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I think if your first language is English, French is easier. Lots of English words have the exact same spelling/meaning as their French counterparts (though pronunciation is different.) In many cases, once you have expanded your French vocabulary you can guess what a French word means in English when you hear it.
They are both useful in different ways depending on what you intend on using them for.
Yes this is another dilemna. English has alot of french words, while spanish has alot of similarities with portuguese. But it seems, spanish is more similar to portuguese, than english is to french. English is, in essence, a germanic language while french is a romance language. Spanish and portuguese are closely related up to west iberian language family. While french branches off after the gallo-iberian language family(two language families before from the west iberian languages.)
I studied Portuguese for 3 semesters. Spanish helps out a ton, but it can also make it confusing. I think it's impossible to learn Spanish & Portuguese at the same time without confusing them. But if you already have a full grasp of Spanish before you learn Portuguese then it wont be a problem.
Between Portugal, Brazil and former Portuguese African colonies who's economies are growing fast (Angola and Mozambique) I think Portuguese might be the wiser choice - especially in the the future. Depends on where your focus is going to be - if I were going to stay in the Americas I'd choose Portuguese for sure. Europe and much of West Africa - French.
Spanish, Italian and Portuguese are intelligible and if someone is fluent in any of them learning the other will be a piece of cake; however France is leading (alongside Germany) the EU , also if you are interested in European history , philosophy or culture, French is really helpful (France had a vast influence in Western Europe, in almost every aspect), also there is a culture factor , I love the intellectual approach of Frenchs, like their magazines "Manieres de Voir", “Le Nouvel observateur" or their debates on radio and tv; furthermore,there are master doing films and everything that its “Je ne sais quoi”, which made it almost irresistible; finally, if you speak English you actually speak a little French, around 30% of vocabulary in English has French roots (because the Norman Invasion which made UK being part of France for 3 centuries)
I speak Portuguese and would definitely recommend learning it for a few reasons
1. Over 200 Million people speak it
2. Brazil will continue to have business opportunities in the future. It's the leader of South America.
3. Brazilian culture is great. It's a wonderful vacation or even a place to live despite what they show on the news.
I will agree with those who say it's easy to mix up Spanish & Portuguese. I visited Uruguay last year and made an attempt to speak some Spanish...and then when I went back to Sao Paulo (where I was living), I kept on mixing up words for like a week.
I say French. Structurally it has some elements of English and Spanish, though it's more akin to Spanish. For example both French and Spanish have the formal tense which doesn't exist in English. However the pronunciation is soooo different from both and English and Spanish so be prepared for that. That said, it's a beautiful, classy language that is still used in many parts of the world.
Portuguese is (in my opinion) is easier than french but a bit harder than spanish. The most useful out of all of them is probably french because there is a large francophone population in Africa, Canada, and parts of South America. But because Brazil is an up and coming financial power and who knows maybe one day Portuguese will replace English as the "Lingua Franca" of the world.....
1. If you already know Spanish, Portuguese is MUCH easier to learn. They share a common core vocabulary of about 90%. So, just learning the phonetics of Portuguese will get you well into the language. However, because the two are so close it is easy to rely on Spanish to *fill* your Portuguese when speaking. Sometimes this leads to errors. It's just one of the traps.
2. French is also important, but not so much in the Americas. If you know you will be working with Brazilians...
3. In Miami, I would say the following languages are important (in order, from most to least): English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French). But, again, it would all depend on the particular job.
4. Personally, I really identify with French. But that is because I grew up in a bilingual French-Canadian-immigrant-descended community in central Maine and lived in Quebec. I also speak Portuguese and love the sound of it (both the Brazilian and European versions).
French isn't that hard. I made A's in it. Unfortunately I don't remember much since I've never used it.
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