# learning portuguese, help!



## TBjockNY (Jan 9, 2012)

Hello,

So im gathering my documents to apply for nationality, and i was told that the portuguese government has approved courses,programs,etc in the US that i would be able to take in lieu of going to PT to take a language test. Does anyone have any experience with this? If anyone could recommend some good books, videos,etc on learning european portuguese id be greatly appreciative!

I keep finding brwzilian portuguese books, and i know thats not what I need. Thanks so much!


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

Shouldn't the Portuguese Consulate have information?


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## Akashi (Oct 29, 2012)

Hi, I don't you level of knowledge, but if you are a beginner, basic Portuguese is fine, and you can probably learn that from books to teach Brazilian Portuguese. The difference is as much as Britsh English and American.


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## TBjockNY (Jan 9, 2012)

I am VERY beginner; and the NY Consulate hasn't been very helpful whenever I've been able to get through to them.


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## Akashi (Oct 29, 2012)

Well, I have exchange e-mails with the Portuguese embassy here, and the answers were fantastic! I had to e-mail them to my family in Brazil and we all laugh together. About learning Portuguese, I use to teach when I was a student, there are very few books, even for Brazilian Portuguese, but there were some good sites on the net, sory I don't have the link. The pronunciation is a little different and some words the spelling are a little bit different (they write like my granny used to) , but if you are a begginner that must work. Start with Brazilian Portuguese and be patient with the embassy, singing bossanova songs may be a good way to learn the pronunciation


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

If your moving or need to take Portuguese Language test for Nationality then you *don't* want Brazilian Portuguese, it will just create problems for yourself.
I presume if your gathering documents you must be 2nd generation Portuguese, do you need or have to take the Language test??


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## anapedrosa (Mar 21, 2011)

Hi,

Here are a couple of links you might find useful.

The first is a link for an online program the second for a free site where you can submit work and have it reviewed by native Portuguese speakers. I've tried the second and am thinking about signing up for the first.

Centro Virtual Camões 

Livemocha


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## TBjockNY (Jan 9, 2012)

I'm applying as a grandchild of a national; I wouldn't need the language test if my father would get his nationality, but i cant seem to convince him he wouldn't lose his american citizenship if he obtained his PT one. But, I can apply by myself, I just need to take the language test now.

yes, if im going to learn the language i want to learn the language actually spoken in Portugal, I don't want to be confused.

anapedrosa, thank you for the links those are great!


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## GitGud (Oct 14, 2012)

Brazilian portuguese is absolutely disgusting. The gap between BP and (proper) portuguese is much greater than the gap between US and UK english.

Do NOT read brazilian stuff.

You can try this site called My Language Exchange (I can't post links, so you gotta google it), it works like this:
you register as an english speaker wanting to learn portuguese and you get in touch with portuguese speakers wanting to learn english. Again: beware of brazilian people. Not because they are brazilian, but because they speak brazilian "portuguese".

I would also recommend watching movies and TV series with portuguese subtitles on.


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## TBjockNY (Jan 9, 2012)

Thank you UniG appreciate it! Yeah, when i realized there were two different types, i started looking up proper portuguese! Very elusive, to get actual books on european though!


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## JohnBoy (Oct 25, 2009)

GitGud said:


> Brazilian portuguese is absolutely disgusting. The gap between BP and (proper) portuguese is much greater than the gap between US and UK english.


Is that still the case? My PT girlfriend is always complaining how her government is determined to adopt Brazilian PT. Already some spellings and use of accents has been officially changed. If that is the case it might not be such a problem as you think.


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## anapedrosa (Mar 21, 2011)

Brazilian Portuguese is different from European Portuguese. There is a program to adopt common spelling, and there is some resistance to that program. There is a different pronunciation, for example a palatalization of d and t, though spelt the same, they sound different.

The judgement made by GitGud is their judgement. A person may choose to have biases against or for languages, dialects, accents. In the end we are all people using language to communicate. How dull life would be if all was the same.


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## GitGud (Oct 14, 2012)

JohnBoy said:


> Already some spellings and use of accents has been officially changed. If that is the case it might not be such a problem as you think.


It is true that some spellings have changed (and consequently the use of some accents) and I, reluctantly, accept them.

However the difference is much greater than it might look like.

For instance, I'll watch a movie in english without subtitles without a problem, but if I wanna understand everything in a brazilian movie, I gotta put subtitles on.

It's not just the accent, it's much more than that. Even reading colloquial brazilian "portuguese" can be drag.

