Questions about Portuguese and Portugal in general

Oi Pessoa! I just wanted to ask everyone a few things. I very recently subscribed to PP as I found it to be the best option for learning PR. But I am kinda confused since this is a very different way of learning a language as I was usually used to having a teacher and doing what he/she said. I’m usually a fast learner but I don’t know how to make a schedule that would allow me to learn lots of words/phrases/grammar quickly. So I decided to ask you for some advice. I’ll be moving to Lisbon in the following months and I want to be able to speak to at least B1 level. Any advice before and during my stay would be very welcome. Are there any stories/newspapers/movies that you would recommend for beginners? Also if there’s someone out there who is willing to help me out with PR that’d be awesome. What I mean is that I need someone to talk to from time to time in PR mostly. I don’t find the language hard at all it’s just that i haven’t studied a language in a long time and I have forgotten what’s the best and fastest way to study.

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Olá, @valaquenta! Thanks for posting. Other users have had similar questions before, so I’ll link you to some topics that might be helpful for you. But first, I suggest some ready good articles on Practice Portuguese’s blog that may offer some direction in terms of how best to navigate all the resources and plan your practice.

Some relevant topics about finding practice partners:

As for content in Portuguese, this might seem to be an odd suggestion, but this year, due to Covid, students were all sent home and made to study remotely until the end of the previous school year (2019-20). To help with this, a lot of structured virtual classes were developed and recorded for TV in a rather impressive amount of time and you should be able to access them online. It’s “Estudo em Casa”, by RTP, a national TV channel. Since there’s content for several levels, from 1st grade onward, a lot of it is great for beginners and you also get to brush up on some school subjects :wink: :

I find the ONLY thing that helps me, is to force myself to learn “for at least 5 minutes” multiple times a day. I will often accidentally go over time if I am playing on Memrise etc (super great app that I definitely recommend but you do have to pay monthly for it) it incentives you to play daily to “get a streak” and only gives it to you if you play for like over 5 min

I kinda do the same actually. Except that I try to study at least an hour a day I used Memrise before too but I quit because it was costly. Which app would you recommend to learn words faster?

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Quizlet will let you access decks of flash cards that other people have created or you can create your own. I’m taking the vocabulary from lessons I go through and add them to a private deck as I go along. I can then drill myself on those words. I don’t pay for Quizlet, although there is a paid version that has more features than I require.

Thanks a lot for the advice! I already had Quizlet installed but I forgot about it. Before I started learning Portuguese I began writing down words from songs, movies, newspapers, and so on. I currently have almost 2k words written down. But Quizlet offers exactly the type of learning method I need and will help me learn words quicker. So now I’m left with the grammar. I need to find a method on how to memorize things quickly.

Thanks for recommending Quizlet. I’ve taken your advice and and using it to learn irregular verbs.

Does anyone have a quizlet deck they’d recommend, to compliment PP?