wulfblat
2/24/2017 22:56 EST
My wife and I will be traveling to Portugal in October, and I thought it would be fun to begin learning Portuguese before we left.
Because I am learning on my own I am hoping to find a book with a companion CD or on-line audio content.
There are a number of on-line recommendations for books & CDs for learning Portuguese, and using those I purchased two different books (BBC Get By in Portuguese, and Teach Yourself Portuguese), but unfortunately both begin by presenting phrases to practice without first teaching the vocabulary or basic grammar used in those phrases.
I realize that this style of teaching languages is popular, but it is not how I learn.
I suffered through a year of Spanish taught in this way, leaving it in complete frustration.
Then my first semester in college I took Latin. The professor handed out old and tattered books published in 1929 that introduced you to a small vocabulary, the declensions and conjugations for those words, and some pronunciation. After you mastered that you used the vocabulary in simple sentences. Then you moved on to more vocabulary and more rules.
That class was a revelation and a joy, and I continued to take Latin through my college years.
Can you recommend something like that for Portuguese?
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MaskedMarauder
2/25/2017 11:37 EST
Here's a neat site that has the old State Dept. language courses. The best part: they are free! Includes text and tapes to download.
https://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/languages/fsi.html
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MrBife
2/25/2017 12:56 EST
This one is worth a look too ... https://www.practiceportuguese.com/
Lots of free content to experiment with to see if you like their method
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JAfan333
2/25/2017 20:12 EST
Make sure you use an audio source - the spoken language <-> written connection is not so easy to follow for beginning English speakers and following Spanish conventions often gets it wrong. We've been working with Duolingo for a while, but that's at a pretty low level. A very good print resource is "Portuguese-English Visual Bilingual Dictionary" - N. Tait (DK, 2016 https://www.dk.com/us/9780756662097-portugueseenglish-visual-bilingual-dictionary/) which uses photos and illustrations and can be something to peruse during down times.
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Auburngrad82
2/25/2017 20:59 EST
I'm using a free app called Memrise. I really like it. It uses a lot of repetition to drill the words into your memory. So far so good. I've worked through Portuguese 1 and I'm about a third of the way through Portuguese 2.
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wulfblat
2/26/2017 17:52 EST
Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions. You've given me some alternative resources to investigate.
If worse comes to worse I might hire a tutor to customize a curriculum for me (this worked for learning French).
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ESprotte59
2/28/2017 16:59 EST
Hello, I have another recommendation. For the last several months I have been taking Portuguese classes (we use Skype). My teacher Sandra, now lives in Pittsburgh, has lived in Brazil and Portugal and is beyond wonderful. Her rates are outrageously fair. Here is her email:
sandrascanoni@hotmail.com
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Tadeo50
3/2/2017 17:40 EST
I've been taking classes through Skype via www.italki.com
The name of the teacher who lives in Northern Portugal is
Joel Alves.
He is amazing and very very good teacher. His price is $18 and hour.
I highly reccomend him.
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Edomshep
3/29/2017 16:45 EST
Hello,
I am moving to :Portugal (American born) but also a Portuguese citizen via my parents. I speak Portuguese but also need some practice. The grammar and verb conjugations can be very complicated. If you are going to visit, there is one app that is useful for basic words and phrases. I believe the first language download is free. Is it called Memrise. Also, make sure you are studying European Portuguese and not Brazilian Portuguese. The dialects are different. Rosetta Stone doesn't have European Portuguese but Brazilian Portuguese. Another language software that is less expensive and I heard pretty good for European Portuguese is Pimsleur. What area of Portugal will you be visiting? It is a beautiful country! I live in California is very similar to here. There might be some rain in October but the weather should still be nice. We are planning to move this year to the Lisbon area. I have been there several times because I have a lot of family there. You will have a wonderful time!
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wulfblat
3/31/2017 11:25 EST
Thanks for the reply and recommendations.
I have been careful to ensure I've been looking at European Portuguese resources. Pimsleur is much like the other language programs I have tried: it presents lists of words and phrases with no explanation of how the language works.
We'll be in Portugal from October 25 through November 15. We'll start in Lisbon, then spend a week horseback riding to the northeast of Lisbon, followed by some time in Lagos, Coimbra and Porto.
Rain is fine -- we live in Oregon and are well used to recreating in the rain.
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