I know I said I was learning Brazilian Portuguese, but in my first post, I also said that I'm impatient and decided to learn three languages at once. The second happens to be Spanish, another romance language.
Like Brazilian Portuguese, I'm learning Spanish for practical reasons, mentioned in my first post. However, I will repeat them again for those who haven't read that post. I live in Los Angeles, CA where a significant portion of the population knows Spanish, making it advantageous to have a passable grasp of Spanish. Finally Spanish is a relatively easy language to learn for me making it a perfect choice.
Besides practical reasons for learning Spanish, I want to learn Spanish because it is a beautiful language with many rich cultures associated with it. Why does that matter? It's because languages like Spanish are a part of a culture and are influenced by the people who speak it and the many facets of those peoples' culture. This is one of the reasons why Latin split into the many Romance Languages. The others would be outside influence and the slow decline of the Holy Roman Empire.
Now that I've explained that, what dialect did I choose?
I chose Venezuelan Spanish because I have a higher chance of actually meeting someone who speaks the same dialect and I prefer the pronunciation of Español de Sudamericana (South American Spanish) over European Spanish (or as I like to call it Spaniard Spanish). In South American Spanish the letters "z" and "c" make a hard "s" sound, whereas in European Spanish they make a lisping sound similar to the sound at the beginning of the English article "the", but soft ("z" before any vowel and "c" only before the vowels "i" and "e") that I don't like. Compare the two ways of pronouncing the word for shoes in Spanish, which is zapatos. I prefer the South American way because it sounds better to me and because it sounds like I'm drunk if I say it the European way instead. No offense intended to anyone who speaks European Spanish.
As a learning tool, I have been using Duolingo, a free language learning website and app with many languages to choose from and more on the way, as well as YouTube. I have found the channel Butterfly Spanish to be quite helpful. She has several informative videos that explain in detail how to pronounce words in South American Spanish and the correct usage of those words, such as por and para. I would definitely suggest checking that channel out!
Well, it's that time again. Adios, habla a mañana! Tchau, falar amanhã! Bye, talk tomorrow!