Portuguese

bump

Have you applied already?

I was thinking about doing an ab initio degree in Portuguese alongside Spanish (which I'm doing for A level). I do French so I do have some other experience when it comes to languages but I thought Portuguese would come in handy due to Brazil becoming an important economy. So can someone answer a few questions please?

1) How hard is Portuguese?
2) How different are Brazilian and European Portuguese?
3) Would French be more beneficial than Portuguese?

Thanks

1) Podes entender isso? Sim? Não? With any previous experience in a Romance, it's not going to be that hard. Just the pronunciation will get you. It's less Spanish than you think, and some of the things follow Occitan rules rather than Spanish. Still, it's easier than Romanian (which you should be able to get the gist of, but will definitely need a dictionary thanks to it being more Baltic-influenced in its morphology...)

2) Brazilian is easier to follow, because the accent is clearer. That's about it. It's like the opposite of Castellano and Lat. Am. Spanish -- same language, a few differences here and there, but, oddly, the New World is much easier to listen to than the Old World language. Still, as said: Youtube it, and you'll see...or hear.

3) Neither really. The Francophonie is much bigger than the Lusophone world, but Brazil is slowly becoming a bit of a 'rising power'. I think, despite the French hegemony in terms of European political language, nobody really cares about Quebec or the African countries within the Francophonie (since it'll be a long time before they reach the same stage as Brazil) -- it's a total coin toss: take French and blend into the crowd; or take Portuguese and limit your scope slightly...

Then again, I do Italian and Catalan...so it's not like my range isn't limited. Just follow your heart -- that's all you can ever do with languages. Learn what you want to; not what you feel you should...