So I am planning to take any of the following language course. Which do you think is easiest to learn?
* French
* Italian
* German
* Spanish
* Portuguese
* Russian

I feel great affinity with Spanish because some of the words used in Filipino, my native language came from Spanish and I read some (and understand little) Spanish gender differences, but cannot speak it nicely. I am considering to take German too, well, I don't know why but I think German words and their spelling are great though difficult to pronounce and write. Russian is good too, but I guess I have to learn Cyrillic, apart from learning the language... French is good too, but I am not after the perfection of pronunciation. After all, my English diction isn't that great, so I am not expecting to be good in French.

This language doesn't do anything to my degree. It won't affect my grade, never be credited for my curriculum. I am taking it only for fun, and extra knowledge of foreign culture.

i have always been really interested in speaking other languages. over the years i have tried..
-Arabic
-Russian
-Romanian
-french
-German
-Greek
i am learning Spanish in school already, but i think its kind of boring now that i have been forced by the school to take Spanish since i was in kindergarten. i had some trouble pronouncing the french words, but i know simple sentences.

The other language where i actually learned something German, because the pronunciation was really easy, and lots of the words were from the English language, or at least similar to.

i have trouble learning languages that don't use the letters/signs that English speaking ppl do. that is why i had trouble learning Arabic, Russian and Greek.

So I would like to know what language besides Spanish you think is the easiest that you have learned.

I can't roll my R's for the life of me but I really want to learn Spanish, I understand that it has a pronunciation thing built into it and you have to be able to pronounce things in order to continue but I just want to learn spoken Spanish will I be able to progress without rolling my r's

I don't want to write it like Ari-el because it isn't. It's with a long elle like in Danielle. How can I write it's pronunciation in a way a spanish speaking person would understand it?

I live in south Texas and everybody knows that the majority of the people living here are LATINOS (including myself) and that's great BUT I want to perfect my pronunciation. I know it sounds dumb but even if I speak Spanish and the cashier speaks spanish isn't it better if we speak english? ex if i go to a fast food place and i order something in english they reply to me in spanish..WHY???
Do I sound that stupid speaking english?
do they feel that i need special latino treatment? I like speaking the language of this country soooo why do they ALWAYS reply to me in spanish?

I'm half mexican but was brought up to only speak english. I have always wanted to learn but can only speak "spanglish". I can sometimes understand bits and pieces enough to understand somewhat what they are saying but I would love to learn to speak fluently or fairly well at least. I have been told my pronunciation sounds very natural. I am looking for something that makes it simple, fast and fun to learn. Maybe something that uses a scientific approach on how the brain learns quickly. Like a spanish "hooked on phonics" for adults. lol.
Please help
thanks

Jason

I want to find something that I can listen to... SpanishDict has flashcards to learn spanish from spain... its shows the flashcard and there is an audio bit that says the word, ex: llegar-to arrive. I want to find something similar with audio that would say "shay-gar" using the Rio de la plate pronunciation instead of the Catalian pronunciation.

it's very hard and confusing.. but not too confusing cause some words are familiar with me and have the same pronunciation here in our nation.. but I like spanish words.. but what should I do to understand them well?

I took several Spanish classes in college.
I got pronunciation down and a good bit of grammar understandings.

I have a hard time thinking quickly enough to process Spanish words --> English words --> meaning.

I have to plan out individual Spanish sentences before I say them. If somebody talks slowly enough in Spanish I can understand them after a few tries.

I learn new words rather quickly. I learn ~ 25-40 new Spanish words a day.

Basically need to immerse myself. I am in college though. I want to be as close to fluent as possible before I start medical school in 6 Months.

I was thinking (since I watch a lot of TV) I could just get the TV shows dubbed to Spanish with English subtitles, but I can't figure out how to do that.

Any other suggestions? I try to listen to Spanish music when I am walking around campus. It's hard to find actual recordings of talk shows in Spanish. Even with that, I think it would be hard for me to apply it without actually being able to quickly figure out what is said (IE with Spanish TV show dubbed with English subtitles).

