I don't know the answer to your question, OP, but I have heard many times that learning a romance language becomes easier after learning one or more romance languages. I've heard that Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian are extremely similar. I studied French for years, and I can somewhat make out the meaning of Spanish sentences/words while reading. Listening to Spanish makes little sense, however. Because of this I am trying to learn Spanish. It's not as hard as it is learning Japanese for me, but it's not necessarily 'easy'. However, this may be because I have been slacking