Italian vs Spanish

[jrgp]

Right, so I'd like to become sort of a linguist. I'm taking Latin next year, and already really like English. Italian and Spanish line both sides of my family, and I'd like to become comfortable with at least one.

Which should I learn first?

[a-4-year-old]

Spanish would be more useful in the world. Both are pretty much pointless to learn and neither will help you very much to get into college.

[excruciator]

Italian got 32 different verb tenses just for the indicativo.

I cannot speak for spanish because I don't know spanish, only Italian.

But I think spanish is easier.

Both are pretty much pointless to learn and neither will help you very much to get into college.

Typical English arrogance.

[iDante]

Italian is way more awesome.

Although (especially living if Florida afaik) spanish would be way more useful.

[xurich]

Italian because it seems rarer and thus cooler to know.

[jrgp]

Both are pretty much pointless to learn and neither will help you very much to get into college.

I don't care about using languages to help me get into college. I'm really not worried about that.

But yeah, I think knowing Italian and Spanish would be useful eventually, since my mom's planning on taking me on a tour of Europe for my high school graduation.

Italian because it seems rarer and thus cooler to know.

Def.

Although (especially living if Florida afaik) spanish would be way more useful.

Not necessarily. The people I associate with the most only know English, and those who do use Spanish regularly are usually equally fluent in English.

Typical English arrogance.

Well....yeah. I sometimes feel English is the best and most complex and coolest language ever because of all the different ways of saying the same thing...sort of like Perl.

[~Niko~]

Spanish. You will be able to get anywhere in Latin America and Spain in holidays.

Italiano looks ridiculous when you speak it, and I don't think it fits you.

However English beats all.

[MetsuriTossavainen]

Spanish and Italian is way too complicated for me. I'll stick with English

[croat1gamer]

Afaik, it should be identical.
I would suggest you to learn esperanto.

Also, spanish is better for communication, as there are much more spanish than italian speakers around the world.
But for speaking with italian people, other languages are often out of the question as they know s**t about other languages, those egoistic b*****ds.

btw. Where would the tour go?

[n00bface]

don't learn esperanto, it's for crazy people and die hard bahai-ullans.  spanish would definitely be easier because there's an overwhelming amount of resources for learning spanish.  however, italian is cooler and would be more likely to get you laid should you decide to use it as a sex card in a conversation with a beautiful woman.  knowing rare languages rocks dick.  you should see the attention i get when i pull out the icelandic card.

[MyiEye]

Spanish really isn't that hard, but I agree that Italian would be cooler...although probably less useful

[p0ppin]

jrgp I took Spanish for 5 years (3 of which I actually paid attention to the lessons ) and I must say it's not that difficult to pick up once you learn the major verbs and stuff.  There are TONS of cognates (words that are alike in both English and Spanish), and once you start taking Latin, that would probably help a lot with figuring out the rest.  There are a bunch of irregulars, but they fall into certain patterns that make them easier to conjugate (obtener (to obtain) has the same irregular conjugation rules as tener (to have)).

I'd love to have learned more languages in school, but my high school only offered 2.

[jrgp]

btw. Where would the tour go?

Primarily England; also Spain/Italy/France.

[croat1gamer]

No eastern, south eastern and northern european countries?

[jrgp]

No eastern, south eastern and northern european countries?

Honestly, I haven't really decided yet. The trip is two whole years away.

[iDante]

If you want a complicated language go with German. I've just looked at it a bit and you can do some strange stuff with word orders and cases and such.

[xurich]

I would think that German would be a bit easier than the others, seeing as German and English are both Germanic languages and share a lot of common attributes. Maybe a speaker of both could shed some light on its difficulty compared with other languages.

[croat1gamer]

Actually, he would be easier with italian, as the base for italian and english is latin.

[Dascoo]

I would think that German would be a bit easier than the others, seeing as German and English are both Germanic languages and share a lot of common attributes. Maybe a speaker of both could shed some light on its difficulty compared with other languages.

I know a few and they say the hardest part is pronunctiation. I would say French is the easiest to learn and speak.

[~Niko~]

Actually, he would be easier with italian, as the base for italian and english is latin.

Spanish is a vulgar version of latin, so it's also latin anyways.

Countries where you speak italian:


Countries where you speak spanish: