bons

I know it's been mentioned before and I have looked at online courses free and one-to-one. The latter seem to be very expensive, but I just can't motivate myself to learn online by myself. Duolingo would be great, but they won't do European Portuguese someone posted on that site that it's too similar to Brazilian so they won't repeat a language, but I disagree, the pronunciation is different an many words are different. I feel it's better to learn what you want immediately. Does anyone know of a course similar to Duolingo but European Portuguese?

A really good phone app would be good, because I need to learn by listening a lot. I can often read, but not hear it.

scot47

Linguaphone used to be the way.. I used it many years ago - not for Portuguese but for Afrikaans.

bons

I'm looking into it, thanks.

fergus

If you really want to learn proper European Portuguese then this is a good place to start. https://www.practiceportuguese.com/

They have good resources and you can pay monthly. There are lots of videos and dialogue. There is lots of on trend stuff and they have a sense of humour. Grandma (she is Rui's real grandma, features in some of the videos) which makes them feel very real and less contrived than on other sites.

Here is a link to a video of theirs on youtube.

bons

Thanks. Have you used it?

bons

That looks quite good and I like the fact that you only pay monthly and if you don't like it you can cancel anyway.

toots sweet

There is a government site to start off and continue to learn. At first I thought it was quite good, but there are questions(re family etc) which you can copy the answer from the site,but you are then told the answer is incorrect. They offer a tutor ,but I'm still waiting.....Also you need a portuguese keypad(is it poss to convert my laptop) as (eg) you want to answer avo(grandfather) the english keypad can't type the accent so you get the answer wrong. So have gone off it a bit, as you can't proceed until you have finished that particular lesson. If it worked properly I think it could be good. Maybe its me. Here's the website(free) https://pptonline.acm.gov.pt/

bons

I did look at that a few months back and for some reason I didn't get on with it. I think it may have gone too quickly, I like a structured approach to language learning and I think I found that I didn't know a lot of the words in an exercise. Not sure though I can't remember. I thought I'd look again, but it seems I have to re-register, not just log in. Thanks any way, it may be useful when I learn more skills.

Lelandy

Memrise is a good free app with options to spend if you want more. It's a good starting point for European Português

riv

On the Portuguese keyboard issue............. that at least is easily resolved.......... you can just buy a cheap one at a supermarket that sells HiFi stuff for less than €20 and plug it in. (You have to change the EN at the bottom rhs of your screen to POR also ).
If you are not in Portugal you can also get one from Amazon.

Two other suggestions : get a good TV and check out when there are Uk and US imported programmes. NB this does not require an internet connection......just ordinary TV through the air.

They all have Portuguese subtitles and you can pick up quite a bit of colloquial Portuguese from them. The MEMÓRIA channel has programmes like The Saint and so on........... great fun.

If you need the discipline of an actual course to attend, check out online the Cursos de Verâo para Estrangeiros which most of the state Universities run. Certainly Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra have them ( not sure about the Univ of the Algarve but they may well do ).
The Propinas ( Fees ) are modest and they usually have a cultural / visits programme as well as the actual classes......... which are given by highly qualified Univ Lecturers.

of course 2020 it's all been up the creek, but I would expect them to be back for summer 2021, albeit probably with health precautions, even when everyone has been vaccinated.

campos

I use this and Duolingo. I prefer Memrise-; it has short real life videos of people saying various phrases.
Also watch Euronews and other PT channels.
One of the few books out there on Euro Portuguese I found was Learning Portuguese, by Walker and Tavares.. It sells itself as a study companion, less then a language course in the traditional sense. It highlights Brazilian Portuguese where necessary.

barlaventoexpert

Agh! Nee Man!!

toots sweet

For me,learning PT hasn't been too much of a problem in as much as I can read it and can generally know what is going on. The problem is the aural/oral side. I watch a lot of TV and if there are subtitles I will read these instead of listening to the english version.(deaf in one ear!) The difficulty is when the portuguese speak (and I am married to one)!! There are many different dialects which makes it hard, and the nasal(rounded?) manner in which they speak really stumps me. If I ask my OH to translate something, I have to ask him to "speak properly" because of all the conflicting sounds.(i.e without accent,dialect etc) This happens in a lot of the learning websites. And that's not to mention all the masculine,feminime,verb conjugations etc etc!

bons

The aural/oral sound is the part I struggle with. I was using Duolingo and doing well at it. I stopped because I knew it would only impair my ability to hear European Portuguese. Verb conjugations are a problem, especially the irregular ones, but I know a bit of Spanish so that has helped with verb conjugation. I think I did OK on our recent trip as a person who speaks very little Portuguese. I managed to make myself understood for the basics.

bons

I've signed up for this: www.practiceportuguese.com I'll let you know how I get on with it. Unless that's advertising.