What made you want to learn Portuguese?

Olá, @tashamjones89, e parabéns pela mensagem escrita em português! A mensagem estava clara, mas corrigi algumas coisas a negrito para ficar ainda melhor. Boa sorte com a tua aprendizagem :slight_smile:

Olá Joseph, estou feliz meu mensagam fui claro e muito obrigda pelo correçõs! :slight_smile:

Hoping to move to Portugal sometime.

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Hi everyone. I am retired and have lived in Portugal for 2 years, moved three times and currently living in Fátima. Not much English spoken around here, but my landlord and landlady speak good French, as do many others, which helps a lot.
The local civil servants are the most challenging for a mutual understanding, but we are noticing that we have finally developed “the ear” and are picking up odd words which help us to work out what they are trying to say to us. Luckily one of the first things I learnt on PP was how to ask them to speak more slowly. I use this a lot. I went to have my vaccination recently and had to use it then! I also had to explain I had lost my appointment card and the lady understood me! You have no idea how joyful I was with that small victory!
I find my pronunciation is a real problem and have difficulty in being understood. Currently I am working on stopping myself from pronouncing “u” as “you” rather than “oo”. It is great that PP has so many resources to help in this, which is why I have just renewed my annual subscription. Keep up the good work.

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Great question Joseph! Regarding my story, I stumbled upon European Portuguese last year during the lockdowns. I wanted to learn a second language and I had lots of time on my hand. My first choice was German but I lost interest. Then, I tried Dutch but I lost interest. After Dutch, I attempted Japanese and was consistent with it for awhile, until I heard several songs in European Portuguese and I just fell in love.

European Portuguese is the most enchanting language I ever heard. My goal is to get to a B2 level proficiency by the end of next year. I’m moving to Portugal next year where I’ll live and work as an English teacher. From there, I’ll achieve fluency in European Portuguese and add it to my repertoire of languages.

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Welcome, @wknauenburg, and thanks for the interesting story! If you’d like to share some of that special music you heard, here’s a good thread for that: What is the best European Portuguese music?

It’s even gotten its own Spotify playlist: Practice Portuguese - Playlist

Hello, again Joseph. I actually started listening to Disney songs in different languages before I found European Portuguese. I’m a huge Disney fan. In fact, I created a playlist of European Portuguese Disney songs. To the best of my knowledge, it’s the most comprehensive playlist of Disney songs in a single foreign language with over 200 songs. Here’s the link

I also found and saved another playlist of Portuguese pop songs. Here’s the link to that one.

Feel free to share with others. Gozar a música!

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Ahhh! That’s great. And what a thorough playlist :ok_hand:

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Hi everyone! My husband of almost 20 years was born in Caldas da Rainha and moved to the US when he was 3. We plan to move back to Caldas in 2023. I know some words and phrases over the years, but never learned properly. It’s time (and a bit overdue!) to learn.

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Olá. My mother spoke with an Açores accent and my father had a perfect Lisboa accent. In-laws criticized my mother’s accent so she never spoke to me in Portuguese. :sleepy: I am 72, and I am learning Portuguese as I prepare to move to Portugal to see out my retirement years.

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Olá, @cyndeegeoff! Too bad your mother didn’t get to share her roots with you. In any case, the Azorean accents can indeed be quite challenging, compared to most accents in mainland Portugal. Best of luck with your retirement plans in Portugal, by the way.

I am an American and I recently renovated a house in Calheta. I want to learn the language so I can communicate with the local people in their language as well as eventually, I wish to retire there.

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I absolutely loving this app :relaxed: I found this site because every free site teaches Brazilian Portugues.

My dad moved over a few years ago and every time I get the chance I fly over. (No thanks to Covid :rofl:) so I really want to be able to have a conversation with locals because I see them daily when I fly over because it’s a small village.

I struggle with the pronunciation for some things but I’ll keep trying. This is the first language i have learned as an adult.

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Hey,
Just thought I’d throw my story into the mix.

I’m a Scotsman living in London & are married to a Portuguese lady from Vila Nova de Famalicão :slight_smile:

So of course, my wife and being able to communicate with her family is my main motivation. And depending on how life pans out, we may move to Portugual one day (or back to Portugal in my wifes case!)

Learning Portoguese also provides open more options for my career, and is useful gateway for other Romance languages.

I’m little wary of straying into politics, but post-Brexit I’m fortunate enough to have the future option of Portuguse citizenship (and regaining my EU freedom of movement). The language test required for this is an additional motivator :slight_smile:

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Olá!

My husband and I will be visiting Portugal for the first time in Feb/Mar 2022. We will be based in Lagos for four weeks and Andalucia for two 2 weeks.

Having booked a VRBO without first checking the availability of flights in and out of Faro, I’ve determined that the best route from Chicago will be via Lisbon, followed by either train or bus to Lagos. Neither option seems to offer a route without transfers and even getting from the airport in Lisbon to the train or bus will require a bus or taxi. (Did I mention I will be traveling solo for this leg of the journey?)

I have watched Rui and Joel’s video documentary of their hike along the coast north of the Algarve (fun!) and knowing that even a native can mess up (sorry, Rui) to the point of having to walk an unexpected 4 hours kinda scares the sh** out of me. And they weren’t encumbered by wheeled luggage + carry-ons.

Also, I’m going to need to use the ladies’ room (“water closet,” is it?) at some point…

So, yeah! I’m gonna need to learn a little Portuguese. (Also to order wine and some of the enticing Portuguese dishes I’ve encountered in my online research.)

Thanks a bunch, guys! I’m looking forward to it.

Ruth

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Olá, @rgmichelson, bem-vinda :slight_smile: I hope your trip goes well and with as few hiccups as possible! If it helps, the Lisbon airport has its own subway station, so you can use it to get to the train/bus to Lagos. The bus would actually be direct - check Rede Expressos, for example (departures from Lisboa - Sete Rios, which corresponds to the Jardim Zoológico subway station).

Obrigada, Joseph!

Your information eases my mind. I will learn some Portuguese anyway because your team makes it such fun.

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Olá todas e todos! Estou uma nova aluna aqui. Eu aprendo Português por que eu moro em Portugal e quero falar com a gente em Português (não em Inglês!).
Prazer em conhencer todos vocês.

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Olá, @phiona.o! Bem-vinda ao fórum (e a Portugal) e boa sorte na tua aprendizagem do português :slight_smile:

@Joseph, muito obrigada :blush:

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