Any suggestions?

I heard about spanish is hard to learn, and more about memorize the different meanings of our words in spanish, like GET ( it may mean: pescar, cazar, atraer, traer, empujar... and thousands of words.
And dont speak about the pronunciation. Teachers always bothered us with that all.
So, what is your opinion? Any remark about mine?

I figured I should try to explore new languages. Unless I get a real oddball language or one where the writing system does not accurately describe pronunciation I should be able to go with my plan.
I have a language plan and I want to try to see how quickly I can reach basic fluency in a language.
The problem is; I'm indecisive.
So:
Nothing real oddball; I doubt I can learn a crazy South American or African language like !Xoõ or something.
Something with a good writing system-pronunciation correlation; I don't mean it has to be simple, I'll even accept character languages, I just mean nothing where a small variation where the alphabet doesn't even tell you will change the meaning. I don't even mean tones; I mean something where I have to listen to every single word for a pronunciation so I can get bulk amounts of Vocab from a dictionary.
Don't say French or Spanish; I got those already. I have some very simple knowledge in a lot of languages, not basic fluency yet though so I'll accept those.

I took a few years of spanish in HS and got pretty good at it. Now in college I am considering taking either german or french. Regarding french, is it pretty simple to learn if you already know a good deal of spanish since its a romance language? How about the pronunciation, will that be hard or manageable?

If it matters, I am fluent in Russian as well.
I should add, I am not fluent in spanish, I just took it a few years so I am comfortable with it.

I'm taking French next semester. I know Spanish pretty well.

How hard will it be to learn? I've heard many differing opinions on this, some say the pronunciation will alone make it harder but others say the common ground with Spanish grammar as Latin languages will make it easier.

I just want some websites that enable me to learn Spanish - sites for first time learners . I would love it if there are websites for learning Spanish with pronunciation.

Hey so I don't really like the sound of Spanish, I think it is too "working class" or something
but I consider it as one of the most important language now! and It is C"O.O"L!

I speak 3 languages fluently (2 native and 1 Advanced)
I'm a young linguist I'm still 17 y.o
I'm now learning:
a. French (at a local Alliances Français in my town, Intermediate level and with various e/Books + Rosetta Stone and other Softwares )
b. other Germanic languages (Swedish, Norwegian and Dutch) = e/books/softwares

I have a lot of time to learn any languages I want........
I think Spanish is easier than French (especially in term of Pronunciation)
but I'm more attracted to Catalan :S

Should I learn Spanish or not? cuz I don't live in the Americas..... and I don't have any plan moving there either... I'm going to study in France so basically I'm going to spend all my live in Europe...
so is learning Spanish worth for me? cuz My head is already full of Dutch, French, Swedish and Norwegian vocabularies! ::::

German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian ?
@Don Verto

Linguist, umm I mean like mmm I'm learning about the languages' structures, not learning how to speak to the native speakers....
@Leanada sorry I didn't mean to offend anyone, Spanish sounds really fast and ummm probably like Cockney accent in London I like Spanish song, but don't really like when someone starts to talk in this language hehe

I have been studying Spanish on my own now for about four years and it is by far the language that I use most often. However, I am very interested in South American cultures, including that of Brazil, and I would like to learn Portuguese. However, I have heard that learning Portuguese can ruin your ability to speak Spanish beyond repair, like that you will ever be confused by grammar and pronunciation. Has anyone here attempted this or experienced it? Thank you!

If a Spanish person talks his own language to a Portuguese person who also talks to his own language would they understand each other. Some of their words are very much alike but different in pronunciation. So is it possible?

I'm trying to learn Spanish, but have so far failed. I am looking for a language learning software that is easy to understand, is effective, teaches pronunciation, and teaches you how to read write. I've seen customer reviews for Rosseta Stone and Pimsleur and i'm not sure if those two would be good, or worth the money. I also understand that learning a language takes time and patience and not from just computer programs, but i'm desperate for an effective program. I do know some of the baisics but need a lot more practice and learning. Please help!

