Learning to speak Portuguese

1. How much did your Portuguese improve after living in Brazil for your first year?
2. Do you have any tips that helped you pick up the language faster?

Currently I'm using a combination of:
1. Babbel, Rocket Languages apps
2. Text books
3. Having small conversations with my wife daily.
4. I listen to the radio daily
5. I watch Novelas
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@john8670.  Those are all good things to be doing (except maybe the novelas -- you have a stronger stomach than I do! 😂).  I assume that you have a good Portuguese-English dictionary.  If not, you should get one -- don't rely on online resources alone.  I would add three more things to consider:

  • Start reading good Brazilian newspapers.  Both Folha de S. Paulo and Estado de S. Paulo are available online.  That will expose you to contemporary Portuguese writing at an educated register, and give you a Brazilian perspective on the news.
  • Podcasts.  Folha has a particularly good one, "Café da Manhã" every weekday morning; listening to it is part of our breakfast ritual.  It focuses on one story a day, then ends with a rundown of that morning's major stories.  It's available on the Folha site, and on Spotify.  We also recently listened to "A Mulher da Casa Abandonada", also from Folha, which your wife may find interesting because it's about a notorious case in the Higienópolis neighborhood of São Paulo.  The beauty of podcasts is that you can rewind and listen to parts that you didn't get again.
  • Listen to good Brazilian music, and don't hesitate to sing along -- nothing will teach you the cadence of the language faster.  I especially recommend the sambas of Beth Carvalho.  She made a point of singing the work of the best composers, so the language is correct but accessible.  Her diction was always very clear.  She had a Carioca accent that was lovely but not impenetrable (as they can sometimes be!), so it will help accustom your ear to something other than the Paulista accents that may be more familiar to you.
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@john8670 Duolingo is a free web site for learning languages.  Also, you can change the audio and closed caption languages on many TV shows and movies on Netflix to Brazilian Portuguese.  In that way, you can compare two languages at the same time.

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@john8670 Hi I am a specialist teacher of dyxlexic children and adults and studied the brain at length during my Psychology diploma. If you look at a child learning the process is the same and if you practice everyday you will get it in 4 years or so, natuarally others will grab it quickly but the majority not. If any friends have young children or you sit near families in cafes you will learn quicker as they reduce the level down to that of the child. Duolingo is a great free app, best of luck.

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@john8670 BTW babble isn't the best app, itis quite slow. earworms is a great product around 15 euro to download.

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@abthree Thanks for the learning tips. Looks like I have more angles of attack now!

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@timhoffnagle I will be implementing that Netflix strategy for movies and shows I watch sometimes thank you!

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@ltoby955 That makes sense thanks for the advice.

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Has anyone here had experience taking the Portuguese language test to become a full citizen? If so how would you rank its difficulty?
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08/16/22 Has anyone here had experience taking the Portuguese language test to become a full citizen? If so how would you rank its difficulty?
- @john8670

I took the test -- CelpeBras -- and passed it in 2019.  I've posted details in a thread here -- I'll find it and add a link.  I would say that to pass -- that is, score "Intermediate" or higher -- a candidate needs to speak, understand, read, and write Portuguese at about the level of a native graduate of of a good Brazilian high school -- in other words, rather better than the average native-born Brazilian, who has a primary education at best.  At my sitting of the test (May 2019), I estimate that 58.5% of the people taking worldwide it passed.

Prior to the pandemic, CelpeBras was offered twice a year, in Brazil and in test sites throughout the world.  Since then the schedule has been sporadic, never more than once a year.  Hopefully, it will get back to normal next year.

If you'd like a look at the written part of the test, the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul keeps a complete archive here, that can be downloaded for practice:



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@abthree Wow! They hold foreigners to a pretty high standard when it comes to speaking, reading and writing the language. I will be taking this test very seriously and make sure I give myself a good amount of time to prepare for it.

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08/16/22 @abthree Wow! They hold foreigners to a pretty high standard when it comes to speaking, reading and writing the language. I will be taking this test very seriously and make sure I give myself a good amount of time to prepare for it.

