Taking Italian at school with a couple of years of Spanish experience???

Question

I'm a Sophomore now and currently taking Honors Spanish 2. I'm a pretty diligent at studying and I get good grades, but my biggest weakness is being lazy with homework and not proofreading. But I am getting better in that aspect.

Anyways at my H.S. the two main languages are Spanish and Latin(they are starting to weed French out), but they do offer a rigorous Italian course for juniors and seniors (It might even by AP, but I don't think so, because you can only take Italian for 1 year at my school). But I think it is meant for people not taking a language, but I think you can do it while taking Spanish or Latin.

How hard would it be to take an upper level Spanish class (possibly AP) and take a class in Italian where I know nothing. Will the similarities confuse me or throw me off? Would recommend doing it? It probably looks good for college, but it is only a one year class.

Thanks

Answer 1

Spanish and Italian are extremely similar.  Chances are if you can understand just even a small amount of Spanish you will be able to understand a small amount of Italian as well.  I lived in Italy, and when I took my Spanish couses in HS I was amazed at how much clicked because I knew a little Italian.  Obviously some things will differ, but over all I have always thought that if you are going to learn Spanish you might as well learn Italian.

Answer 2

i wouldn't say they're extremely similar...but you'll deffinately understand more italian if you know spanish than if you just know english alone.  the similarities should not trip you up as long as you think also about the differences, because even though there are numerous similarities there are just as numerous differences  (in italian the words for i want, more, table, chease, up, down, left, right, many body parts, many fruits and vegitables, practically all the words for family members will NOT be familiar to you as they are completely different in spanish.)  however, it should NOT take you long to master the basics.  also there are false friends, grammer, plural, and some consonant sounds you need to watch out for.

let me just give you a quick taste of some of the different grammar i was talking about:

english:  i went

italian: sono andato/a

spanish: yo fui.

in many past-participle actions you will either have to add and conjugate 'essere' (like in the above case) and 'avere' before that action. here's another examp:

english: he told a lie.

italian: lui ha detto una bugia.

spanish: él dijo una mentira.

that is using 'avere'.  there is also a different plural system:

I have two dogs.

Ho due cani.

Tengo dos perros.

notice it is cani and not canes?  masculine plurals end in 'I'. and for feminine:

the dragon had two heads.

Il drago aveva due teste.

El dragón tenía dos cabezas.

feminine plurals end in 'e'.

i think that is about it.

Answer 3

I don't know,it will depend on you, italian has an accent and it sounds quite different than spanish but both belong to latin languages.Who is going to teach you a native italian speaker?it would be better if someone who speaks italian as a first language teachs you or someone who really knows the italian accent ,I don't know howit would sound with a "different accent" , I say this because even spanish has different accents, spanish from a mexican sounds quite different than the spanish from an argentine,chilean,etc.

I speak english,italian,german and spanish. my experience was great but I learned the languages in my childhood because of my family. It may be different for you.Give it a try anyways.

Answer 4

While many may give you the positive aspect of being able to understand a lot of the stuff being taught in Italian, it will be much more difficult to produce (speak, write) Italian.  You will have a lot of the Romance Language grammar down, though, so you won't have to re-learn, for example, what a "reflexive verb" is used for.

As you mention, the similarities at times may make things simpler but they may also get you into trouble, especially if you don't proofread.  I remember helping my brother with Spanish homework one time while I was studying Italian after having already studied Spanish, and I remember explaining that he should write something like:

Quando yo tengo che estudiar...  (Using the Italian Quando instead of Cuando and the Italian che instead of que, which are pronounced the same)  Funny, but serious mistakes...

Overall though, Italian is much simpler than the other Romance languages (except Spanish).  The orthography is very standard, like Spanish.  Grammar is just a little different (like forming plurals, etc,).