I am on a quest to learn European Portuguese.
June 11, 2017 6:57 AM Subscribe
I am planning a trip with some friends to Portugal in November, and I've been designated as the 'learn Portuguese' member of the party. I'm using Memrise, which I really enjoy, but I think I need some additional materials to help me out. Easy books to read, activity books, or maybe podcasts in Portuguese? I'm not sure what would be best.
Memrise has been really fun so far, and I'm learning a lot of words and phrases, and picking up a lot of grammar along the way. It has an audio and video component, which is great, but I'd like to supplement my learning with some reading or translating activities. I do not need a dictionary or phrase book - something that either forces me to look at a bunch of Portuguese sentences and translate in my head, or asks me to say/write Portuguese would be ideal. I just started level 2 of 7, so I'm still firmly in the beginner stages, but I hope to get through all levels in a month or two.
I haven't studied a language since college (which was Latin), and I haven't tried to speak another language since middle school (Spanish). Is my best bet to buy a beginners level textbook, maybe a teacher's edition? Or maybe find kids books in Portuguese? Where is a good place to source these types of things? I've briefly checked Amazon and didn't see much. And to restate - I need resources in European Portuguese, not Brazilian.
Obrigada!
Memrise has been really fun so far, and I'm learning a lot of words and phrases, and picking up a lot of grammar along the way. It has an audio and video component, which is great, but I'd like to supplement my learning with some reading or translating activities. I do not need a dictionary or phrase book - something that either forces me to look at a bunch of Portuguese sentences and translate in my head, or asks me to say/write Portuguese would be ideal. I just started level 2 of 7, so I'm still firmly in the beginner stages, but I hope to get through all levels in a month or two.
I haven't studied a language since college (which was Latin), and I haven't tried to speak another language since middle school (Spanish). Is my best bet to buy a beginners level textbook, maybe a teacher's edition? Or maybe find kids books in Portuguese? Where is a good place to source these types of things? I've briefly checked Amazon and didn't see much. And to restate - I need resources in European Portuguese, not Brazilian.
Obrigada!
From my own experience, I would recommend minimizing the reading and maximizing the speaking/listening. For me at least, reading Portuguese gave me a false sense of accomplishment because it was fairly easy to do with some other knowledge of Romance languages (as you have). I could read a Portuguese paper in a cafe, and then not even be able to place an order intelligibly! I would use my time exclusively on podcasts, etc. If you must read, I enjoyed Steven King in Portuguese and The Name of the Rose in Portuguese, both of which are pretty accessible (you'd be surprised).
posted by 8603 at 9:13 AM on June 11, 2017
posted by 8603 at 9:13 AM on June 11, 2017
Are you familiar with language exchanges? Done via skype. Search for someone who's fluent in Portuguese and learning English. Last time I looked most of the sites had exercises, games, suggested questions, etc., to give you something to talk about, if needed.
My 1000 words in Spanish allowed me to read a fair amount of Portuguese earlier this year. But the difference between how a word looks and how it's pronounced ... yikes! But I plan on returning, so this site is helping with audio bits for vowels, consonants and diphthongs and sample words. Unfortunately, it's not by phoneme.
posted by Homer42 at 9:30 AM on June 11, 2017
My 1000 words in Spanish allowed me to read a fair amount of Portuguese earlier this year. But the difference between how a word looks and how it's pronounced ... yikes! But I plan on returning, so this site is helping with audio bits for vowels, consonants and diphthongs and sample words. Unfortunately, it's not by phoneme.
posted by Homer42 at 9:30 AM on June 11, 2017
The Portuguese language Institute has some materials online. I was just playing the Aprender->Ouvir section and that is the Lisbon dialect in there that my wife and I know and love. It has its own rhythm which takes some getting used to.
posted by vacapinta at 10:16 AM on June 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by vacapinta at 10:16 AM on June 11, 2017 [1 favorite]
My go-to recommendation for language learning is LiveLingua, which hosts training materials developed by Peace Corps, the Foreign Service Institute, and the Defense Language Institute, which are by dint of their government funding public domain, but which the US government itself is not required to pay for public hosting (and thus, doesn't). Looks like some of the FSI stuff was developed using mostly Brazilian sources but intended to prepare the student for European and African use as well (FSI needs to prepare people for any country with a US Embassy where they speak that language, so probably it balances the regional variations pretty well), and at least one of the DLI sources was developed in collaboration with the Portuguese government.
posted by solotoro at 8:51 AM on June 12, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by solotoro at 8:51 AM on June 12, 2017 [3 favorites]
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posted by veggieboy at 7:02 AM on June 11, 2017 [4 favorites]