The Most Challenging Aspects of Learning Portuguese

If you have to speak very precise Greek, by putting nouns and adjectives into cases and changing accents, and quickly, believe me, it’s not easy. Still, you have a good foundation in French. Starting from Greek, Portuguese is much easier for me to learn because there are no cases and many types of nouns and adjectives with different endings. Speaking and understanding are one of the last stages. But if you live there, just make them repeat more slowly. For me, this is the case with English - especially British English when listen to some conversation.Here I think the most provocative part of grammar is the verbs.
Simona

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whoa 6 months? I started 1.5 year ago and still struggle for the most simple sentences…I also still ponder about the best way to motivate myself and structure my learning…

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Oh my, those audioclips are killers! However, I am so appreciative that the “teacher’s” audioclip is available right there and I can understand it perfectly. So I listen to both of them a few times to try to hear the same words from the “man/woman on the street” as I do from the teacher. I think this will be great practice for the real world (and it makes me glad that I won’t be having real-world experience for many, many months!)

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I think that the variety of pronunciations in the short clips are precisely a big added value. And in a certain sense, I appreciate even more the ones that pronounce things in the same way as if they were talking to a local friend. One or two of them seem even to laugh at us like ‘I’ll get you - try to understand this now…’.
Unintelligibilty seems to be a great quality in spoken portuguese…! :laughing: :rofl:

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Thank you - that’s reassuring to me (after 4 months learning, I begin to wonder…).

I’ve been in Portugal for nearly 5 years but only really started to learn earnestly in the last six months. I did have one-to-one lessons prior to Covid and then found Practice Portuguese. I find it an exceptionally difficult language and still very much like a rabbit in headlights. When someone speaks to me it is like listening to gibberish. Does anyone here think age is a barrier to learning? I’m in my late 50s. I would say not, as my background is IT training and I would always say to my students, it is never too old to learn.

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60+ here… I don’t think it’s a barrier. It’s just something to keep up on (and here’s my secret) every day. Seriously, I spend at least 1 hr per day on some form of study. Maybe not as much as others, but I’m still working, so free time is limited.

For me, such study can be reading, grammar exercises, listening to podcasts, watching TV shows and speaking with people (remotely - I’m still US bound).

I find that the good thing about being older is I’m at the point where I have zero cares given about failing. As long as I try, and then learn from the failure, I’m good. (The old saw… failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success)

The learning units here are great, good foundation on the structure and sounds. But, (IMO), complement that with daily listening, reading, speaking. It takes time, but with the daily efforts, the rewards do come.

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It’s never to late to learn. As @stephencanthony said, practicing every day is the key to succeeding. I practice everyday, from 1-4 hours however lately I’m finding small blocks of time works better for memory. I’m listening more now, replaying videos and translations over and over. Subtitles in videos help a great deal. I read and write every day. Practice Portuguese is incredibly helpful in learning the language, pronunciation and offers a variety of learning tools.

I started journaling which is helping because what I write about is what interests me most. I write three things I’m grateful for every day. For example: I recently went for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I spoke to the waitress in Portuguese. She looked up and immediately responded to me in Spanish. I conversed with her a little in Portuguese and she responded in Spanish. I’m grateful she understood me. I considered it a win for me! And I think she enjoyed speaking in her first language too. My husband was definitely impressed!

I also speak Portuguese with other learners on a weekly basis. If you’re interested, visit the Café section of this forum and contact Jana Beeman. She can send you the invite. It’s free, and there are different levels of learners who participate so you can skip around to see where you’re most comfortable. You can speak when you’re ready or just listen.

My best advice, is consistently practice something every day, even if it’s just practicing new words and then writing sentences you create with them. Make the sentences personal. For example, something you might say to your parent, child, spouse, or neighbor. That way you’re more likely to remember the words and eventually the sentences.

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Thank you, Maggie, you have been extremely helpful with such a helpful response to my question. It is most appreciated and you’ve given me things to think about and take into consideration.

I will definitely check out the Cafe section.

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Thanks so much, Stephen. I am glad to hear that you don’t think age should be a barrier. I also spend an hour most days. I do work full-time so have to force it into my schedule. Covid has stopped us from being out and about as normal, so the learning is not put into practice, which is such a shame. I have though just been to the hairdresser and I despair as I barely understand a word around me. They talk so incredibly fast and I just manage to catch a word or two, like pois and tudo bem. Luckily the owner has a bit of English.

Practice Portuguese for me is the best learning tool out there that I have found and so pleased it is European Portuguese. The guys are brilliant and make it enjoyable.

Thanks again.

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I second @Maggie on the suggestion to checkout the Sunday zoom meetup. Great opportunity to hear/speak in an environment where we all are learning and everyone gets the ‘deer in the headlights’ look multiple times per session.

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Haha! That it does!

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Heather, you’re most welcome. I’m happy to help.

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74…But no excuses. I’m living in Sao Miguel where the pronunciation is about as bad as there is (according to the locals). I practice regularly making up sentences and practicing vocabulary. I know a lot of words but mostly draw a blank when listening to locals. I’ll get stuck on one word and then lose the thread of the conversation. (Sometimes I linger at the bus stop/taxi stand just to listen to the conversations, shake my head, and then move on). I’m still practicing every day in some form or another.

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Yes, they speak very fast and swallow their vowels. Sometimes, you can only understand what is being said when you know what’s being talked about. Many native speakers who are multi-lingual have told me that Portuguese is a difficult to learn……

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I used the google translator until my boyfriend (he is from Lisboa) told me that the words that I take from the google translator are most time brazilian.
After I seeked a translator that works well and it is “Ponds” and for verbs it is “reverso”
But even with good portuguese translators you have to take care because the informal “you” in the most translators is translated automatically to the formal “you” (you have to correct that every time when you talk informal).

The most challenging aspect for me is that in Germany, where i live, most people learn Brazilian, so even big companys of language courses offer only Brazilian but not European Portuguese.
I love Practise Portuguese but my English is not very advanced that I often even not understand the english translation… this makes every exercise a challenge because i have to translate English to german and then portuguese to German and to write a lot by hand not to forget …
And it’s a pity that i learn the grammar of Portuguese in English and in comparison to English because German grammar and portuguese grammar are much closer to each other than English grammar is.

They’re more comprehensible than the average person around Penamcor. I’ve been living here a year now and I can still barely understand a word. I’m contemplating moving back to the UK, honestly it’s hopeless.

You’re not the only one, it’s tough - one year in and I still hear mostly gibberish too. I’m wondering whether it’s worth staying TBH.

3 years later:
It should be made illegal to swallow so many parts of words as the average native Portuguese speaker does. How am I ever supposed to understand anything they say? These lessons have nothing whatsoever to do with the way people actually speak, as if they really do not wish anyone to understand them. They’ll insist on speaking Portuguese, which is fine, but then you find out that they’ve been using Neanderthal lingo on you instead of actual sentences for years. Utterly frustrating. I feel I will never become fluent. End of rant.
Edit: by Neanderhal lingo I mean sentences like: " me will go, I work, you eat, ta bem?"

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