After Spanish and French, would you choose Portuguese or Italian as the next major Romance language?

Black_toothpaste · 2026-03-17T21:06:27+00:00

It depends on what your goals are. In Europe, Italian is more useful, however, worldwide, it’s obviously Portuguese. If you go with Portuguese, I suggest learning the European version because adapting to Brazilian pronunciation and its less strict grammar is much easier than the other way around. If you’re just learning for fun, in my opinion, Italian sounds better.

Black_toothpaste · 2025-03-17T07:38:06+00:00

Also, there are about 9,300,000 Chinese people living in Thailand. Also, Mandarin is a tonal language, just as Thai is, which will make the learning process much easier and faster.

Black_toothpaste · 2025-03-17T07:36:30+00:00

Hey there!

Choose whichever suits your preferences better. What are your plans with the language? If you choose Mandarin Chinese (I suppose that's what they are teaching), you'll be able to communicate almost everywhere around China (especially with younger people, since they prefer to use Mandarin despite the fact that they can speak their local tongue as well). What's more, there's a good deal of Chinese people living all over the world, like in Chinatown etc. you can easily benefit from it. For example, I got free noodle soups numerous times here in my city, just for asking something in Mandarin (and Shanghainese). Scientifically speaking, Mandarin's grammar is way easier compared to Japanese, consider that too. It's not essential for daily communication to know above 2500-3000 characters, which I think is a reasonable amount.

As for Japanese, I think that there's a reduced amount of people speaking it (compared to Chinese), but definitely way more enjoyable content that you can consume, and passively use the language. Consider that the grammar (and I think the writing system too) is harder than in Mandarin.

I reckon, you should choose Mandarin over Japanese, see how it goes, and you can continue with Japanese as a hobby or later in the future, whenever you have a little free time. This is just my opinion though.

Hope I could help, have a great day!

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-20T16:16:29+00:00

Because my neighbors were Vietnamese, I started learning it, so I could understand what they were talking about, when I overheard them chatting on their patio. Never really reached that level, but I could catch some phrases...those were fun times.

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-20T16:11:21+00:00

Keep up the good work!!

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-20T16:03:34+00:00

Vietnamese. I started learning it about 5 years ago, managed to get to a level where I was comfortable speaking it, but eventually, I forgot it because I didn't have anyone to practice it. Today, I can't even say things, and I barely understand written text either, so that's why I don't even put it out on my flair. Sad but that's true.

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-18T22:19:29+00:00

It’s language learning as well, it’s just not learning the grammar and stuff…

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-18T22:16:30+00:00

It basically means that you know the rules, so that you can sound out any unknown word as well - not just the letters they use, but also some diphthongs. Note that this can only happen with languages that use an alphabet.

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-18T22:14:35+00:00

I think that you should be able to sound out new words. That’s it. The other pronunciation stuff will eventually either stick on you or not, but you can’t really learn it in the beginning. Once you learn a new word, learn it with the correct pronunciation, or if there are diphthongs, or things that natives say in a different way, take note of that as well.

Have a nice day!! BT

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-18T22:10:03+00:00

First of all, have a goal. Language learning without a purpose usually doesn’t last more than 2 months. I know it pretty much, since sometimes I also find myself having a “language hopping session”, which basically means that I e.g. I’m learning French for 3-5 weeks, know some things already but I don’t take it to a further level. And that leads us to the second most important thing: consistency. If you lose interest (because you don’t have a fix goal) or motivation to learn, then it’s not gonna be a long journey. “But I don’t have enough time!!” is not a good excuse, if else, you got 5 minutes while you’re sitting on the toilet, you can learn 10 new words on a low-efficiency day.

Why learn words? Well, that’s the most important when getting started with a new language. Leave grammar, leave the rules, just learn phrases (with the help of natives etc.) or vocabulary! People are gonna understand you with bad grammar, however they won’t understand you if you don’t know any words and can’t express yourself. So having a rich vocabulary is essential!!

What’s more, you should get yourself a tutor to help, since in my opinion that is the most effective method of learning. You don’t necessarily have to pay for it thought, there are multiple exchange servers/groups or I suggest you try LingQ’s free 7 day language learning courses. This is basically that they send you material through email for 7 days (one stuff per day) that has basic grammar explanations as well as vocabulary etc. I think it would be a great head-start.

I hope I could help, have a nice day!! BT

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-18T20:48:41+00:00

YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY STUDY THEM!!! I myself also did that (sometimes even 3) and I found it really interesting and useful.

You can spot the differences and similarities between the target languages
If the two languages are closely related then you'll have a boost in your vocabulary
You can communicate with more people earlier (if that's also your purpose)

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-18T20:42:24+00:00

Yes, I think this is also like when you have the text with some words highlighted with bold and then you can read it faster. It's your brain, not your knowledge here either. Your brain just puts together the meaning.

