I go through varying periods of interest in Language Learning. Right now, I am in MAX mode, pretty much all of my free time can be spent language learning. I am a native English speaker and I'd like to think that I am somewhere near fluent in Spanish, somewhere above intermediate, at least. I have also been taking French classes for a while now. But, I was wondering what you all thought about the prospect of a fourth language. I'm thinking it will either be Italien or Portuguese but I'm having trouble choosing. I have a feeling Italien would be easy to pronounce and read and write. However, Portuguese looks like it has nearly identical vocabulary to Spanish, but also, an insane orthography and a few vowels I cannot distinguish, let alone produce. I'd like to know what you guys think about this and also on the actual possibility of learning a third second language.

Oh yeah, the Portuguese would most definitely be European. I haven't been able to find much on the mutual intelligibility of the two types.

Also, this language does not depend on usefulness, number of speakers, or things like that. Fun, and the possibility of new people are the main reasons for this one.

Oops! In the first post, I wrote Italian as Italien both times. Maybe this isn't such a great idea!

Hi dtp883!
I can give you advice about italian becouse I'm actually, italian.
First thing: italian is difficult. It has loads of irregular verbs, and they don't follow any kind of patterns. Looking at the attempts to speak in italian by english speakers, I think this is the biggest difficulty. Even spanish has many irregular verbs, but not quite as many as italian has.
Also, spanish and italian vocabulary is really really similar. I mean, if you speak italian in Spain, almost everybody understands the basic meaning of what you are saying without effort.
Now, spending a words or two in favour of my language:
I love the way italian sounds. Maybe is just because I listen to it all day, but italian poetry seems to me the most beautiful. Way better than spanish or french And we have opera! I can't imagine what it's like listening to opera and don't get what it says (even if sometimes it's hard to understand everything even for me... xD).
If you are really so much into language learning, italian could be a good choice. And after having learnt spanish and italian, learning latin will be a breeze for you!

Bye,
Jarhead.

As far as I can tell, it's the same as it is for other plurilocal languages with established American varieties like English, French, and Spanish. At least I've never heard a Brazilian tell me they couldn't understand Europeans or vice-versa.


For me, it was easy: I love Brazilian music but don't really care for Italian. So I learned enough Portuguese to understand the lyrics of the songs I loved. I keep meaning to learn enough Italian to read some Italian literature, but somehow it never ends up happening.