I'm in the process of learning Spanish and there's
one thing that confuses me and that's
the pronunciation of en serio,I've
been watching Spanish soaps
and heard people of both sexes
pronounce it both as en-SERio
and en-SEERio,Does that mean
one can pronounce it either way?
That's the impression i got.
Thank you all,Much appreciated!
Wow those replies were quick!

Hello!
Well, I am mexican and I always have wondered that. You may know that spanish has different pronunciations, in Spain the 's', 'z' and 'c' aren't pronounced in the same way, in Mexico they do.

So, do you learn spanish with mexican pronunciation?

Thank you!!!

I am Mexican-American and I know both Spanish and English fluently.
I am going towards medicine and would ike to learn another language.
I have been considering these three: Italian, Portuguese, French
I do not know which one to choose.
Portuguese is most similar to Spanish in lexico but Italian is similar in pronunciation.
French is most known but more difficult.
I am stuck in a dilemma, pllease help! I will give lots of points to anyone that can help me.

I'm talking about people who are English speakers but can speak spanish fluently and with good pronunciation. I was wondering if we have an accent when speaking spanish and if its annoying?

pronunciation wise that is. For me (an English speaker trying to learn Spanish, it is definately rolling my r's)

I would like to learn Spanish. I used to know elementry Spanish when I was younger (mediocre public school) but have stopped and thus forgot most. I'm studious (I've skipped 2 grades in the past year), my IQ is 128-154, depending on which test and how old I was while taking it (anything over 140 is considered "genius", anything over 115 is considered "gifted" anything over 130 is considered "brilliant", in scientific terms), and I'm good with vocabulary and memorizing words (my current workload for preparing for the SAT verbal is about 30-40 new vocabulary words a week and I'm doing great). I have an open schedule to study (I would be studying at home with CD Roms and language programs, etc., and could handle about 1-2 hours of Spanish instruction a day, but would rather keep it under 1 hour) and my mother is fluent in Spanish so she could assist me w/ pronunciation, etc. How long do you think it would take me to learn Spanish with all of the above taken into careful consideration?

I have never talked to a teacher about anything except grades and tests and stuff like that. But I have been feeling really sad for a few month now, because while I love spanish class and I am doing pretty well in it, I feel like I have a huge problem - pronunciation/understanding. It is even worse that English is my 3rd language, so I have a horrible, ugly, heavy Russian accent, and I talk very fast in Russian so that doesn't contribute to good pronunciation - people understand me, and I have no accent, but I could ideally speak much more clearly. And now, Spanish, the only class i ever spoke in(because we speak in Spanish and no one has to hear my ugly English), the class I loved so much.But now my classmates understand people who have worse Spanish that I do, but don't understand me... It literally makes me cry. I want to talk to my Spanish teacher about it and what I can do and why that happens etc, but I don't know if I should? I mean, she is a good teacher, and seems to be a nice person, but I don't know if it is her job... any thoughts?
i wasn´t going to cry... i mean it´´s more of a language problem than anything else really

I feel awkward when speaking with friends and the one teacher I was practicing my Spanish with is retiring. Any ideas on how to keep up with my pronunciation and such?

Do you have to leave spaces in between or what? I need the spellings not the actual pronunciation. Here are the numbers:

132
428
554
504
608
195
963

I am interested in studying Romance languages, I studied French 4 or 5 years and I can understand it in general but I can't speak it because I find the pronunciation very difficult. I started studying Italian 2 months ago and it is going well but some people tell me that I should stop and study Spanish instead of it because it is easier and much more useful than Italian. Is it true?

I find it difficult to learn Spanish and I been trying to but the pronunciation and how to say it always gets me and I been trying to learn Italian and that's hard to. What can I do help me better get the hang of it to speak fluently. Which is what I want to achieve. Just seems like English is easier to learn for other people but maybe just because I'm used to English it seems easy. Some say its hard to learn because we tend to spell words but pronounce differently then how its spelled unlike Spanish its pronounced how it is spelled. Am I on the right path and it a book, audio or online course better to learn or should I take a class somewhere?