People say that is easy to understand spanish, but it's not so simple. If a brazilian person talked with a spanish speaker, they will manage to communicate easily. Because, they would talk as slowly as possible knowing that they don't speak the language of each other. However, if a brazilian listened to a conversation between two spanish speakers. He/she would be in trouble. He/she would break his/her back trying to get the conversation. Because, in this case, the spanish speakers would talk naturaly (in other words, very fast). But yes, spanish speakers and portuguese speakers don't need to break their back to communicate to each other. I hope I've been clear. :)

Hello, Well, to me is not thay easy to understand spanish because even if some words sound similar it is not the biggest part of them and there are the false friends too. just some simple sentences can be easily understood.

Hi, Tiffany! In my experience, it's depends of each person. My wife and I are brazilians and we never study Spanish but I can understanding Spanish well while my wife don't. I don't think brazilians understand Spanish well. In my opinion the idiomas are not so similar.

It depends. I heard a woman speaking Spanish next to me the other day and she was talking so fast i couldn't understand. If you try to speak slowly, it's get easier to understand. My Spanish teacher at school just talk in spanish in class, but it's completely different... kakaka

Yeah, people say that. It's harder to a spanish speaker to understand a portuguese speaker than the opposite in normal conditions (people talking naturally).