Well, Brazil is a neighboring country. I do speak Spanish. By the way, when I visited, I thought I wouldn't have much trouble understanding them, but I was wrong when I went into a bakery in São Paulo. In the end, sign language and mime saved me.
Perhaps I should tell you about my country, Venezuela.
When I first started on Hive (formerly Steemit), I made some posts with photos from my visits to Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Manus, and Brasília during a study trip.
Here are a couple of them:
https://hive.blog/travelfeed/@janaveda/2013-traveller-memories-iii-manaus-meeting-of-waters-part-1
https://hive.blog/travelfeed/@janaveda/2013-traveller-memories-iii-manaus-meeting-of-waters-part-2
When I asked the Brazilian woman if Portuguese was similar to Spanish she said it wasn't at all. 😆 With Spain bordering Portugal and Spanish speaking countries bordering Brazil I guess it's easy to assume similarities. Yet I should know better because France also borders Spain and Germany and I know how different all those languages are.
Yes, that's right. Even within the same language, dialects have their own unique characteristics. In some regions, people speak so fast that it's sometimes hard to understand what they're saying. I see another example in modern singers. It's not that the past was better. I think that before, diction and cadence made them instantly understandable; today, you have to pay closer attention to avoid getting lost.