Learning Portuguese

Dan-Brazil speaks Portuguese...its the same language as is spoken in Portugal. Its kinda like England and the USA. Same language but different accents and slang. I lived in Brazil for over a year and learned to speak fluently. I did just fine in Portugal speaking and understanding I just had to speak a little more slowly and listen to the slight differences and slang. Last I checked Rosetta Stone has a Portuguese program...good luck and have a great trip

Thanks Terry! I speak Latin American Spanish and did fine in Spain, so maybe it's a similar difference between Portugal and Brazil. I find it makes such a difference to be able to communicate at least a little bit in the local language.

Living Language by Random House produces both Brazilian and Continental Portuguese courses. I bought the Continental course cheap on Amazon.

If you decide to invest your time and money in Rosetta Stone, be aware of what you're getting. It shows you how to put together baby sentences like "The red car is old.", but offers virtually nothing in the way of conversational speech. Even the so-called "Advanced Levels" offer only relatively simple and useless examples of the language. If you have no prior experience at all with a language, Rosetta Stone might be useful as a bare-bones introduction. But don't expect to gain any kind of fluency.

Personally, I have found the "Tell Me More" series infinitely better than Rosetta Stone, but the program requires some prior knowledge of the language. And, I can't guarantee they publish a Portuguese edition.

I personally like the "In-Flight" Learn Before You Land Series. It helps you with tourist language basics, the kind of language tutorial one may need when they don't need to know that "the car is red" or "the monkey is on the table". Plus it comes with a booklet, perfect for those who need to read, hear, say & write the language before they comprehend language (like myself).
I get these programs at my local library. I download them into my computer and make reduced size copies of the booklet to take with me on my trip.

Go to travlang.com, then to foreign languages for travelers and then click on the Portugese flag. The phrases are pronounced for you in useful categories--traveling, dining, general, social greetings, and the all- important shopping. I've been able to get around in many languages by memorizing salient phrases. I even learned and used Zulu in South Africa.

oprah44

Dan,

DO NOT get Rosetta Stone. If you are just visiting, buy Pimsleur CD's at your local Barnes&Noble. Or, order them online. They are listen and repeat lessons...they break words up into syllables, and teach you exactly what you would need to know for visiting a country.

A brief story for you...i used The Pimsleur Method CD's for Swedish. The exact scenario the CD's gave me occured for me in real life as soon as I got onto a train leaving the airport. The man i spoke to said he could not believe how well i spoke. i was a little shocked, but what i leared helped tremendously.