Online Spanish Course Review

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.

Ten Reasons to Learn German

Whatever plans you may have for the future, knowledge of German will increase your options. When you learn German you acquire a range of skills which can improve the quality of both your work and private life:

Business: Knowing the language of your German business partners improves your relations and therefore your chances for effective communication and success.

The global career: Knowledge of German increases your job opportunities with German and foreign companies in your own country and abroad. Proficiency in German helps you to function productively for an employer with global business connections.

Tourism and hospitality industry: Tourists from German-speaking countries travel wide and far, and are the world’s biggest spenders when on holiday. They appreciate to be looked after by German-speaking staff and tour guides.

Science and Research: German is the second most commonly used scientific language. Germany is the third largest contributor to research and development and offers research fellowships to scientists from abroad.

Communication: Developments in media, information and communication technology require multilingual communicators. A wide range of important websites are in German and worldwide, Germany is ranked number 5 in terms of annual publication of new books. Knowledge of German therefore offers you extended access to information.
[Wikipedia, 2010]

Cultural understanding: Learning German provides you with an insight into the way of life, and the hopes and dreams of people in German speaking countries, broadening your horizon.

Travel: Make the most of your travels not only in German-speaking countries, but in many other European countries where German is widely spoken, especially in Eastern Europe.

Enjoyment of literature, music, art and philosophy: German is the language of Goethe, Kafka, Mozart, Bach and Beethoven. Indulge in reading and/or listening to their works in their original language.

Opportunities to study/work in Germany: Germany awards a generous number of scholarships and other support to study in Germany. Working holiday visas are available for young foreigners from a range of countries, and special visas are offered to skilled workers and professionals.

Opportunities for exchange: A wide range of exchange programs exists for both school and university students between Germany and many countries in the world.

Hey everyone, I have a question… I’m a native spanish speaker and, while living in the U.S., have acquired English as a second language. I speak both languages extremely fluently, without the slightest hint of an accent on either of them. At my current high school there are a wide variety of foreign language courses, but I don’t know what to learn next.

So overall, what language should I learn next? I want something that would be easy for me to learn according to the skills I already have. I prefer something with a similar alphabet to that of Spanish and English.

P.S. I’m looking for opinions, not lectures. I’d really appreciate it everyone. Please… and thank you.

Your command of the language is better than that of most Americans. I salute you.

Italian would be a cinch with you already being fluent in Spanish. It’s basically the same, with a few different words.

Do i have to go to DLI to learn another language? can i just be a translator/interpreter for german or spanish? how much do translators earn? or should i become a cryptologic linguist?

I would strongly suggest getting a software computer program, as they are the most engaging and effective way to learn. Books are good too, if you don’t have a computer.

Here are some options I’ve personally used, I think the best way to tackle learning a language is to use every option you can, and not just one. Use that which works, discard that which doesn’t.

Software:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref_%3Dnb%5Fsb%5Fnoss%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Drosetta%2520stone%2520german%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Daps&tag=clogui-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957
http://www.capsulecorp.org/german

Books:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref_%3Dnb%5Fsb%5Fss%5Fc%5F1%5F12%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Dlearn%2520german%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Dstripbooks%26sprefix%3Dlearn%2520german&tag=clogui-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957

MP3:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref_%3Dnb%5Fsb%5Fss%5Fc%5F3%5F12%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Dlearn%2520german%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Ddigital-music%26sprefix%3Dlearn%2520german&tag=clogui-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957

I can’t speak spanish or any other language besides English. But I want my kids; 2 year old twin girls and an infant son to speak english and spanish and maybe french if possible. I also want to make them as smart as possible. Maybe them knowing their colors, numbers, alphabet early and I want them to be ahead. How should I do this and what is the cheapest way to do this?

Maybe you should learn the languages first. Try Rosetta Stone.

I’ve just come back from Spain and would love to speak Spanish fluintley but is it easy or hard to learn?

Yes, in fact it may be the easiest major language for an English speaker. Spanish spelling is very simple and regular, because the Spanish Academy has simplified it over time. The genders and noun-adjective agreement will take some getting used to, but you find them in almost any European language. The most difficult part is the irregular verbs. However, you will probably get those out of the way first. French is a little easier initially, but Spanish becomes easier than French after the first couple of courses.

Probably the easiest way to learn Spanish is by learning Interlingua first. Castellina found that people learned Interlingua in about one week, making it the easiest language of all. And according to Gopsill, you can learn Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, any Romance language in about half the time after you’ve learned Interlingua. It works with other languages as well.

I’m speaking from personal experience. I learned Interlingua in less than a week, was practically fluent in about two weeks, and then I breezed through Spanish. In the long run, it saved me a lot of time and effort.

Someone told me that the Italian and Spanish languages are very similar (more similar than any other two romance languages). Now I know this is a subjective question, but if I speak Italian, might Spanish be a very easy language to pick up?

yes .. it is very easy … I’m italian ….

In this present day, with emerging economies, is it more helpful to learn Chinese than Spanish?

This depends on region. If you live in the United States, Spanish is probably much more useful (especially on the west, such as California), but then again a lot of people who speak spanish in the US at least know basic English, so maybe if you learned basic spanish things would go ok. In terms of emerging economies, Chinese is probably much more useful and advantageous to know, and Chinese is also useful in the US (or at least in California), for there is also a sizable Chinese population. So Ultimately, I’d say Chinese. But Spanish, especially in the western states of the US, is also very useful.

so shouldn’t Obama learn that there aren’t 57 states in the United States?? I would be "embarrassed" to have a candidate for president not know that. I guess he is "embarrassed" about Americans, like Michelle has been not proud of America?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BZprtPat1Vk
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws

Then he should ALSO focus on the illegal immigrants THAT DONT SPEAK ENGLISH. They don’t even try. Take a trip to Miami. It is always beneficial to be bilingual, but he can’t say that it’s an embarrassment. Europeans are bilingual because they live in closer proximity to many other countries. Both Barack and his wife are stupid, and I cannot believe they’ve made it this far with all of his mistakes. I can’t stand some of his comments. I heard on the radio that no video or audio is allowed where Michelle is present because she is so likely to say something retarded and mess up his campaign. Great first lady, huh?

That really depends where you are from. I am from Holland and speak Dutch, which is a Germanic language like English and German. For me English is the easiest because its similar and familiar. For someone born in Portugal, I would imagine learning English would be harder than Spanish. So I would think it really depends where you are from.

I want to learn to speak and read spanish. I think that it would be a wonderful life skill to have! Has anyone used any language-learning tools that they especially liked? I have heard that the computer software "Rosetta Stone" is good- has anyone used it before? Did it work? Any other advice would be much appreciated. Thanks for your help!!

here’s what helped me a lot: try switching the yahoo homepage to spanish and use altavista.babelfish (i think) for translating the words and phrases you don’t recognize…this will work if you keep at it!! good luck, learning a second or even a third language is very good!!!