Learning Spanish and Italian at once

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nidnogg
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Learning Spanish and Italian at once

Postby nidnogg » Mon Jan 16, 2023 11:59 am

Hi all! I'm getting back to language learning as I've recently started putting down more concrete plans to travel and eventually settle down overseas. I'm currently based in Brazil and I wanted to explore a good bunch of Spanish countries for a long while, so learning Spanish was a only a matter of time.

However I've found out this year that I might be eligible for Italian citizenship, and that country has also been very much in my sights. Hence the question in the title - due to how close these two languages are, I figure they might either be a great combination or a very confusing one, and any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Has anyone gone down a similar path?
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Iversen
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Re: Learning Spanish and Italian at once

Postby Iversen » Mon Jan 16, 2023 12:35 pm

In the early 60s I studied the two languages in parallel, based on two textbooks written by the same couple of authors - but without any audio at all (the internet didn't exist yet). So I arrived in Milan on my first interrail trip an early misty morning around 6 o'clock with very limited listening experiences, but could communicate at a very basic level from day one. And a few years later I went to Spain for the first time with almost as little practical experience and found it equally easy to communicate. So yes, it must be possible to study the two language in parallel - been there, done that...

The point is to build a separate identity for each one as early as possible, and one way of doing that is to study them on alternate days, another is to use systematic methods to learn the essentials - which means: don't rely on passive input alone. Build up a decent vocabulary and learn some grammar at an early stage. If you don't have the tools to separate the two languages then unordered input will just delay the day you can use them without mixing them up. You can speed up your reading skills by using bilingual text snippets and your listening skills by listening repeatedly to short audio passages whose meaning you know. As for Portuguese - if you have picked that up during your stay in Brazil then it will help you in an indirect way, but maybe you shouldn't work to intensively on that language (nor French) while you are a beginner in Spanish AND Italian. Learning two new languages from scratch is already a serious challenge..
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Re: Learning Spanish and Italian at once

Postby leosmith » Sat Jan 21, 2023 12:39 pm

nidnogg wrote:Has anyone gone down a similar path?
You are a native romance language speaker, so that will limit your number of responders, and I don't qualify to advise you, so take this with a grain of salt. I think, as The Offspring say, you gotta keep 'em separated (or was that Wonderbra?). The good news is, it should only be a matter of months of moderate effort in your case.
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Re: Learning Spanish and Italian at once

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Sat Jan 21, 2023 2:52 pm

nidnogg wrote:However I've found out this year that I might be eligible for Italian citizenship, and that country has also been very much in my sights. Hence the question in the title - due to how close these two languages are, I figure they might either be a great combination or a very confusing one, and any tips would be greatly appreciated.


From How fast can you learn a related language?

jeff_lindqvist wrote:[...]the old HTLAL thread Slavic Language Family Learning Sequence. In the very last post, Theodisce says:
Theodisce wrote:If I was to draw a conclusion, I would say that 100 hours of listening to a language is a solid foundation upon which to build your knowledge, provided you already have a decent command of a Slavic language.

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Ar an seastán oíche: Oileán an Órchiste
Duolingo - finished trees: sp/ga/de/fr/pt/it
Finnish with extra pain : 100 / 100

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