Here’s what you will find interesting Joseph! Soon after the Portuguese left in 1961, the families who were most favoured (usually those who intermarried, worked in high positions in the government, converted to Christianity from higher ‘castes’ in the Hindu religion), continued to speak the language and set themselves apart from all the rest even after the Indian government took over! To this day, these families continue to speak fluent Portuguese (Atleast the elders!) and maintain close ties with family in Portugual (Many decided to leave with the Portuguese). The Catholic church still continues to archive very important Portuguese records and owns many lands (Usually donated by rich families, confiscated during the inquisition etc). We still have a Portuguese Consulate,Fundação Oriente, research libraries, archives, a rich Portuguese heritage, impressive churches, the incorruptible body of St. Francis Xavier etc.). You may want to read my book DONA PAULA by Joseph Canisius Dias, available on Amazon, that is set in 1667 in Goa.
Thanks! I have written more to respond to Joseph’s question. You may find that interesting too. LEt me know if you want to plan a trip to Goa. I can help 
Thanks for detailing, @jodias27, I had no idea. Also, Fundação Oriente does some very interesting work, at least from what I’ve seen here in Lisbon
My son-in-law is from Portugal and is teaching my one year old grand-daughter Portuguese (of course!) and I want to learn too. It is very difficult! I have been to Portugal three times but many people speak English, plus it is very hard for my ear to hear Portuguese and it sounds a little ridiculous when I try to speak it. I am glad to find this forum and also that PP has an INSTAGRAM! I read that on here somewhere and never even thought to check but now I can stay connected on my phone… which is appealing (hint hint to PP for some mobile quizzes and basic lessons perhaps through an APP???)…
Welcome, @eugenewj, thanks for posting. Portuguese is very difficult indeed, but I’m sure that with baby steps (like your granddaughter’s!), you’ll continue making at least some progress. Actually, we can learn a lot from how a child learns a language -> processing sounds first and figuring out the meaning later. Especially in your case, since you have trouble with listening comprehension, I think you could explore more of this approach and see if it pushes you further faster
I began my journey to learn Portuguese mainly because I’m dating someone who’s Portuguese, in an attempt to impress her 
. Admittedly, however, I wasn’t serious enough about it till I actually ended up moving to Portugal a few months ago. Living in a city where a lot of the people you actively interact with (shopkeepers, handymen, bus drivers, cabbies, etc) don’t speak English has really fuelled my need to learn the language and be fluent in it asap. “Practice Portuguese” has basically been a godsend in that regard!
I’m not saying that a plan is already in motion, but I also won’t say it’s not. 
Ahah, lucky her! And welcome to Portugal 
Hope you’re more or less settled in by now and enjoying it so far.
Thank you! I’ve more or less settled in, but I’d enjoy it a whole lot more if it wasn’t so hot 
Just something else I need to get used to, it would seem 
It’s worth it however, because this is just such a beautiful city in a beautiful country!
This is a great topic I’ve really enjoyed reading everyone’s’ reasons for learning.
I’m learning because my husband and I moved to portugal in January - We fell in love with the beautiful countryside and relaxed lifestyle while visiting with my in laws last year. They are originally from South Africa and missed the warmer climate so they had moved over the year before.
There are a few English speakers in our town but most people only speak Portuguese so its putting the pressure on to learn But we’ve been so lucky everyone is really patient with us and go out of their way to help us understand.
My grandfather was born and raised in Madeira, but moved to South Africa in his young adult life. As a result of that, my father and the rest of us were born in South Africa.
While we are a huge family here in South Africa, so few of my seniors speak Portuguese. We were brought up only speaking English and Afrikaans.
Two of my many passions in life right now are to:
- Teach myself, my wife and my 2 kids to speak Portuguese
- Move us to Portugal in the near future
Still early days, but I’m persisting 
Eu já estudei 4 anos porque estou envolvida num groupo que falem Portuguese na igreja. Temos alguns brasileiros e pessoas do azores e mesma pessoas do cabo verde.
E uma desafio para me a Saber ou entender tantos sotaques
Ao pouco eu fiz um teste de DNA e encontrei que tenho 10 percentagem do DNA Portugues então fico muito felize a ter a capacidade de falar a língua um pouco.
Também quero fazer uma viagem lá em breve e acho que é important tentar a falar a língua porque é uma maneira de conhecer o povo de pais mais profundo…
Obrigado pela mensagem, @cleah89. Deve mesmo ser difícil ouvir tantos sotaques diferentes em português. Boa sorte na tua aprendizagem
Obrigada pela ajuda.
Claro, de nada!
Ola! My name is Jedd a.k.a xGoje and I want to learn Portuguese so I can speak to my grandma 
Welcome, @jedd. I’m sure your gradma will appreciate your efforts!
Hi I was born in the UK to Portuguese parents. I understand Portuguese but for some reason myself and my siblings never learnt to speak Portuguese fluently so we would reply to our parents in English which seems a bit strange as Portuguese would have been the main language spoken at home until we went to school. When I was 15 I visited Portugal for the first time and stayed with family but was unable to communicate with them because of the language barrier and when I tried to speak a few words I would be laughed at because of the pronounciation. This has frustrated me over the years because I have been unable to teach my children how to speak Portuguese. Anyway I have been studying practise portuguese for the last few months and my husband and I have just returned from a trip to Portugal starting in Porto then onto Lisbon and then down to the Algarve. At first I was a bit reluctant to speak but eventually I got the confidence to have a go, whereas before studying this course I was unable to put a sentence together because of the lack of vocabulary. I was surprised that I was able to remember a lot of the phrases and managed to put sentences together so much easier and quicker. The best bit is they understood what I was saying and didn’t reply in English. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to be able to finally be able to speak Portuguese after all these years. I have a long way to go as I’m not sure I could have a full blown conversation with anyone but I feel so confident that this will happen one day.
This is very sweet, @Dalia_carter Welcome and thanks for the post! I can relate, as someone who always spoke Portuguese at home even when my parents talked to me in French. I did learn enough French to not only understand it, but also communicate, but I’m also a bit frustrated for not being as fluent as I could.
Me and my husband have been going to Portugal each year for the last four years. Our hobby is trail running and we have discovered an excellent organisation offering multi-stage trail run events in the Peneda-Gerês national park and the Douro valley. We keep coming back because it is so beautiful and well-organised and the people are so nice (by now, they are like family). Some of them speak English, some don’t or only a little. So we figured we’d learn Portuguese. We even want to move to the north of Portugal at some point, but this plan is in very early stages!