Does Knowing Spanish Actually Help You Learn Other Romance Languages?
It all depends on how you use it
After four years of intensive Spanish study, both inside the walls of my high school and out in the world in my workplace, home, and abroad, I knew that my language appetite was not yet satisfied.
I was holding conversations, studying advanced grammar, reading literature from different time periods, and traveling to foreign countries utilizing my Spanish skills. I had excelled in high school, scoring perfect 5s in both AP Spanish IV and V tests (after having taken both courses at the same time with special permission from my Spanish teachers), and due to my workplace having a majority Spanish speaking roster of coworkers, my colloquial and conversational skills were in a good place. I even went on to earn an Associate’s degree in Spanish.
But, I had a feeling that there was much more to learn, and given the world that was opened up to me by the Spanish language, I was sure learning another would unlock an entirely new world. So, in what I thought was a choice made for convenience and ease of learning, I chose Portuguese.
I, of course, knew that Portuguese was its own language, but I assumed that it would be a breeze since I knew Spanish and they were purportedly so similar. While I did find many similarities, this attitude and assumption slowed me down greatly — but it didn’t have to. Because I could understand some Portuguese on TV with my Spanish base, I thought I could skip the fundamentals of the Portuguese language, and that was my fatal mistake.
However, I have now reached an intermediate level of Portuguese, and though it is still not perfect, I have honed in on my method and given my Portuguese study the dignity and stature it needed to take on a new life, not as an “easy” language to learn because of Spanish, but a beautiful and unique language that has introduced me to a new Lusophone world.
How Spanish Helped
Now, as many personal mistakes as I have made in my own journey towards picking up another Romance language, I have to give credit where credit is due.
Learning a second language greatly expands your mind and has immense cognitive benefits. With the experience of having picked up one language, I was way more confident and had much clearer direction going into the second.
Studying the basic grammatical structure that carries over to many Romance languages was a huge boost that accelerated my Portuguese learning. I already knew the patterns to look for and in many cases could predict the conjugation of a verb I was unfamiliar with due to my studies in Spanish.
I also do believe that with a little practice, I was quickly able to understand television in Portuguese because I understood Spanish. Granted, it was far from perfect, but while following along with a TV show I found myself recognizing much more than I would have without my strong Spanish base to build upon.
How Spanish Hurt
Now, I would necessarily say that Spanish hurt my Portuguese learning, but I would say that my strategy going into Portuguese was hurt because I had already learned Spanish.
I was overconfident. I underestimated Portuguese. And I thought that because I had learned a language before—and a similar language at that—that it wouldn’t take any real effort.
But learning any language takes real effort. Languages are difficult, they take persistence and years of dedication to master — and the journey of learning a language is never over, including in our native languages.
In this sense, I would say that my preconceptions and my assumptions because I knew Spanish did hinder my Portuguese learning process, but that is no fault of Spanish.
Conclusion
In fact, despite all of my own personal ups and downs, I would wager that it was a huge help being able to learn Portuguese after having studied Spanish. I have no doubt that if I hadn’t learned Spanish beforehand that I would still be in the beginner stages of Portuguese, struggling to make progress.
The act of learning a language builds resilience, it provides you with strategies that you can use to acquire more languages, it stretches your mind and makes room for new linguistic possibilities.
Now, I wouldn’t recommend learning Spanish for the sole purpose of helping you learn other languages. Start with a language you truly want to learn, as I did with Spanish, and it will equip you to pursue languages continuously. It will help open new worlds and give you the tools to open even more.
I am grateful to have had such unique and differing language journeys with Spanish and Portuguese, and I am excited to experience journeys that are more unique yet. In fact, I have begun my next language adventure with the Arabic language — learning a new writing system, new grammar, and a new sound palate. If you’re interested in following along while I take on this challenge and venture into unknown linguistic territory for me, subscribe to my Substack for weekly updates and resources as I tackle Arabic from scratch. I hope to see you there!
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