Fredbargate

Viana do Castelo was the first Portugese town I entered back in 1976.
I had no trouble conversing with the locals in English and the same was repeated all along the coast to Faro.

Red toms

What about the area of Pedrogao grande do they welcome Brits not speaking portugese very well?

mfesharne

I live about 10 minutes from PG and have no problem at all.

The locals are all VERY helpful and welcoming and on the odd occasion I can't make myself understood, someone will usually go off and find an English speaker to help.

As an example, I went to the market in Figueiro Dos Vinhos today and 3 different locals greeted me, shook my hand and although the conversation was fairly basic we managed to communicate fairly well.

Quite honestly, as I see it, the language problem only becomes a language problem if you allow it to......... All you need is an ipad with a translator program and a willingness to try to understand and you'll get by.

Hell, I even managed to buy a waste fitting and plug for a bath today and the guy in the shop didn't speak a word of English.

liveaboard

I also live in a village with very few English speakers; Sure, I can buy things or express an opinion about the weather, but that doesn't make a conversation.
The old folks are [as expressed by others] very friendly and welcoming to us foreign invaders, much more so than I've seen in other countries.
But just as Ukram, we feel very isolated socially.
Just 20km up the road, things are quit different; there is a fairly large expat population, and more English speaking local people too.
Just 1 or 2 neighbors would make things completely different.

gedscottish

Don't they sell Heinz ones at Continente? Never bought them though, at near 2€ a can or whatever they can keep them!

gedscottish

The tourism in Porto makes English important and obviously you are surrounded by young students so I'm sure you have no lack of English speakers, however just a few miles outside POrto and it is very different in that respect.

You say you struggle to train your Portuguese, you need to just insist and continue you trying to converse in Portuguese regardless if the other person speaks English to you or not! With my accent they have no chance of understanding my English anyway!

Red Eric

Maybe they've all forgotten.

Or maybe they're pretending they don't speak English

Seriously, though - there are quite a few English speakers round me. Huge numbers of Portuguese have emigrated over the years, many to America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, the UK even. Some have returned.

Ukkram

Most people over 20 have forgotten the English they learned at school so it is mostly the 16 and 17 year old that can have a degree of somewhat understandable English conversation.

The gov. is to introduce compulsory English second language in schools 2 years earlier than now. So 4 years may make the kids more conversant in English.

It is worth noting that English replaced French after the 1974 revolution.

Sarah19

I thought they had compulsory English classes since they were 10 or so... At least it was so for most of my PT colleagues, and not all of them were from Porto (there were also a few Spanish students and their English was unbearable by comparison). Besides, looking at their job listings, EVERYBODY has to speak English to work in Portugal.

One more thing: did you ever listen to their TV? I've lived with a couple of Portuguese girls and at first I was astonished by the amount of English (albeit AmE, sadly) that they heard every day. They don't use voice-overs, they just put subtitles on everything, which is great for them, because they get much more contact with foreign languages than most other countries. They browse in English, they play games in English (one of them even actively avoids Portuguese translations because they are mostly in Brazilian-PT, so she prefers to read it in English), they work in English... I hardly think that they forget it after they turn 20.

In my experience, at least the 20 – 30 generation of University-educated Portuguese speak at least conversational English. Some of them have a quirky accent, I’ll give you that, or use Portuguese words +ing to make them sound English, and their grammar might not be perfect, but neither is mine, especially nowadays.

Also, I get that you feel homesick, everybody does, but moving to another country is much easier and more interesting if you learn the language and befriend the locals.

Sarah19

Aren't they a "Portuguese" version of them? They just don't taste the same! Maybe it's all in my head, but they just don't taste the same

Anyway, they are expensive and they only have those. And people see me as an alien, eating beans for breakfast when they're all gulping down a glass of milk with bitter coffee.

Sarah19

That's a great idea! Next time some clerk insists very friendly and stubbornly that he DOES speak English, I'll just try to reply with a thick Scottish accent. I can't pull it of, but I doubt he'll notice I'm trying to fool him

gedscottish

Early on when I was here, well more when I was on trips to Lisbon I had people tell me "speak English as your Portuguese is poor", confidence knocking but you have to just ignore that and continue in Portuguese! Never been a problem here in the north though, vast majority are happy you make the effort! Normally these ignorant feckers usually speak pigeon English!

Ukkram

@Sarah. Have you been north of Porto? You say in capital letters "EVERYBODY" in PT must speak English to get a job. If that was the case, then only 4 people will be able to work in Viana.

I can assure you that not ONE of the 20+ employees at our Continente can even understand the word "hello". It is very frustrating as I cannot get them to explain how the discount machine works.

In our 9 months here, we have only met 2 English speaking people and they were Mormons from the USA.

Yes, we do go out most days to explore the area and don't sit at home moping.

Ukkram

Heinz baked beans in tomato sauce from Continente costs €1,73 for a 415 g tin.
Made in Spain under licence from Heinz.
Tastes good to me.

GeniB

My Garden outside Lagos was a mass of narcissus mixed with freesia's and violets this spring! My new wisteria bloomed far earlier than anyone expected (2/3yrs) in it's first year with 12 large trosses.I had blue and yellow Iris's plus of course the lovely plum blossom on several trees..The perfume was amazing with the added extra of the more exotic Jasmine that covers my front walls and around my front door. So no I don't miss spring in the Uk that much anymore.I did when I lived in the Netherlands which didn't go in for spring flowers that much apart from in the Keukenhof gardens.