Looking to learn a second language.

[Coote]

tl;dr version at the bottom.

Well, I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask a few questions here, since we're a global community, and there's likely to be a handful of people that would know the answers to help with some questions I have.

So, as I was saying, I'm thinking of picking up a second language, and I'm currently looking at Portuguese. I'm considering purchasing Rosetta Stone, but unfortunately, they only have Brazilian Portuguese, and not European, which is what I'd like to learn. How huge of a difference are the two? Comparable to American English vs British English, or not even in the same ballpark?

I've had a bit of exposure for European Portuguese on and off over the past few years, as well as some Brazilian, but without knowing much more than a few words, I can't really tell the difference most of the time. I spent from 3rd grade until 8th grade taking Spanish lessons in school, so I'm a bit versed in a language similar enough to make learning Portuguese easier (they're both latin-based, so some nouns/etc should be similar, right?). I know slang likely would be an issue, as like with most dialects, a lot of slang terms are drastically different (Homeslice vs Bloke like in English/British, etc, etc, etc).


I'm asking this because, I'd love to actually get myself a European WoW account, and play with some old gaming friends I used to frag with sometime in the future.



tl;dr: Are European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese similar enough that if I learn one, I'd be able to understand the other?


PS: Since it's sort of related, are Battle.Net accounts Global? I mean, if I get a European copy of WoW, would I be able to attach it to my current Battle.Net account, or would I need to get a completely different account?


PPS: Sorry for the long topic, and especially sorry if these seem like stupid questions.

[Crissa]

You can find lots of EUs to chat up in Second Life. No idea, really, which you'd prefer.

-Crissa