If you learn Italian then it is easy to learn Spanish, Portuguese and French

[Villa]

At one time at the height of the Roman Empire Latin was the same language spoken in Rome(Italy),
Spain, Portugal and France with just a little dialectical variations like how Spanish, Portuguese
and French vary from country to country now. So if you spoke the Latin of any one of these countries
you could go to any one of the other countries and be understood.(By the way this Latin language was
spoken in Spain for 840 years before it became Spanish.)

Consider this:

Italian has 82% similarity with Spanish.
Spanish has 75% similarity with French.
Spanish has 89% similarity with Portuguese.
Italian and French have 89% similarity (yet it
seems easier for an Italian speaker to learn Spanish
and course visa versa.)

So if you know Spanish it is easier to learn Italian first
an then French.
If you're an Italian speaker and learn Spanish it will then be
easier to learn Portuguese. Your Portuguese will then help
you learn French and visa versa.

Let's not forget Romanian and Catalan which are also Latin based languages.
If you know Italian then you can learn Romanian and Catalan piu facile./easier.

If on the other hand you are just a poor little old English only speaker you'll still be ok
because 60+% of English vocabulary comes from Latin. So you're going to be just fine
no matter what. Relax, take a deep breath. Speed limit 5 miles per hour.

Then you as an English speaker who learns Italian will be able to learn Spanish and
then Portuguese and then French or visa versa.

[Tartuffa]

Personally I find trying to keep more than one foreign language in my head particularly difficult. I studied French to a high standard at school, have a little Latin and I also speak basic German. Now I live in Italy I need and must concentrate on Italian and Italian alone. I have sectioned off that part of my brain now. I often refer back to a word's root if I am confused but I have no aspirations to be a polyglot and I'll be honest and say that I am often perplexed by these frequent references to learning Spanish and other languages here. Could these references (interesting to some I'm sure) not be confined to one section of the Forum?

[Villa]

Personally I find trying to keep more than one foreign language in my head particularly difficult. I studied French to a high standard at school, have a little Latin and I also speak basic German. Now I live in Italy I need and must concentrate on Italian and Italian alone. I have sectioned off that part of my brain now. I often refer back to a word's root if I am confused but I have no aspirations to be a polyglot and I'll be honest and say that I am often perplexed by these frequent references to learning Spanish and other languages here. Could these references (interesting to some I'm sure) not be confined to one section of the Forum?

Gee I'm thinking that it's so nice to know that learning Italian has it's value for many reasons and one of the good reasons is that if you learn Italian then you can learn any of the other Latin based languages. This knowledge is a real motivator for me. It makes me want to learn Italian all the more. Go ahead and learn your Italian first. Not saying study all the Latin based languages all at one time. It has always been stressed that learning Latin is good because you can then learn all the languages based in Latin which of course are Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, Romanian etc. etc. This is all very positive and very worth while knowing. I say it is better to study and learn one of the Latin based languages than it is to study just Latin. If for example you learning Italian first well then you have an actual language that is used and not a so called dead language that Latin is. On the other hand Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese are nothing more than the present state of Latin today.

[Tartuffa]

Sorry Villa - I agree that I may have missed your point however this Forum is called 'Life In Italy' is it not? Not called 'Life in lots of different countries where you may want to learn to speak Spanish or any other language for that matter'. No wish to offend in any way just not wanting to muddy any linguistic waters. I can see that you are a respected and prolific poster but aren't the majority of forum members here to learn Italian (and about Italy in general) ?

[Villa]

Sorry Villa - I agree that I may have missed your point however this
Forum is called 'Life In Italy' is it not? Not called 'Life in lots of different countries where you
may want to learn to speak Spanish or any other language for that matter'. No wish to offend
in any way just not wanting to muddy any linguistic waters. I can see that you are a respected
and prolific poster but aren't the majority of forum members here to learn Italian (and about
Italy in general) ?