One minor correction: it's not that we adopted brazilian "portuguese", what happened was that all portuguese speaking countries adopted a common spelling.

You can read about it here.

Regarding what Ana said: even though I have prejudice against brazilian "portuguese", there are pratical difficulties in dealing with it which are undisputable, at least in my case.


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## acorey (Jan 16, 2012)

TBJockNY!!! Get your father on board!! I cannot emphasize this enough! There is ample documentation of the legal precedent regarding US policy on dual nationality. There is NO law against it in the US or in Portugal. Unless he is trying to get top secret clearance, he has NOTHING to worry about. Except the hassle of registering himself, and your Mom with Portugal.
I did this. If you search my user name you will find a detailed description of how. 
If you can research Portuguese study books, you can research citizenship law..
I was fortunate (and surprised) to get my father to do this. I paid for everything, but he made a few trips to the consulate.. He enjoyed it. He got his Passport before I got mine!
You are definitely doing this the HARD way... Even if you had to hire a lawyer to explain it to him it would be worth it..

Best of luck!

AC


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## Stuartrox (Apr 25, 2011)

I'm in the UK and want to learn Portuguese as I'd like to live in Portugal at some point. I'm using the Michel Thomas CD course. It's a very different way of leaning a language and I greatly improved my French using the same method, it seems to work for me. It also focuses soley on 'Portuguese' Portuguese. You can also buy a 2disc introduction to the course to see if it works for you before buying the full course. Don't know if that's of any help!


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## geoshina (Feb 16, 2013)

GitGud said:


> Brazilian portuguese is absolutely disgusting. The gap between BP and (proper) portuguese is much greater than the gap between US and UK english.
> 
> Do NOT read brazilian stuff.
> 
> ...


Hello  

GitGud, I think that she could realize the overall prejudice of portuguese people against brazillians by the time she gets there. In a way I feel that many portuguese feel their sense of pride and nationalism attacked because of the changes that are happening in the language. It is strange and somehow shows insecurity. This never happens in UK over the use and mastery of the english language when it comes to the USA. I think this is simply because language is supposed to be universal. Isn't it? 
I say that your anger and the anger of many other portuguese people is simply the fact that you in Portugal also consume brazillian culture, whereas the same does not apply at all in Brazil. Soup operas are not that much popular anylonger, but I think that it's one thing that really brought the brazillian portuguese so close to you guys. And bossanova, and mpb. And the fact that Portugal itself have less people than the whole city of São Paulo. 

Now.. about languague. 
Portuguese is a very complex one, with lots of different rules when it comes to write. 
One thing to note is tha the brazilian portuguese uses a lot of __ing: going, doing, sleeping, making, telling while in Portugal is it not something commom. 

Here is a website which might help: 

learningportuguese.co.uk


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## GitGud (Oct 14, 2012)

To be honest I couldn't care less about how much brazilians consume portuguese culture or the other way around. I don't care about that sort of rivalry.

I don't hate brazilians, in fact I hope more them come to Portugal because that also means more brazilian women will be here.

I just think the name that's given to the language spoken in Brazil (i.e. brazilian portuguese) is misleading. Would you say the language spoken in the UK is English German? I don't think so.

Even though I might have transpired that I hate brazilian portuguese, that's not exactly how I feel. What I hate is the fact that it's called portuguese just as if it was the language spoken in Portugal (or close enough). It isn't. My point is just to try to let people know that they are two very different languages.


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

It's not really about liking or hating it's about spelling, pronunciation, words and accent, Portuguese is hard enough to learn without having to re-learn and cope with regional accents when you can get European Portuguese tapes, discs etc


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## Ash Jez (Feb 17, 2013)

I'm trying to learn EP and I have noticed differences between BP and EP. My advice would be to stick to just EP so as to save confusion. Linguaphone do a course for EP and their are other but most others are only basic for EP. The net is helpful also. In the case of the net, be careful that you find a EP site as most are BP.


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## Niamh (Nov 22, 2011)

The grammar is pretty easy to find online. 

You can practice listening and test your understanding by watching shows and news reels on RTP. RTP - Rádio e Televisão de Portugal

I know very little about the actual structure of the language and the differences between BP and EP. Accents in general though can leave me scratching my head for ages. The people I know from Sao Paulo are fairly easy to understand but some of the others . . . they sound like they are speaking a foreign language. 

Then again those with a strong Azorean accent are equally difficult to understand sometimes.


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