Which language would you rather learn? Italian or Portuguese?

[jamestroll]

I have had an interesting language experience last year or so.

I have become 100% comfortable in Spanish.. partially due to having a beautiful latino boyfriend with brown skin, brown eyes, and black hair and always watching media in Spanish.

I wanted to learn a "hard" language and found Arabic the only realistic one due to having an alphabet and being phonetic. I was making great progress and in 2025 plan to study it intensely.

A plan to travel to Brasil came up for me this fall.. (my fall) so I put arabic back for a bit to attempt to learn some portuguese. It has been extremely difficult for me. Like really difficult. the similarity to Spanish DOES NOT help me.. and I should have known that before because the Spanish words that resemble english the most I always have the most trouble with. even today.

But I am getting better and with practice.. I am confident I will travel to Brasil just fine.

Portuguese has been a complete nightmare for me so far. Learning similar languages is not always easy.

Brazil is an incredible country.. preparing for it learning travel portuguese has been insanely tough for me.

No use in getting mad at myself though: I am extremely old and I am only going to get better not worse. And I do not need to be fluent in it.

[jamestroll]

Can we stop discussing anuses?

It shouldn’t be hard to communicate here for whoever has good knowledge of spanish. Some words here and there but in general it’s quite similar.

I met with an Argentinian colleague recently and we talked with each other in our own languages, understanding each other. It’s harsher on 1st contact, but once you get used to it’s easy to understand each other.

The bigger problem IMO is the pronunciation, because sound-wise it sounds very different even if most words at least resemble each other when written. I kinda always was able to read spanish better than hearing it even without interacting with it. But after my ears were trained (lived in Spain for a year), I can understand it quite well.

Talking in Spanish is still harsher for me because of this though.

PORTUGUESE

Bom dia, tudo bom? Quero ir a praia hoje, beber água de coco e sentir o mar gelado bater no meu tornozelo.

Depois, vou almoçar ao ar-livre de chinelos. Gosto de comer bacalhau ou outros frutos do mar como camarões; ostras ou lulas.

De noite devo curtir um cinema com os amigos, comendo pipoca e bebendo refrigerante. Não é uma boa ideia?

SPANISH

Buenos días, todo bien? Quiero ir a la playa hoy, beber agua de coco y sentir el frío del mar golpear mi tobillo.

Después almorzaré al ar libre en chancletas. Me gusta comer bacalao o otros frutos del mar como gambas; ostras o calamares.

Por la noche debería disfrutar de una película con amigos, comiendo palomitas y bebiendo refrescos. No es una buena idea?

yes, my biggest problem is pronunciation even if written vocabulary is very easy for me. But apparently, I am getting better.

I was given this feedback

Tivemos uma ótima aula! Jaime evolui muito bem no português e mostra uma compreensão incrível. Trabalhamos a pronúncia dos sons de LH , R e NH e seu desempenho foi muito bom, com um pouco mais de prática será perfeito!