Speaking Portuguese in Brazil

I took a preliminary class consisting of 9 lessons when I first came here. I have used several different software programs. The most helpful to me is Rosetta Stone.  I have a good vocabulary and I can understand conversations if they are spoken slowly. I still have a problem speaking.  I walk our dog 2 times a day. people stop me asking directions. I can usually help them. My wife speaks English very well so we speak English to each other. We probably should be speaking Portuguese to help me in speaking. Sometimes making purchases if something goes wrong can be trying.

Jim

I have used private teachers while here in Brazil but what has helped the most is Babbel.com which you have to pay $60 US for one year, easyportuguese.com which is free and duolingo.com which is also free. Watch as many movies you can with subtitles in portuguese and this helps also. I am speaking fluent now in 5 months. Best of luck.

Portuguese is essential, yes. I have managed to survive but my Portuguese is still not fluent. I'm kind of stuck right now because I really NEED to be able to speak and understand more. There are times when I understand 95-100% of what some people say but then I understand very little of what others say. It depends on each person's way of speaking. Some speak fast, some slow. Some speak with a lot of 'giria' others don't. What I learned is what I learned from various CDs/books but now I am considering one of the online programs. Verbs are a real stickler for me! So many forms of a verb in Portuguese!

I agree that Portuguese is essential here - particularly in the Northeast! However, as is the case with English, there are many different "Portugueses" that are spoken at any given moment! The more formal Portuguese is not THAT difficult to "wing it" with, as there are many words that are similar to the most formal aspects of English. However, the challenging part is that a lot of Brazilian people do not really speak formal Portuguese (whether its "Brazilian" Portuguese or "Portuguese" Portuguese). The more educated people here usually do not have a lot of difficulty understanding non-native Portuguese speakers (as they are also familiar with formal Portuguese). They also naturally speak more slowly, enunciate more, and do not pepper their speech with a lot of regional slang. However, there are a LOT of people who do not speak formal Portuguese and can barely read. They also have a lot of difficulty understanding any speech that is not their own regional / neighborhood dialect.  Also, if you are not in a city like Rio or SP (where there are a lot of gringos), it can be difficult for some to conceptualize the fact that non-native speakers will carry an accent or will make grammatical errors when speaking :-D! For the most part, though, most are pretty patient. If you want to conduct any kind of business, it is worth it to hire a friend who speaks fluently, as the ability to "schmooze" in Portuguese is extremely important in the Northeast (maybe less so, the further south you go).

I understand loads more than I can talk, what's really bad of me, but it will come in time,

I speak portugese, english , bulgarian and spanish

Speaking is more difficult even though we understand what is said.

I can understand alot but cannot speak everything but i can convey my message some how thats why in these days i am kinda suffering for job just because of language issue

Bamabrasileira. I could have written the same thing. I have got the same experience.
On my side, I can read, listen, understand anything, write correctly.  However there are these awkward moments when someone just block on my accent or on just one word in a full sentence and the communication just drop (on the phone or face to face).
I have got still some difficulties with the tonic accent. Accent is on penultima syllable...except when it is not. I remember saying to our baba if she could make "a suco de maracuja". Repeating 10 time "maraCUja" and still not understanding me and looking at me incredible (fluents would understand).
Frustating

LOLOL! YES! I think the difficulty in understanding our accent(s) is that most places outside of Rio and SP just don't have a lot of foreigners to interact with, so they are EXTREMELY sensitive to anything other than their own regional dialect/accent! Where I live, a lot of the people even seem fascinated (and sometimes completely baffled) even by the way native Brazilians from other regions speak! Many regard any other accent, slang, manner of forming a sentence, etc. as being "incorrect". I think that because many native English speakers have spent our whole lives hearing the various "Englishes", it is hard (if not impossible) to wrap our heads around why many of the people here don't have that mechanism that "translates" our incorrect pronunciation or sentence structure for them :-D!

My Portuguese is pretty good, almost fluent I guess....
the hardest thing I find is actually making authentic Brazilian style "smalltalk", much harder than anything else in my opinion, I've taught technical subjects in Portuguese and it's a lot easier than conversing with a carfull of chatting Brazilian woman!

That said, for day to day getting around accent is everything, I would advise to put a lot of thought into accent and intonation and trying to speak in a casual Brazilian manner....it is quite rare now that I get the confused "Huuuoi?!?!?" or other wierd reactions from the people I deal with
Telephone can be more difficult though

Hello there everyone!

Can you all give me what you think are the best programs/apps/websites, etc. for improving Portuguese? I am an intermediate,  near fluent speaker but I do want to take the next step and speak as much like a native Brazilian as possible!

I have used Babbel. I am currently using Rosetta Stone. I think both are good.

Jim

It's the pronunciation that has me falling over my tongue.

I started out learning Portuguese using Google Translate. I then picked up Rosetta Stone to get the repetition that real learning requires. I then found Livemocha that could give me interaction and critique. I then found Babbel/. Since Livemocha I have been carrying on instructional conversations with a few people I met on Livemocha. If less slang, especially regional, is used and they're not talking like they want to win a numbers of words per second contest, I can understand quite well all the words and when I can't, I can still understand enough to stay in the conversation. That can't be said for all Brazilians that I speak with either on a regular basis or in general day to day life.  I get that slack-jawed blank look, even with really easy words. At some of the stores here where I live, that happens the most when I'm buying meats, especially bacon.

I agree that speaking Portuguese (at least at the basic level) is essential for a successful integration in Brazil.

Well, I got my basic Portuguese while still in Singapore. It was through a school in  bridgesa.net/LearnPortuguese.html when I was residing back then. It was a basic course but just enough for me to have a handle of the Brazilian Portuguese language.

When I landed in Brazil, I learned the rest of it with the locals. What worked for me after that basic course was immersion. The environment helped me to be consistent with the language. So the best place to polish the language are the streets of Brazil. There I learned not just the day-to-day language but also the slang as well as the local body language. In the beginning it was tough, I must confess, but the friendly and very forgiving Brazilian friends never took my mistakes too seriously. That encouraged me to speak even more.

Yes, knowing/speaking in Portuguese is a must, it is almost impossible to communicate without Portuguese, as very few people understand English in Brazil. One can manage with basic Portuguese.