Hablar lenguas
Cual es a lengua más fácil de aprender se tu es hispanohablante?
4 Answers
I am not a native Spanish speaker. I knew some Latin and spoke reasonable French when I stared learning Spanish. I found there were clear links between Spanish and French. In fact years later I can often remember the French word rather than the Spanish word. Romance languages must be easier to learn as they have the same root. I used to work with someone from Estoril who had a good ear for languages. She spoke fluent Spanish [but was not complementary about Spaniards] and good English. For a while a group of us would meet in the evenings for supper and a Portuguese lesson. I found I could work it out when it was written down, but the pronunciation was completely different. I had a friend who moved to Brazil and know Brazilian Portuguese is different again.
My Aunt had a degree in French and spent time living in Italy and became fluent in Italian. She could understand my Spanish books when I was at school. I remember our teacher telling us not to learn Italian until we were sure of our Spanish.
I had a Spanish teacher who spoke fluent Italian, but his first language was Catalan and that is heavily influenced by Italian.
I remember recently one of our class did a presentation about Buenos Aires and there was a strong Italian influence. Her daughter has lived there for many years, teaching. Of course the Pope is from Argentina but with strong Italian roots.
Finally one of my teachers, from Madrid had a wife whose parents were originally from Romania and our current teacher from Madrid has said here is a large population of Romanians in Madrid who have no trouble making themselves understood.
In essence I assume Italian and Portuguese are the easiest to learn. I know Romanians find Spanish easy but I do not know if it is reciprocal.
I would say either Italian or Portuguese. I believe these are the closest to Spanish. If they speak slow enough I can communicate with them even though I have never studied these languages. The fact that there are many Italians in Argentina may affect my opinion because my ear is accustomed to their language.
The most used word for "language" is "idioma".
Hablo idioma español.
El señor habla cinco idiomas.
In linguistics and others we use "idioma" and also "lenguaje". Not so common in everyday language.
The word "lengua" is "tongue" (the one in your mouth) and as a very unusual way of saying "language" like in the expression "lengua materna" or mother tongue.
As for "hablar lenguas" or "hablar en lenguas" is an expression used for what people in "churches" or the like do when they , in a trance, begin to speak in languages they don't even know etc. They are like mediums.
I agree with the majority that Italian and Portuguese are probably the easiest to understand for a native Spanish speaker. I am a native American English speaker. Years ago when I was studying Spanish (before the internet), I used a subscription to the Spanish edition of Readers' Digest and a short wave radio receiver. That is when I wasn't in class. I would listen to Radio Havana and VOA (Voice of America). VOA would broadcast in different languages at different times. I was to the point that I could understand 40-50% of the spoken word. Sometimes when I tuned in, my comprehension took a dive. I thought to myself, "What kind of Spanish is this?". That's when I learned that I was listening to a Portuguese broadcast.
