Hi, I’m Gregor, a high school teacher in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I have a degree in Spanish and speak passable Italian, but have always been interested in Portugese. I’ve generally refrained with studying it due to its similarity with Spanish, however, I now teach a lot of Brazilian students and have for a long time been a fan of Fernando Pessoa and Jose Saramago’s works, so I’m taking the plunge into Portuguese for fun and practical reasons. My wife and I are also planning a trip to Portugal in March, so I hope to immerse myself a little.
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Seja bem-vindo ao Practice Portuguese, Gregor! As an English speaker who also speaks Spanish, I can tell you that learning Portuguese will also greatly improve your Spanish, because while the two languages are quite similar, there are many small differences between them, to the point that you have be very deliberate in keeping the two separate in your mind, so as not to confuse yourself. Whatever you learn in Portuguese, learn (or relearn) it also in Spanish at the same time, so you’ll be clear which is which when you are speaking.
Best of luck in your journey, I hope to interact with you further in the conversation boards.
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Welcome, @gregor.yates! José Saramago is probably my favourite author 
Best of luck on your learning journey; I hope you already get to test your skills in March.
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Learning Espanguêse is a wonderful experience. I have PP and Babbel, switching from one to the other on alternate days. Yes, there is confusion between “disculpe” and “desculpe”, as well as “escritorio” and “secretária”. But oddly, those differences make those words more memorable as they provide a marvelous demonstration of how languages drift in common use.
A mental trick that can be handy is to mindfully say “español, español, español” thrice or “portuguêse, portuguêse, portuguêse” thrice before switching to that language. This helps “shift gears”, which is especially important given the pronunciation changes as with the s/z in “casa”. Such phrases become “magic words” for the mind flip and will slowly fall away as the flipping becomes natural.
Lastly, you can also torture your friends by speaking the other language to them just to see how much they understand (a lot). Have fun!
p.s., oddly, I can now listen to Italian cooking videos and understand them somewhat…
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