Why do so few native speakers of Spanish and Portuguese learn each others' languages?

[Tooting Carmen]

Considering (a) how similar the two languages are (at least in written form) and (b) the closeness both between Spain and Portugal on the one hand, and between Brazil and its neighbours on the other, then why do so few speakers of the two languages learn the other one? By contrast, many Dutch and Danes do learn German (though admittedly the reverse is less common), and speakers of Slavic speakers do often have at least some knowledge of each others' languages.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Portuguese speakers understand Spanish much better than the other way around. Maybe this is demotivating for some people, why learn a language that you understand 90% without ever having studied it. On the other hand, I must say that I am under the impression that your observation is somewhat mistaken because the most studied second language in Portugal and Brazil is probably no longer French but Spanish.

[Tooting Carmen]

Portuguese speakers understand Spanish much better than the other way around. Maybe this is demotivating for some people, why learn a language that you understand 90% without ever having studied it. On the other hand, I must say that I am under the impression that your observation is somewhat mistaken because the most studied second language in Portugal and Brazil is probably no longer French but Spanish.

After English, that is. But even so, it is still often at a very low level and not really taken seriously by most people.

[LaSentinelle]

Considering (a) how similar the two languages are (at least in written form) and (b) the closeness both between Spain and Portugal on the one hand, and between Brazil and its neighbours on the other, then why do so few speakers of the two languages learn the other one? By contrast, many Dutch and Danes do learn German (though admittedly the reverse is less common), and speakers of Slavic speakers do often have at least some knowledge of each others' languages.

What's the point? The dutch learn German because they're on the same dialect continuum with some of Germany's dialects and German is one of the most influencial languages in Europe. Slavic speakers have a slightly higher degree of mutual intelligibility because A) Slavic languages split up fairly recently B) A lot of slavic 'languages' are literally the same language or are dialects of the same language (I'm not going to say which slavic languages are actually dialects of the same language because it will immediately summon those people and turn this thread into a shitshow and derail it as per usual).
On the other hand, what's the point of learning Spanish/Portuguese for Portuguese/Spanish speakers? Learn English instead.

[gixajo]

Considering (a) how similar the two languages are (at least in written form) and (b) the closeness both between Spain and Portugal on the one hand, and between Brazil and its neighbours on the other, then why do so few speakers of the two languages learn the other one? By contrast, many Dutch and Danes do learn German (though admittedly the reverse is less common), and speakers of Slavic speakers do often have at least some knowledge of each others' languages.

Because Portuguese understand Spanish very well, and Spanish although it´s harder for us, we can understand more or less what they say.

In the end we end up understanding each other in an invented language that we call "portuñol", which tends to be more similar to Spanish than to Portuguese, mostly because it is easier for the Portuguese to understand us than we do for them.

The difficulty for Spanish speakers is in the greater phonetic complexity of Portuguese, it is easier for them to adapt to Spanish than for us to Portuguese.

I admit that although at first it is quite difficult to listen to the ear, after a long time listening only to Portuguese, you end up getting the hang of it. To speak it correctly would be much more complicated.

Read I think that the two languages ​​are mutually intelligible, except perhaps occasionally for some expression or word.

[Tooting Carmen]

On the other hand, what's the point of learning Spanish/Portuguese for Portuguese/Spanish speakers? Learn English instead.

Business, tourism, work...

[LaSentinelle]

Business, tourism, work...

English solves all of those issues.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Spaniards just need to be willing and make an effort, and they can learn Portuguese easily. The problem is that most of them don't take the trouble. We have the example of our national coach, Roberto Martínez (Spanish), he has assumed since he came that he would learn Portuguese and the truth is that it has only been a few months and his Portuguese is already very good.

[Tooting Carmen]

English solves all of those issues.

Re what you and I said about Dutch/German, the similarity between Portuguese and Spanish is at least comparable to those two.

[Tooting Carmen]

Spaniards just need to be willing and make an effort, and they can learn Portuguese easily. The problem is that most of them don't take the trouble. We have the example of our national coach, Roberto Martínez (Spanish), he has assumed since he came that he would learn Portuguese and the truth is that it has only been a few months and his Portuguese is already very good.

Y como esta tu castellano hoy en dia amigo?