Learning two languages at once

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I am posing a question for anyone out there who has an answer. I have to take Spanish for my college courses, but I am also trying to learn Portuguese on the side. Because they are similar languages (or at least seem to be, so far), it isn't too hard for me to pick up both of them at once. However, in the long run, do you think that this will hinder me? And for those of you who have gone through something like this before, will I glean the same ability out of this?

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fatamorgana7 profile picture fatamorgana7July 2013

I've noticed in the past few years that spanish people that attempt to learn italian always make the same little mistakes, for example, with words that are similar, as they go for the spanish 'version'. Or the accent is never perfect, even though they know italian very well/talk fast. In my experience, you won't be affected by this though, if you pay attention to the differences and don't get confused. I speak and write in italian perfectly (always lived in Italy), and started learning french in middle school - at first I did help myself with italian, as they are close and have many similar words, etc. But after you learn a bit, you must not 'translate' from one language to the other, because even though they are similar, they probably work differently. And I think it's a similar thing with spanish and portuguese. Don't worry, you will do fine, just remember the differences. My answer is all messed up haha, I hope you understand what I mean though! Good luck. :)