is it true that if you study Spanish you would have no difficulty studying Italian?

Question

i am thinking of studying Italian as well after Spanish... is it a good idea that i finish Spanish first and then Italian or the other way around?

i already started Spanish, so... i am having this kind of dilemma.

Answer 1

Well, I can't say for certain that YOU or any other individual will be able to pick up Italian with 'no difficulty' after studying Spanish. It always depends on the person how difficult learning a language will be.

I can, however, say that it definitely helps a lot to already know one of these languages if you are going to learn the other (more so than going from Spanish to, say, French). In other words, after you learn one it becomes unarguably easier (but not necessary "effortless"... it always takes work to learn a new language well) to learn the other.

I studied in Spain at the Univerisy of Granada, and most foreign students that were taking classes along with the native speakers had studied Spanish intensively for at least 3 years. I knew some Italian students, however, who had only taken one or two quarters of Spanish and were now taking college-level science lecture courses where they had to compete with native students. They were able to function well in Spain, and I was able to talk with them about practically anything (though they occasionaly had to pull out a dictionary because they had some trouble guessing Spanish words that are very different from the Italian forms, such as 'more' .... in Italian: piu, in Spanish: más). Spanish and Italian are not so similar that those same students would have been able to get by easily in an essay-writing class, but as you can see they didn't have to study anywhere near as much as German, French, and English students had to in order to have virtual fluency.

Understanding Italian after achieving fluency in Spanish is not very difficult. However, being able to "speak" (as apposed to just understand) may be more difficult. I have heard from Spanish students that it is slightly more difficult for a Spanish student to learn Italian than for an Italian student to learn Spanish. This is because of the differences in grammar. Italian has, among other things, a different way of forming plurals and many forms of the words 'of' (di, de, della, etc.).

If you are already in a Spanish course, I suggest you stick with Spanish and move on to Italian next. Even though it may be easier to move from Italain to Spanish, that doesn't mean that Italian grammar will be any easier because you start it first. In fact, the difficulty of the grammar (which is also very different from English grammar) may not seem like such an obstacle if you already know Spanish and thus are able to understand much of the vocabulary.

I have never taken an Italian course before, but I was surprised by how much Italian I was able to understand when I visited Italy. It was fun to read signs and guess what they said. I even bought a Donald Duck comic book and was able to follow along fairly well. I also acted as unofficial "translator-of-italian-cartoon-shows" for my little sister, who speaks neither Spanish nor Italian. It was not as easy to guess what was being said and what was written in France, or any other country I visited (well, it would have been had I gone to Portugal), so I can definitely say that Italian would be easier for me, as a Spanish-speaker, to learn than many other European languages. It is amusing to me Spanish and Italian are so close that it was actually true that if I just spoke very slowly and loudly (and repeated several times) I would often be understood by store clerks that said they spoke no Spanish. This amused me very much, as there is no language that I know of that is so closely related to English that this would be possible. My German friends tell me that Dutch is similarly easy for Germans to understand, but German(though related to English) is certainly not so close that English speakers can understand most of it when it is spoken slowly!

In summary, the languages are closely related enough that it is easier to learn one once you have learned the other (regardless of the order). The grammar of Italian makes it somewhat challenging for foreigners (both Spanish and English speaking) to learn, but it will probably be equally hard for you to master this part of the language whether you begin now or later. If you already started Spanish, I feel that it is best for you to continue with it first because 1) There is not a strong enough case for their to be more "overall" effort exerted if you go from Spanish to Italian and, 2) If you live in the U.S. it is more likely to be ultimately the more useful of the two languages to you in your daily life (in case for some reason such as money or time you become limited to only being able to learn one)... Though you can probably tell I am a little biased since I majored in Spanish...

Anyway, sorry for such a long answer, but I hope that this has helped you.

PS: I am not trying to imply that Italian is "very hard". Every language has something that seems unnecessarily difficult. For Japanese, there are counters that you must memorize when counting objects of different shapes. Sometimes I want to just ask "Why can't I count everything just using the same numbers like we do in English?!" For Spanish, the subjunctive is really hard for me to get right. It is harder for some Spanish people to learn Italian grammar than it is for Italians to learn Spanish plurals because Italians have a complicated system for making plurals that does not exist in Spanish. I hope that I have managed to explain why it is the case that Italians have an easier time of learning Spanish than Spanish do of Italian, yet it is still the case that you would not necessarrily be saving time to learn Italian first.

Answer 2

Personally, I would wait until you are fluent in Spanish before you even think about learning Italian. I studied Spanish a bit at school and at evening classes afterwards and then tried to learn Italian. There are a lot of similarities and I just found that I got totally confused. I had more of an affinity for Spanish, though, so I just kept the Italian to useful phrases for holidays etc.

Answer 3

Spanish and Italian are totally different. The grammar, the pronunciation, the vocabulary. Worst, if you rely too much on your Spanish knowledge, you will start confusing Italian with Spanish word. Believe me, the best thing is to approach Italian neutrally, as if you've never learnt Spanish. Don't assume one thing leads to another.

I'm telling you because of experience. I speak Spanish myself, and I went info French. After several years (yes years) i found it better to forget Spanish... pronunciation is a nightmare, expressions do not mean the same when translated, and then there are the genres. Something that's masculine in French turns out to be feminine in Spanish or viceversa.

To convince yourself, just ask a native of Madrid to tune into Italian radio, let's say the RAI network. He well understand 20-30% of what he's listening (at the most).

Answer 4

If you want to learn 2 languages and have a faster learning of the second one try Portuguese after you have learned Spanish it is easier than Italian and has a lot of similar words, in fact in Mexican television when interviewing a Portuguese speaker ( Brazilian ) they don´t bother to translate, you can make out most of the words and Portuguese speakers don't´bother to ask for a translation when asked in Spanish, then learn Italian.

Answer 5

Well, Italian is very similar to Spanish, but Spanish would probably be better for first

Answer 6

No, that's not true.

There are many similarities, and spanish will give you a good basis to learn from.

But you are by no means guarenteed an easy time of it.

If you started spanish, then go with that. That's the sort of thing where you should follow through. After all, what good is half a language? Not much. Not nearly as much as a whole language, certainly.

Answer 7

Like French, they are essentially based on latin, but in fact it will be very confusing to learn spanish and italian at the same time, unless you have completely mastered one beforehand. Trust me, I'm from Italian and Spanish origin and I speak French fluently, and although many words and roots are indeed similar, I find it very difficult to switch from one to the other.

Answer 8

Italian is very similar to spanish, so if you know spanish it will make learning italian a lot easier.

Answer 9

No, it is not. I'm taking Italian lessons now and I find it relaxing and fun to learn but Spanish is my first language and that makes it even easier although that's not always true. A volte le silimitudine fra l'italiano e lo spagnolo fanno le cose più complicate, parole come salire e subire che non significano salir ne subir nello spagnolo :S English grammar is easier most of the times but English phonology is not. I guess pronunciation and listening were the hardest part of learning English for me.

Answer 10

it all depends on how well you pick up languages. yes spanish and italian are very similar but there are also a lot of differences. i would suggest starting out with spanish though.

Answer 11

i know nothing of italian but i am a spanish speaker and some words i've heard from movies are very similar and u wont have much problems with the pronounciation