I lived in Italy for two years and learned Italian. Came back to California and because I could speak
Italian I learned Spanish. Took 18 classes of Spanish, got my teaching credential in Spanish and my
master's degree in Spanish. All because I had learned Italian. My complete motivation to learn Spanish
was because I knew Italian. Went back to school in Italy and have been teaching Italian to mostly Spanish
speakers for the last 4 years.(I was able to mantain and learn Italian again because I spoke Spanish.)
At first as a mono-lingual English speaker living in Italy it was very frustrating trying to learn Italian.
After a solid week of studying Italian night and day 24/7 I could not even count to 10 in Italian. Could
not even remember Come si chiama Lei after saying it over and over again. Then I met this Mexican ragazzo
in Italy that spoke fluent Italian. I asked him what book, method or courses in Italian he had used. (I thought
he must have studied long and hard to learn to speak Italian like that.) What he told me I will never forget.
He said that when he got to Italy all he did was speak Spanish with an Italian accent and after about 3
weeks he was speaking Italian. 3 weeks!!!!! It took me as a mono-lingual very motivated English speaker
about 4 to 6 months to learn Italian. Compare 6 months to 3 weeks. My Mexican friend would always say
how much Italy reminded him of Mexico and his friends and family in Mexico. And sure enough when I went
to Mexico I saw everything he said was true. Spain was a Roman/Italian colony for 640 years and Latin the
language of the Romans was spoken it Spain for 840 years. Roman soldiers went to Spain and stayed.
Spanish/Romans went to Italy and stayed. The Greeks were in Spain and Italy. How different can the Italians
and all the other Latin based people be. Not much. It is very important to know this. It's very positive. I just
met a Greek guy the other day. He looked very Italian. The Greeks were in Italy for 100's of years. Italian and
Spanish are 20% Greek.(English is 15% Greek.) How can all of this not be part of Italian culture. I can't even
believe I have to argue about this.

[Villa]

While living in Italy I went to France two times. I liked France right away because it reminded me of Italy. I could communicate with the French people just using my Italian. Spain looks even more like Italy. Spain, France and Portugal are just extentions of Italy. Same basic culture and language.

Also when I was living in Italy people kept telling me how great Barcelona is and how similar it is to Italy. Sure enough it was. Catalan the language of Barcelona is even more similar to Italian than Spanish is. While studying Italian in Perugia I met this nice couple from Barcelona. I was speaking to them in Italian and forgot that they were not Italian speakers. I then asked them if they spoke Italian. They said no, but we understood everything you said.

The Spanish, Cubans, people from Argentina and other Hispanics use olive oil as much as Italians do. Could go on and on about this. The mother of Italy is not Italian. The father of Italy was born in a country that is no longer Italian. The queen of Belguim is Italian. Sounthern Italians are more Greek than Italian. What is the Italian culture after all but a big mixture of people and different cultures!

So I'm saying learn Italian for many many great reasons. If you learn Italian you have learned many cultures. How more positive can this be!!?

[lady4italy]

I think it is very encouraging what Villa has to say. It is amazing what the human brain can accomplish. I was in Mexico this winter for vacation and I only know a little bit of Spanish vocabulary. I have only been studying Italian for 1 month and I have already noticed some of the similarities between the two languages. It is really fascinating to me. I appreciate Villa's post and think it is appropriate under the culture section of the forum. I believe his post is just to encourage us to learn Italian, not to be so overwhelmed by studying it because, after all, Italian has so many similarities to other languages.

[Villa]

I think it is very encouraging what Villa has to say. It is amazing what the
human brain can accomplish. I was in Mexico this winter for vacation and I only know a little bit
of Spanish vocabulary. I have only been studying Italian for 1 month and I have already noticed
some of the similarities between the two languages. It is really fascinating to me. I appreciate
Villa's post and think it is appropriate under the culture section of the forum. I believe his post is
just to encourage us to learn Italian, not to be so overwhelmed by studying it because, after all,
Italian has so many similarities to other languages.

Esattamente, precisamente/exactly, precisely.

Assolutamente, certamente, effettivamente, naturalmente, senza dubbio, sicuramente, veramente, è vero.

Grazie tanto karoz.

[SymSam]

I think it is very encouraging what Villa has to say. It is amazing what the human brain can accomplish. I was in Mexico this winter for vacation and I only know a little bit of Spanish vocabulary. I have only been studying Italian for 1 month and I have already noticed some of the similarities between the two languages. It is really fascinating to me. I appreciate Villa's post and think it is appropriate under the culture section of the forum. I believe his post is just to encourage us to learn Italian, not to be so overwhelmed by studying it because, after all, Italian has so many similarities to other languages.

Besides that it´s not good to remain there with just two languages when you can learn them all! Considering the fact that they´re similar.