese is exponentially better than my Spanish. It should be easier because the verb conjugations/grammar in Portuguese are way more efficient as well. Flights from say Madrid to Rio/Sao Paulo are also very common too if you want that extra practice too (I'd pick Brazilian Portuguese over European Pt btw)

Boa sorte com tudo!