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Learning PORTUGUESE from SPANISH-- anybody done this?

Has any native English speakers been able to do this and keep the Spanish strong and separate from the Portuguese?

As I'm planning on moving to Brazil next year, I'm currently learning Portuguese after 5 years pretty fluent with Spanish (Mexico, Colombia), and I kind of sense that while the Spanish is a great base for learning Portuguese, it's easy to get them confused and diminish or even lose my Spanish. Obviously, I would like to cultivate a strong level of Spanish and learn Portuguese very well.

Anybody on this site already gone through this? Any suggestions on how to minimize the damage to my Spanish and keep them separated in my mind? Thanks.

By justonio on Oct 27, 2009, 18:25 in Brazil forum.

diobahn says on Oct 27, 2009, 19:53:

Yes, I went thru the exact same thing, 'cept I tried to learn both at the same time. At first, I tried to make portugés follow the same rules as español...........I already had a jumpstart with español---had two semesters under my belt. I had to consciously convince myself that ne'er the twain should meet............then it was a lot easier. I must admit that I asked a lot more questions trying to understand the differences, but it was fun, and I prolly learned more by knowing what questions to ask. You won't lose your Spanish, you will understand and appreciate it all the more.

Boa sorte!!

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tropicalshirt says on Oct 28, 2009, 10:08:

listen to bossa nova and learn the words.

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miami55 says on Nov 17, 2009, 07:55:

Its not really like that, its just more of a matter that when i dont know something in portguese i throw spanish in my sentences instead of putting an english word in. I have an easy time switching through the languages without a problem, and they sound very different when speaking!!

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treedoc says on Mar 13, 2010, 17:56:

Yes, good point! They are close enuff to confuse the brain (especially mine) I was a pretty fluent Spanish speaker when I went to Brazil and I can tell u the first few daze were just that, a daze. Mesmerized by Rio, the women and baffled by the language which I thought would be a breeze with my Spanish......took me awhile and some books and help and no small effort but I started getting finally and by the time I left Brazil I was dealin fairly well.....U start to get the hang of it, mejor/meljour, siempre/simpre, mas/mais........but it does google the braincells.......plus, lots of educated Brazilenos who speak either English and/or Spanish.....especially in the south......I had one multi lingual Brazilian tell me in Puerto Seguro Bahia, that Spanish was nothing more than badly spoken Portuguese, jajajajaja.......maybe its vice versa...

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