Learning Portuguese (Part 2)

To say I've zero knowledge of the Portuguese language is no longer that true. At least I can order my food without problems. I often joke with my Portuguese friends that "Quando estou com fome, falo português fluentemente. Mas normalmente, não conheço nada." (When I'm hungry, I speak fluent Portuguese but normally I don't understand anything)

Back in 2015, there were not many learning resources in European Portuguese. Most available courses were in Brazilian Portuguese. One might argue it's still Portuguese, just like American vs British English. So what's the big deal, right? I'm not interested to debate which option is better, but if you have 0 knowledge of Portuguese and planning to be in Portugal, the choice is obvious. Go for the EU version. The accent is completely different. 

Without many available options, I practiced my Portuguese using the Duolingo APP which offered Brazilian Portuguese only. During my first days here, I realized the one can find himself in a faux pas when speaking the Brazilian way. The Portuguese laugh about that a lot. Again, I am not going to dig into the debate due to my limited knowledge of the local culture and history, but you don't get very nice reactions from people if you speak with a Brazilian accent. I have Brazilian colleagues and friends who told me they prefer to speak in English because of this. The few who did so manage to pass off as Americans as they live in Miami and speak English like a native speaker and as a result, they were treated with more respect. Of course, that was their side of the story. Most Portuguese I come across are quite relaxed and friendly even if your Portuguese is horrible like hell.

Notable differences I quickly realized.

Neighbourhood Names:
Alfragide: PRT (Al-fra-jeed) vs BR (Al-fra-jee-jee)
Moscavide: PRT (Moosh-ka-vid) vs BR (Moss-ka-vee-jee)
Alvalade: PRT (Al-va-lad) vs BR (Al-fa-laa-jee)

Words:
Toilet: PRT (Casa de Banho) vs BR (Banheiro)

As soon as I realized Duolingo is not perfect (but to be fair, it helped me to survive my first few days here), I decided to attempt something different. The Instituto Camões offers e-Learning from Level A1 to C1. Each level lasts about 3-4 months. Tuition is also very affordable. I enrolled in both Level A1 & A2 and chose the PREMIUM option which offers a weekly online 1-hour lesson with a teacher from the institute. Each level costs about €320. You have other choices available and tuition is cheaper if you choose to study without the weekly meeting with an instructor.

My experience with Instituto Camões was not bad, but I didn't feel I'd improved a lot. 1 hour per week with the instructor is not enough and you have a lot of written assignments. After all, it's a distance learning course and at such low tuition, one can't expect too much support. But if you're aiming to improve your writing and reading skills, and if you're the kind of student who is very self-disciplined, this course can be an option.

I attempted this course back in 2017 and as of 2022, I'd say I've forgotten almost everything I learned, particularly those grammar rules and verbs! 

In recent years, another online resource that became quite popular, especially among English speaking expats in Portugal is Practice Portuguese. Not your typical language course curriculum, it focuses more on listening skills. For €15 a month, this is quite a bargain to pick up some essential phrases. If you manage to master all the provided materials on the website, I'm sure you'll be able to get by without much problems immediately! I have just tried out the website a few times, but it's a bit too basic for me at my current stage. But I think this is a very good and fun platform.

Another APP I'd like to recommend is DROPS. They do have a European Portuguese version and your vocabulary will improve drastically after using it for a while. Again it's very basic, but you'll pick up quite a lot of survival Portuguese in a short period of time.