Learning Portuguese (Part 5)

I have to admit I belong to the type of students who need very structured coursework, guided by a teacher inside a classroom. I cannot just learn a language by going out to talk to the locals on the streets, or by listening to a few songs, or watching a movie. I need a book and I need to read the text. If this sounds familiar to you, then it is worth continuing to read this and maybe it's time for you to change your mind about yourself.

I forgot to mention in my last few posts that before landing my first gig in Portugal, I did spend some time on the Pimsleur program aside from playing with the Duolingo App. I was very skeptical about learning a language just by listening, but after a few short sessions, I realized the Pimsleur method works quite well for me. They now have the European Portuguese available but back then it was just Brazilian Portuguese and they used the São Paulo accent. 

After a few sessions, I have improved a lot, and although the program encourages you to listen only, I cheated and made notes. While I listened, I jotted down words that I don't know, then I checked them up in the dictionary to find the correct spelling. As I progressed, I even wrote down the whole script of the session. This is not encouraged by the program, however, I found jotting down some notes useful to me.

A lot of learners of the Portuguese language complained about the difficulty in getting the accent right, and one of the few tricks is to perhaps close your eyes and listen to the recording. This holds particularly true for language learners whose first language is based on the Latin alphabet. What I noticed, for example, with English speakers is that when they pronounce some Portuguese words, they tend to pronounce them the English way. 

Eg: the town called CASCAIS, is pronounced as Kush-'Kaish
(Kush as in the u in Bus/Lush/Rush) &
(Kaish as in the i in Kite/Right)

Yet a lot of English speakers pronounced Cascais as Cash-'Kaish (Where the first syllable is mispronounced as cash in English)

When you're on a program like Pimsleur, you no longer look at the spellings and have the bias. You just listen and repeat like a parrot. You'll get the accent more correctly.

If you're a student like me who need to have a book and go to a classroom, the Pimsleur might be a good supplement to your courses. Have a try and good luck!