Members Bucknaway1614502762 Posted June 1, 2020 Members Posted June 1, 2020 I want to learn to speak Portuguese, I'm looking at some learning flash cards at Amazon but I'm wondering if there is a better way. If Portuguese is a second language for you, how did you learn to speak it? sluttino 1 Quote
Members Bucknaway1614502762 Posted June 1, 2020 Author Members Posted June 1, 2020 I never tried to learn Thai, it was never needed. Brazil is different, not as many people speak English. I guess that is your way of saying you don't speak Portuguese? TotallyOz 1 Quote
Members mixer17 Posted June 2, 2020 Members Posted June 2, 2020 The app Duolingo was surprisingly effective (and free). You do have to add some of your own study on grammar, it was easy to find some learning guides online. Then I sealed the deal with listening to Podcasts. Just constant daily exposure even if it's just a few minutes at a time. Bucknaway1614502762 1 Quote
floridarob Posted June 2, 2020 Posted June 2, 2020 in bed....alcohol helps remove any inhibitions that you might have and it sure is fun learning from a hot guy. Just asking the names of different things and then a few verbs and you're off and running, lol TotallyOz 1 Quote
Members trencherman Posted June 2, 2020 Members Posted June 2, 2020 I learned Portuguese in a hurry (six weeks, the interval between arriving in Rio and cashing in my aeromiles with Air Canada) with a Rosetta subscription. Most useful language I ever acquired after English. Polished it with subsequent visits. Motivated myself with “sex needs language.” Now that there is free Duolingo, it will probably be just as effective. I finished Duolingo’s Chinese course in a year but Chinese is a literate language, meaning, you need to be able to read it by memorizing a couple thousand characters. Same motivation. SolaceSoul and Bucknaway1614502762 2 Quote
Members SolaceSoul Posted June 2, 2020 Members Posted June 2, 2020 Started with Pimsleur BrazilIan Portuguese CDs. Went from 16 Beginner (Level 1) CDs to 16 Intermediate (Level 2) CDs, then moved on to Level 3. Burned the CDs to mp3 files and uploaded them to my iPod. Bought a membership to Rosetta Stone and take lessons on the app every other day. Downloaded both Duolingo and Mondly apps and alternate taking those lessons daily. Every now and then, get together with Portuguese speaking groups for practice in person (Meetup and Facebook are good resources for this). Communicate with Brazilians through WhatsApp, email and phone — trying my best not to use translator apps, if possible. Read Portuguese and BrazilIan newspapers, magazines. Watch BrazilIan videos and news reports on YouTube. Visit Brazil often. Nothing beats language immersion. I’ve been going to Brazil regularly for 10 years, and I am still learning. I’d rank my Portuguese language skills as “proficient”, but my goal is “fluent”. TotallyOz and Bucknaway1614502762 2 Quote
Badboy81 Posted June 3, 2020 Posted June 3, 2020 Took private lessons here in Atlanta at a language school....as well as lessons with a former coworker Quote
Members trencherman Posted June 3, 2020 Members Posted June 3, 2020 A surefire way to stall fluency is to think of grammar. You acquire a language to communicate not to diagram sentences and match numbers and genders of parts of speech, and practice is still the best teacher as it has always been. Quote
Members pauleiro Posted June 4, 2020 Members Posted June 4, 2020 Every day, I listened to Assimil (French equivalent of Berlitz) CDs while going to and coming back from work by car. Before reading the text, I repeated the sounds I heard, sometimes not even understanding the meaning. This method can give you a very good accent but there is a major drawback : people think that you are fluent and start speaking at full speed ... Quote
Members davet Posted June 9, 2020 Members Posted June 9, 2020 On 6/2/2020 at 8:06 AM, floridarob said: in bed....alcohol helps remove any inhibitions that you might have and it sure is fun learning from a hot guy. Just asking the names of different things and then a few verbs and you're off and running, lol I bet you know more interesting verbs than I do. Please share. Quote
Members davet Posted June 9, 2020 Members Posted June 9, 2020 On 6/1/2020 at 5:15 AM, Bucknaway1614502762 said: I want to learn to speak Portuguese, I'm looking at some learning flash cards at Amazon but I'm wondering if there is a better way. If Portuguese is a second language for you, how did you learn to speak it? This would be easier to answer if we know more about your language experience and history. In my case, for example, I didn't study any Portuguese. I just landed in Rio with a phrase book and started conversing. But you can do that if you know any decent amount of Spanish or Italian. If you learn better by ear, then tapes and videos would be good. If you learn better on the written page, then the options are different. If your weakness is memory and vocabulary, then flash cards are great. If your weakness is grammar, conjugations, and declensions, I'm afraid I haven't figured the solution to that myself. Quote
Members SolaceSoul Posted June 9, 2020 Members Posted June 9, 2020 58 minutes ago, davet said: I bet you know more interesting verbs than I do. Please share. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0042RUF3E/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 floridarob 1 Quote