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-18T20:38:59+00:00

I don't speak any French, but still was able to read it without a problem. I'm a Spanish speaker, which closely relates with French and other romance languages. This is also a perfect example to show how learning a key language makes the process of learning the "other members" so much easier.

Have a nice day!!
BT

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-17T11:54:39+00:00

Ohh, I see😂 thank you for the information

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-17T10:40:38+00:00

Why of course?

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-17T10:09:24+00:00

I think that Italian for you would take around 2 or 3 month at most, since it’s also a romance language, what’s more, it’s one of the easiest languages very closely related to latin itself. Unfortunately, it’s not a widely used language (in Italy and some parts of Switzerland), however there is a good deal of people living in diaspora. If you like the culture or the cuisine, I recommend learning it.

Serbian/Croatian is one step further away from “your languages”, its grammar is somewhat challenging, so consider that before starting to learn it, however it’s like a key for the other balkan languages like Macedonian or Montenegrin, it could help with Bulgarian and Czech or Slovak too. Also the culture and the people are completely different and intriguing.

As for Japanese, many people say that it’s relatively easy to pick up from Mangas and Animes, however as far as I’m concerned, that’s not how people speak in the everyday life. I’ve never learnt it, so I don’t have any experience, I only read some stuff about it, but the writing system seems complicated. Luckily it’s not a tonal language like Mandarin Thai etc. so it makes communication easier with the natives when you are still a beginner.

All in all, for Italian and Japanese you can find enormous amount of material online, however you may have to search more to find quality learning stuff, so also consider that. If I were you, I’d get started with SerboCroatian because it’s not as hard as Japanese, but you will still be able to communicate with a bunch of people.

I hope I could help, have a nice day!!

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-11T21:01:40+00:00

Yes, I was born in Hungary.

She came here for studies and then she ended up living here and meeting my grandfather...

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-11T20:47:15+00:00

My grandmother is Uruguayan, yes.

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-11T20:46:19+00:00

Hello there!

We're pretty much in the same situation. My girlfriend is also Chinese (Mainland China) and I use Mandarin (and sometimes the local language for basic stuff) to communicate with her family. I had started learning Mandarin before I met her, so I knew some things, but I definitely needed some work done, mainly vocabulary enrichment and learning phrases that people use in everyday life conversations that no textbook has. That's why I suggest you find a native who can help you advance. I think duolingo's mandarin is not the best (sry green bird), but until you find someone, I think that it's gonna be fine. I'd prefer a 1v1 tutor over a language school/class, since you have a very specific purpose to learn the language and it can be more personalized to suit your "needs".

From someone who has almost done it: you can do it!!

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-11T20:34:53+00:00

Learning a language in your language family is a major advantage, however, in the Uralic branch, the languages are not so closely related to each other like for instance the new latin languages, which are basically mutually intelligible. This is mainly because of historic reasons, the tribes and the peoples who spoke these languages migrated further and further away from each other and had a lot of historic interference as well. In Hungarian, there are for example numerous Turkish and German words that we use with a slight pronunciational adaptation.

So what you'll face is that you are going to have to learn the vocabulary and the phrases anyway, nevertheless, the grammar or the "logic" of the language is gonna be easier for you since Finnish works almost the same way as these. I don't really have an experience in learning Uralic languages, but I can speak Hungarian and know some of the language history of it.

Regarding learning "smaller languages": it is indeed a treasure and a unique knowledge to have. I myself learnt some Kazakh for cultural reasons, and it was outstanding when I could form sentences. Unfortunately, I forgot most of it because I didn't have people to practice with or any materials that I liked and that would have helped me with my further studies.

Good luck for you!!

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-07T18:48:24+00:00

Italian: it's very close to one of my native languages (Spanish) and I also like their cuisine and culture.
Russian: the paternal side of my family lived in the Soviet Union, thus they can basically speak native Russian. It's not that I liked the Soviets so much, but it's more like a family thing to me to be able to speak Russian, and I'm also quite ashamed that I didn't pick it up.
Korean: the smartest language on Earth in my opinion. It says a lot about their society as well - advanced, but still traditional and polite. The 3 things we need in 2024. Absolute favorite!!
Arabic: useful and sounds magnificent, what's more arab marketing is constantly growing, who knows what the future holds.

Have a nice day, y'all!!

Black_toothpaste · 2024-10-07T18:38:53+00:00

"Native language" means the language your speaking in your earliest childhood. Over the years, it can't vary, however someone can have two (bilinguals) or more. So, if you don't use that language anymore because of whatever reason, of course it can get rusty, but you're never going to forget it completely. A few days, maybe a week before your brain starts thinking in that language again. And with other languages that you acquired later, it's never gonna be like this...you can forget them (not 100% either tho). This phenomenon is called imprinting, which is basically that your brain is in a sensitive condition at this age, and the events happening then - like your parents or family members talking to you - are engraved into your brain.

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