Vou tentar corrigir algumas mensagens sempre que for oportuno e que não quebre a fluidez dos tópicos. Acho que faz sentido para ajudar na aprendizagem 
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My maternal grandfather was fluent in Portuguese (his parents were immigrants from the Azores - Horta, Faial, specifically, and came to California in 1912). When my mom was a child, he owned and managed a dairy and cattle farm/ranch that I later grew up on. I’m also an “unconventional” person, as I have my maternal last name (Garcia - which, by the way, many people assume is strictly Spanish in origin - clearly not the case). I was always baffled as to why my grandfather never taught my mom and her 6 siblings Portuguese (however, they were immersed in the culture - attending festas and parades - my mom was even “Portuguese Queen”). So, my respect, love, appreciation for, and desire to pay homage to, my familial roots, has really fueled my passion for learning the language. I apologize for not attempting to share this in Portuguese. However, I did write an essay in college about it if anyone is interested. 
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I was born in France, my parents are both portuguese like all my family. Because of the fascism, my grand parents moved to France with their kids and my parents are more French than Portuguese.
They have been living here since they are 5. And speak only french at home even if I remeber portuguese channel was always put on TV.
We used to go on Portugal each summer for holidays. My parents still do but not me. So that’s why I started learning portuguese. To go on holidays with MY own family one day. And that’s my “blood” and “root” too…
Hope you understood me.
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Ola, Estou a morar em Lisboa entao preciso de falar portugues, tambem eu gosto muito da lingua e sempre quis aprender
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Bem-vindos a todos, welcome to the forum to those of you posting for the first time Excited to see activity already picking up!
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Ah, yes, France welcomed a large number of Portuguese immigrants in the past and still has a big Portuguese community. Your story actually vaguely reminded me of the movie A Gaiola Dourada/La Cage Dorée (also suggested in another topic about films in Portuguese), which explores some of that reality. I wonder if you’ve watched it, @Julie.Helena!
@allentackett, espero que estejas a gostar de viver em Lisboa! Que sejas bem-vindo à cidade, assim como ao fórum 
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Unfortunately I have not watched this movie yet. My parents did ! They told me it was a good movie.
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I agree with them, it was very entertaining
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Olá todos! Eu quero aprender Português porque a minha mulher nasceu em Portugal, mas vivemos nos Estados Unidos. Ela veio aos Estados Unidos quando tive 7 anos assim não fala muito. Fomos a Portugal para férias sobre 5 anos atrás. Depois tivemos dois filhos e não voltámos. A minha sogra e avó da minha mulher falam português. Vamos a Portugal para o próximo ano agora que os nossos filhos são muito velhos! Quero falar a língua do país vou visitar!
Hopefully I didn’t butcher that too much! 
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I studied Spanish for 6 years when I was younger and had many native Spanish-speaking friends so it was easy to practice. I miss the intellectual challenge of conversing in another language. Then I studied French in college, and went to visit my daughter when she was living in France and was too intimidated to speak any French and felt so frustrated. Now that my daughter lives in Portugal and I plan on visiting her as soon as I possibly can, I want to make sure that I at least am able to understand some of what is being said and try to attempt to say at least some basic things in Portuguese. Then, after I began learning on PP, I realized how many similarities there are between Spanish/French and Portuguese, and I started getting the hang of it relatively easily, so that has motivated me to learn more and more. I love the language and I love the site!!!
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Olá todos, eu não gostei nada de português, prefería espanhol, francês e italiano por o som e a pronúncia. Mas um amigo português insistía que português também era uma língua bonita e um dia eu aprendí algumas frases como sorpresa para ele. Desde então estou a estudar português! Comecei com Duolingo até que me pareceu chato, depois com Assimil e agora com PP (o melhor método!). Uma vez por semana encontro-me com um Português quem quer aprender alemão (moro em/na? Suíça) para falar meia ora português e meia ora alemão.
I have been in Porto and the north of Portugal on my own for two weeks a couple of years ago in order to see what I could understand in real life: NOTHING, at least the first two days. I was shocked and wanted to go home immediately. 
But slowly I could distinguish words and add the missing vowels in spoken Portuguese and got to like the language
Since then I returned twice with my husband and I dream of going back on my own, if possible to stay with a family or help somewhere, so that I could improve my knowledge of this beautiful language.
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Wow, you didn’t butcher it at all. I took the liberty of correcting some of it, just to help. Bem-vindo ao fórum e boa sorte com o teu estudo do português, que parece estar a correr muito bem!
@csflutist, I agree that good knowledge of Spanish, French or Italian can help make more sense out of Portuguese. At the same time, the number of false friends across all these languages increases exponentially! It can make for some very funny situations. Thank you for your kind words about our website, by the way!
@barbaraschenk, é muito bom poderes praticar com um falante nativo e conversar com ele! Acredito que vai ajudar a acelerar muito o teu progresso. A dificuldade em entender as pessoas no Porto e no restante norte pode ser também por causa das diferenças de sotaque e vocabulário (não sei qual será a pronúncia do teu parceiro de estudo), mas com o tempo, é possível habituares-te a qualquer pronúncia, desde que saibas com o que contar Bem vinda!
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Thanks, that was helpful, and I have to admit that seeing the mouth really makes a difference.
I am still struggling on the quizzes though to tell the difference between the two even when I use the tortoise mode, perhaps it’s age and my hearing not as sharp as when I was younger.
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Ah, don’t put yourself down. It really is a struggle for many people, regardless of age!
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Well, it is a fair question.
I visit friends in Portugal from time to time, so I feel it is necessary to be able to speak a little. It is wrong to expect all to speak English or any other language I know.
Portuguese are friendly people. I genuinely like them, but they are not particularly helpful in CORRECTING my wrong usage! So I have to make the extra effort myself.
I read quite a little Portuguese, but don;t understand it all. Pronunciation is not so hard. I just do it, right or wrong. It is either understood or not!
Writing Portuguese is not going to work well, as sentence structure is not taught. Rules are very elusive. One time sentence structure goes one way, another time another way, and usually there does not seem to be any logic there!
As far as UNDERSTANDING the spoken word is concerned, I do not understand the language at all. It is a very slurred language, spoken very rapidly, so unless it is spoken CLEARLY, I cannot comprehend it with any degree of satisfaction. Too many words sound like so many others, that confusion runs rampant.
But it is a challenge, and in spite of the difficulties, I am learning a little.
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Thanks for sharing, @hscharnhorst, and welcome!
Ah, yes, this might happen, maybe because they feel that it wouldn’t be polite or that it could embarrass you. It might even be due to laziness. Maybe if you make it clear that you welcome any corrections because you really want to learn the language, they’ll help you out more.
I like this. At some point, we just have to go for it!
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You are right, Joseph. One just has to try, regardless of the outcome. Personally I do not take offence. That is a bad way to go in anything. If one cannot accept legit criticism, it is hard to progress! So please correct anything I write. It is just fine! Thanks for replying.
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Sure, @hscharnhorst, if I find you dabbling in Portuguese in your future posts, I’ll try to correct whatever’s necessary. I’ve been doing it for other members as well and I think everyone benefits 
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Obrigado, Joseph. Eu tanto!
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