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Portuguese language lessons?

Posted by (Maryland, USA) on

I am looking for recommendations for audio Portuguese language lessons. Can someone recommend some websites or audiobooks or podcasts that teach European/Continental Portuguese? Most everything I have found focuses on Brazilian Portuguese. I found a Pimsleur short course, but it only has 10 lessons that don't get you much past 'do you speak English?'.

However, I do have the the Pimsleur Brazilian Portuguese course (someday, Brazil...). Would Brazilian Portuguese be too different from that spoken in Portugal for me to understand or be understood? Or could I get by on it? I'm only planning on two days in Portugal, but I like learning languages, even if all I do is check into a hotel and order dinner & drinks in that language. :-)

Obrigada!

Posted by
1506 posts

Brazilian Portuguese is still Portuguese. A slightly different pronunciation and a few different words. Lots of Brazilians travel to Portugal and vice versa and are understood perfectly. You shouldn't have any problem.

Posted by
141 posts

Thanks! I wasn't sure if the pronunciation would be so different that I'd just be lost.

Posted by
2447 posts

I visited Portugal, using some rudimentary Portuguese I had learned with help from a Brazilian woman at work. I could make myself understood, and it seemed, for the most part, that people appreciated that I was trying. I was amused to find that some people thought I was French (I'm American) - I guess that was the difference in pronunciation at play. The Portuguese I heard there sounded surprisingly Slavic to me.

Posted by
415 posts

You could try the BBC site

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

I have not taken Brazilian Portuguese, but I have taken Portuguese through the Portuguese consulate here in Toronto. I then tried Rosetta Stone's Brazilian Portuguese and was immediately confused by their conjugation of the verb "to drink". I asked my teacher about it and she said that this form was the gerund and an old form of the verb not used in modern Portugal.

When I went to Portugal, I found that all of the younger folks speak very good English and we did not have any problems communicating. In fact, someone always volunteered to help us or find someone who could.

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