Should I learn Portuguese or Spanish, and why?

Spanish is a very widely spoken language in multiple countries. Both are great languages, but I vote for Spanish as it is more commonly spoken.

Spanish of course, unless there is a very specific reason you might learn Portuguese. An industry you want to work in that is mostly out of Brazil or Portugal for instance.

I’m pretty sure over 50% of the worlds population speaks Spanish. But, I might be remembering the statisic incorrectly.

Spanish is the more widely found of the two.

I’ve heard that there will be a big demand for Portuguese because Brazil is a very rapidly growing force in the world economy, and far fewer people speak Portuguese.

The only reason to learn Portuguese is if you plan on spending large amounts of time in either Brazil or Portugal – and that doesn’t include Rio, as damn near every large tourist area in the world is full of people who learned English.

¡el español, por supuesto!

Spanish. It is one of the most widely spoken langauges in the world. Knowing it would allow you to communicate in most countries in north and south america, and Spain. It would be very easy to find good teachers since the language is so common, and you will already have a wide variety of music, tv, and general culture even in the US to immerse yourself with.

Unless you really love Brazil or Portugual, or see yourself doing business there a lot, Spanish just seems like the more practical choice. But once you’ve become fluent in spanish, picking up other romance langauges (like portuguese) won’t be as difficult as it would be right now to you.

I find Portuguese to be more appealing because it reminds me a lot of Italian, and because wasn’t offered in school and it’s nott the other language that Sesame Street airs in.

It probably depends on where you live and if you’ll travel a lot. I would learn Spanish because so many people in America speak it.

It’s a more valuable skill to speak a language that is in demand that most others can’t. If I’m a company, it is very easy to find someone who can speak spanish, and much harder to find one who speaks Portuguese. As a result, you would be a more valuable employee, and could probably demand a higher salary (depending on the industry).

I would say even for the US: Español o come se llama aquí en España, el Castellano… With english and spanish you can travel on your own and get in contact with almost the whole planet…

and yes… with either portugues or spanish or italian it is much easier to learn the other languages…

Spanish, as it is more widely spoken. Travel, job opportunities etc will come easier, in my opinion.