How did I learn portuguese..?

1)      Find your will to study!

In my opinion, this is the most important point. You need to find a will to study.

Once you get yourself a good reason to study, then the studies will go easily.

When I came to Brazil for the first time, I could not say much. Just the basic phrases – „Bom dia, obrigado“. That was it. Nothing more than that. It is a pitty because if you do not speak the local language you will most probably not be able to talk to people on the streets, make friends, manage things and so forth. My intention was to come back to Brazil at least one more time and I really wanted to understand the world here. I was surrounded by my girlfriend´s family and everybody wanted to talk to me but I just could not talk to them as they spoke in portuguese.

My motivation for speaking portuguese was to enjoy Brazil in the real way and understand people around me. From my point of view, if you want to spend longer period of time in a foreign country, than the knowledge of the local language shows respect and people will appreciate that! They will treat you in a different way, better way.

2)      How should I study portuguese while out of Brazil?

This was the first obstacle. There are several ways, hundreds of applications, thousands of schools, hordes of teachers. When I started i did not really go for any of these. I had a huge advantage – native speaker. My girlfriend who is Paulistana – born and bred in São Paulo.

Everything started in February 2016. One night I decided that I want to speak portuguese. We had our regular skype call (I was in Prague, she was in São Paulo) and I told her to speak in portuguese. Simple sentences. Things like “how are you, how was your day” etc. It was really tough at the beginning as I did not understand a word. But every day as she was repeating the same sentences, I could get and absorb words. Then I was putting together words and creating sentences by myself. It was not grammatically correct but I was talking.

Apart from that, I was reading news at a Brazilian website – www.globo.com. At first everything seemed to be “Chinese language” as I did not understand at all. I was reading every day, translating every single word. After a couple of months I could read and speak better. Also an important part of my studies was listening part. My tip would be to browse on youtube and type in “easy Portuguese” and get yourself some Brazilian experience from the streets!

3)      When in the country

Everything gets much easier while you land in Brazil. You get surrounded by portuguese environment and it´s really hard to find english speakers. This is the best way to learn the language.

What I also found really useful was talking with people on the streets. It may sound weird, but never lose any opportunity to talk to people (no matter whether they ask you for a direction, offer you leaflet, etc.). Take this as an opportunity to talk, to speak. To lose fear of talking. Another great place where to meet locals is „centro cultural São Paulo” where you can talk to anybody and practice your language.

Another very important thing is to find school. Find language school which would help you with portuguese. There are dozens of schools, but I have personal experience with german/portuguese school located at avenida paulista. Wunderwelt-a.com.br. They will adjust the classes according to your needs.

Good luck people!