Ola a todos!
I just started the Practice Portuguese course. I was wondering how often do you all use this program?
I was hoping to learn three or four days a week and give myself half an hour to 45 minutes and do as many lessons as I could in that time?
What’s your structure in learning like? Obrigado!
Olá Dominik e bem-vindo
I think your structure is good. It is better to work several times throughout the week than one long session just once a week or whenever, But I would say not to rush through the lessons. Really try to consolidate the learning before moving on. I like to start with the Smart Review (flash cards) to revise previously leant material and then move onto the next lesson.
You may find you do need to do a few lessons first to get the Smart Review up and running so to speak (though I can’t really remember now).
Boa sorte
Michael
Welcome, @dominikmzak!
You’ll find that there are lots of ways to explore Practice Portuguese. Members often share some of their methods here on the forum, but admittedly, the information is a bit scattered. Here are some examples of relevant topics/posts:
Although I’m not a student myself, my suggestion is to mix up as many different resources as possible from early on.
The units are great for a guided, progressive learning experience. I agree with @michael.pearce about using Smart Review regularly as you go along, to help consolidate what you learn. But in parallel with the units, I think it’s also important to really spend some time exploring the Shorties, which you can filter by level to focus on the easiest ones first and take it from there. There are other filters you can use, to choose your preferred topics, episode types or even voice talents. The same applies to the longer podcasts and videos. Listening comprehension is usually the hardest skill to develop, so you’ll want to listen to spoken Portuguese as much as you can, even when you don’t understand most of the words - the transcripts and subtitles should help with that bit anyway!
The Verbs section is another useful complement, because verbs are quite foundational and Portuguese has an abundance of verb conjugations to learn. But drilling verbs can be a pain, so if that’s not something that motivates you, you can explore that section more sparingly, for sure. For example, every time you come across a new verb in a shorty that intrigues you, you can look it up specifically and get quizzed on it, instead of going through a number of verbs aimlessly. There are whole units dedicated to verbs anyway, which will expose you to several of them and help you understand the common patterns between them (at least for the regular ones).
These are just my few tips. This comprehensive blog post may also help you put together a study plan that works for you: Learn European Portuguese This Year - Practice Portuguese
Meanwhile, let’s hope other people chime in.
This is really helpful information. I came to PP fairly recently after several years of using another online course and I was a bit like a kid in a candy shop exploring all of the learning options. However, it has been fun and I do agree with the strategy outlined above. I have always found learning verb tenses to be difficult and it’s great how easy PP makes it to review them as and when required.