Learning Spanish After French

Ace   Mon Sep 29, 2008 5:10 am GMT
After getting pretty fluent in French, how long do you think it would take someone to get pretty good in Spanish? Anyone actually did this before?
Guest   Mon Sep 29, 2008 12:40 pm GMT
I'm sure people have done this before. I suppose it would take a good while to become fluent in Spanish.
Ace   Mon Sep 29, 2008 4:59 pm GMT
I meant anyone on this board ever done this before. I've always heard Spanish is a bit easier than French so that's why I'm wondering if the time to get fluent in Spanish would be quicker if French is learned first.
Guest   Mon Sep 29, 2008 8:42 pm GMT
not a bit, but a lot :)
E1Ler   Mon Sep 29, 2008 8:50 pm GMT
All things considered, I don't think Spanish is easier than French -- I'd say they are about the same difficulty for an E1Ler. I studied French first (but didn't learn all that much, in terms of fluency), and then studied Spanish later (and still didn't learn all that much).

If you learn French first, it gives you a head start with Spanish, but there's still a whole lot to learn.
Ace   Mon Sep 29, 2008 9:20 pm GMT
<<If you learn French first, it gives you a head start with Spanish, but there's still a whole lot to learn.>>

Perhaps learning them simultaneously would be a better option? It'd be tricky since they're both so similar in vocabulary and maybe grammar.
Guest   Sat Oct 04, 2008 11:38 pm GMT
learning italian and spanish at the same time will definitely kill you.
K. T.   Sun Oct 05, 2008 5:02 pm GMT
If you know French very well, it won't be hard to learn Spanish or even Italian. You'll need to remember to watch where you place the stress on cognates (like "difficult" which has different stress in French and Spanish), be careful with accents on common words like the second person singular "you" which has an accent in Spanish, but not in French and which has a different "u" sound as well, so that you won't speak French-sounding Spanish.

In short, enjoy the similarities and watch for the differences.

_____________________________________________

Learning Italian and Spanish at the same time will not kill anyone, but I wouldn't advise learning them concurrently all the same. Learn one of them very well first.
Simon   Tue Oct 14, 2008 12:35 am GMT
Thanks for the advice.
Bob   Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:07 am GMT
I would say that Spanish is marginally easier for a total beginner to learn, because its spelling is more phonetic than that of French. But its grammar is every bit as challenging (some say even moreso). But anyway, if you've already received a high level of proficiency in French, learning Spanish shouldn't be all that difficult. It will not take as long as it took you to learn French, as you now have experience with a Romance language.
ex-Guest   Wed Oct 22, 2008 1:04 am GMT
Аll Indo-European languages are roughly the same difficulty if you want to speak it well. If you're going to be learning for 3213 days to learn French, or 3430 to learn Spanish, or whatever, that extra little bit is not going to make much of a difference in the scheme of things.
Bob   Wed Oct 22, 2008 1:13 am GMT
Oh, I agree with that. I mean that during the first few months when you're exposed to the language, Spanish might seem slightly easier because it is more phonetic. After a few months, when you've gotten some familiarity with the sounds of the language, there's not much difference.
Terence   Tue Nov 04, 2008 12:23 pm GMT
Visit http://completespanish.blogspot.com there are spanish lessons there, so go ahead and visit it
Rick   Thu Nov 20, 2008 6:59 am GMT
I agree
US user   Thu Nov 20, 2008 9:00 am GMT
I'd study Spanish first. When you are really fluent in this language, you can choose between French or Portuguese.

Portuguese is more spoken than French and more important in the future. Spanish and Portuguese are very similar and to study some Portuguese will be easier than French.

Spanish and Portuguese (both together) will be spoken by over 1 billion in 2050.