Pimsleur Portuguese language course

I broke down and bought the Pimsleur European Portuguese. I tried the Brazilian, using Pimsleur, Babbel, and Duolingo, but never really hit my groove.

You might try your local library’s equivalent of inter-library loan, but as far as II can tell, Pinsleur level 2 is only available online or as a download.

You might also look at Ebay for the first 12 lessons of level 1 on CD. Using those is what convinced me to buy the course. It was different enough from the Brazilian variant that I felt I was pretty much wasting my time.

The basic grammar is similar, and much of the vocabulary is the same (not all!), but the pronunciation and tempo are drastically different.

Do you have access to the Seattle Public Library? From what I see, they offer free access to Mango, which is an online language learning service. I'm using it right now for Italian, and like it much more than Babbel, which I tried several years ago for German, which wasn't very effective for my approach to languages.

At the risk of being chastised by others, Brazilian Portuguese would get the job done too. Like Spanish, the basic language and grammar are the same. Where you’d find differences are in the verbs used, some nouns, idiomatic expressions, and local pronunciations. For example, some verbs and nouns used in Argentina are completely different than in Madrid, but the structure is the same. You would be understood. If you know Spanish, many words are very similar and you could just pick up the basics while visiting.

Thank you all for the ideas. I do have membership at SPL and will look for Mango. eBay also a good idea although I have not bought anything off eBay in 15 years or even longer. lol

I’m going to search again before starting the Brazilian Portuguese lessons.

To go along with what jaimeelsabio said above; I was recently in the Azores, and had intended to learn the language, but got distressed by finding mainly Brazilian courses and not European Portuguese course. I did what I could to learn at least mandatory phrases, which seemed to be appreciated. In conversation with the hotel staff, they indicated that if I would have learned Brazilian Portuguese, they would have been able to understand and converse with me. So, I believe what jaimeelsabio said is correct, and that Brazilian Portuguese would be far better than none.

It makes a difference. While I suppose some Brazilian Portuguese is better than nothing at all, take a look at www.practiceportuguese.com. I used it a couple of years ago for a brush up and it was very good.

I have a friend who speaks fluent Brazilian Portuguese. I asked him how different the two were, and he responded:

The difference is somewhat like that of Arkansas English and Scots English; something of a challenge for non-natives (like me) but manageable after a few stumbles between native speakers

So I've had fun imagining a conversation between a person from the Scottish highlands, and an Arkie from the Ozarks.

Linda,

If you want to see a good technical description of the differences between the two versions of the Portugese language, have a look at this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXitW0IDAjQ (it's about 15 minutes long). The same presenter has lots of other videos on many different languages. Although Portugese is part of the "romance languages", I found it quite different from Italian, Spanish or French.

I'd probably focus on the version that you want to learn for travel. I've used the Pimsleur system for Italian and French, and that worked well to learn the basics.

I too have studied Brazilian Portuguese, though my priority was European Portuguese. And though I haven't been to Brazil, the impression I get is that the two varieties are fairly similar in grammar, syntax, and vocabulary (though of course each country has its certain unique words), and differ more in phonetics. So definitely look for study materials in European Portuguese if that is your priority, but if you cannot find anything satisfactory, then yes, I do think it would be advisable to study Brazilian Portuguese; you will probably be able to make the transition from the one form to the other fairly easily. At the same time, try to listen to European Portuguese on the internet, at least to acquaint yourself with its sounds.
And on my one trip there so far (2017), I did find that on mainland Portugal -- as justsweetjs, above, discovered in the Azores -- that people did seem to appreciate it when a tourist tried speaking Portuguese.

Over my years of travel to mainland Portugal (6 times) and Azores(4 times) I have never needed to learn more than the obrigado/a and a few other simple phrases,just to be show effort. But anything else is not necessary.
English is almost universal among anyone younger than 60.
In the Azores, you likely to hear American English with a Boston accent from Azoreans who returned to retire there.
The Portuguese are some of the most helpful and kind people you will ever meet.

Bom dia and Obrigada.

I found an audio program through my library and have been learning conversational Portuguese. The program is good for basic communication when traveling within Portugal. It’s called: Collins Easy Learning Portuguese. Enjoying the conversational aspect and the repetitive format.

Thanks, Linda. I'll look into it.