why learn spanish instead of portuguese?

There are no major economic and political reasons to learn Spanish besides for Mexico.

Brazil will be the only global power in South America, this alone should make it worthwhile to learn Brazilian Portuguese.

Unless you're above all reason on living in or at the complete visiting each Brazil or Portugal, in which case research Portuguese, then research Spanish. Spanish is an global language and is spoken in countries world wide. It could also be a principal language in enterprise and exchange and additionally many contributors comprehend Spanish as a second or third language. Also, should you do emerge as identifying a fourth language as well, could I recommend that you simply do not forget French and German prior than Portuguese? Both French and German are yet again principal enterprise languages and will extra in most cases support you better than Portuguese.

First, Brazil is the largest country in AREA, but NOT, (by far, or any other measure) in population or influence.

Do you know what the world population of Portuguese speakers is?

I don't.

Do you know what the world population of Spanish speakers is? some 400 million. I'm REALLY sure that's higher. In fact, I KNOW it is...there is only ONE language with a higher population...Mandarin.

And, you know...America is HUGE. Do you know how many Spanish classes there are in the US? Do you know how many people in the US there are that are qualified to teach Portuguese? About, maybe, 100. There's a VAST difference there. WHO would teach all these people????

Plus...Brazil is....thousands of miles from the Southern border of the US. Mexico is practically IN the US!!! (considering the number of Spanish-Speaking Mexicans that LIVE in the US - legal and illegal - not to mention all the gazillions of other immigrants that enter the US speaking only Spanish). Did you know? There aren't a lot of Portuguese - speaking Immigrants in the US, making it pretty much, not a necessary language.

And you know something else? Not a lot of Brazilian tourists that don't speak passable English.

So...why bother learning, or pushing the learning of a language that no one needs, and no one could teach?

There are more people in the U.S. who speak Spanish than there are who speak Portuguese, which is reason enough to learn Spanish. Not to mention that our next door neighbor is Mexico, and they obviously speak Spanish too.

But if you want to learn Portuguese, either because you like it better or because you think it will be more advantageous, considering Brazil's growing world importance, then go ahead and learn Portuguese. It's your choice, and you should do what makes you happiest.

You should learn portuguese.

Portugal, Ilha da Madeira, Arquipélago dos Açores, Brasil, Moçambique, Angola, Guiné-Bissau, Cabo Verde e São Tomé e Príncipe speaks portuguese (their names are not in English), and Brazil's economy is expanding.

The only places that speak Portugese are Portugal and Brazil, while spanish covers every country in central america, spain, and a bunch of south american countries as well. Ergo, more people speak spanish.

Most of the people who come here speak spanish

I'm a white american and I refuse conform to changing language barriers. I was born on English and it is the language I will always speak. If Juan and Pedro want to come to this nation then ok that is fine, but when they expect me to learn their language then it is another story. If I were to move to a Latin American country then it would be customary for me to learn the language then. So why can't Juan or Pedro learn English when they move here? Now the government has to spend money on making everything in this country bi-lingual. I'm sorry but if you can't learn English then you have no reason coming to America. I'm not saying remove yourself from your cultural pride just learn a new language when you move to a foreign country. This can apply to any demographic moving to another country. I'm not in anyway singling out Hispanics and as a side note Juan and Pedro are just examples of an immigrant. Changing language barriers can apply to any ethnic group or demographic. Now I have Mexican friends who claim Mexico is the most influential nation in Latin America, and you claim Brazil. I am leaning more to Brazil as Mexico is full of corruption at the moment. To solve everything I will hire a translator if Portuguese becomes the next big language Americans have to learn.

Because between the US and the Brazilians are 400 million Spanish speakers.

because spanish is a langauge alot of our immigrants speak. Not alot of people speak porteguese in america but hey if you want to learn porteguese thats cool. But hey thats just me