- @john8670

Here's that thread -- check it out:  https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=646806

Yes, Brazil is pretty lenient in granting Permanent Residency to foreigners who qualify, but much less so with citizenship.  Being proficient in Portuguese is as important for naturalization here as a general understanding of American history and government is in the US, and probably much more so.  Permanent residents have almost as many rights as citizens do here, and the most common question I get from Brazilians when I tell them that I became a citizen is "Why?"
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I will say Portuguese is difficult for an old dog like me. I have been here many years and stumble a lot. I finally was introduced to a tutor and have made gains in the last years or so One has to remember different regions speak somewhat different wording. Such as Tu instead of Voce.
I found some translator apps really do not help unless you need to find a phrase quick as in a doctor's office.
There are workbooks like Muito Prazer which the tutor has just purchased for me. It will help. It has a workbook and an exercise book. You can also download it via Spotify.
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@Texanbrazil will be checking Muito Prazer out thanks.

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08/16/22 @john8670  Duolingo is a great free app, best of luck.

- @ltoby955

I like Duolingo.  It's actually helped me correct a couple of little mistakes that I've been making for years.
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@john8670 I suspect that most countries are like that.  I know that foreigners who become U.S. citizens know a lot more about U.S. history and government than the vast majority of native citizens, who have forgotten all of what little they actually learned while not paying attention in high school....

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08/16/22 It's always 4:20 at some high school!😶‍🌫️
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08/16/22 It's always 4:20 at some high school!😶‍🌫️
- @abthree

and there are some of us that give away our heritage by knowing what that means.
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Most college-educated natives in the USA cannot speak or write the English language very well.  Cell phone, texting, and paid services to correct writing and grammar and spelling have pretty much destroyed fluency.
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@Texanbrazil will be checking Muito Prazer out thanks.

- @john8670

I will ask my professora where she found the books and get back with you.
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@john8670


I got my first steps on the English language by reading comics.  Donald Duck, Mc Scrooge were my childhood favorites.   Read lots of  faily news papers. Even the lame Gannet Co owned dailies.


At college, |I could not argue, but I could ask and listen to . 


Some people go to movies., 


And no, you do not have to sit through  soap operas.  Try US  Syndicated Series.  They are all dubbed.

Starsky and Hutch, Columbo, The Waltons, the lame US reality shows,


A lot of the best ones came this side of the shores



Here comes the brides

High Chaparral

Zorro

Knight Rider

McGiver ( it is often used as butt of jokes out here )

Daniel Boone


It also helped I was a library rat.



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I am a specialist English language teacher and work with dyslexics across our little world, You need either a personal tutor one-to-one or a good language app, Duolingo is set towards Brazilain Portuguese more so than Portuguese Portuguese, Earworms is another great app and very cheap based on the music and rhythm. Books don't really hit the mark unless you are working through the book with a native speaker. It is a long process, we tend to forget that a child immersed in listening and attempting to speak their mother tongue takes around 10 years.

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08/16/22 @john8670 Duolingo is a great free app, best of luck.
- @ltoby955
I like Duolingo. It's actually helped me correct a couple of little mistakes that I've been making for years.
-@abthree

Duolingo is a bit hit or miss, it's almost useless for some languages imo (example:Vietnamese), but I've heard it can be quite good in others. I always recommend to check out l-Lingo as well (I'm not sure, it might only be available for iPhones). L-lingo isn't free, but not expensive either (50$ for about 100 short lessons), and certainly worth a look, especially for beginners.

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But you mentioned Brazilian Portuguese which is perfect, slightly different from Portuguese Portuguese but that is due to numbers, Population of Portugal where I currently live is 11,000,000, and Brazil is around 209,000,000 so it would be crazy not to serve the largest population. The differences are small and I used that app along with earworms and living with mainly Brazilian people here. The secret is to try and learn as a child would, read children's books and watch children's cartoons on tv.  I didn't like Babble or I'lingo Michel Thomas is another waste of money, I am a specialist English language professor so I taught myself in the same way as I teach my students.

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