Old, but free way to learn Portuguese

[Eric Menchen]

https://www.fsi-language-courses.net/fs ... ic-course/

[Glenn E.]

The problem with this is that it's Brazilian Portuguese.

Duolingo, which I've been using, has the same problem but at least on Duolingo there's a lot of discussion about the lessons that you can access and in those discussions there are always people explaining the differences in usage between Brazilian and European Portuguese.

Not that I'll necessarily remember them when trying to dredge up some word out of my memory, but others might.

[David Spriggs]

Have you looked at https://www.practiceportuguese.com/ ?
I haven't played with it much and it seems a bit advanced, but it is continental Portuguese.

[Bryan H.]

Another option is www.portuguesewithcarla.com

There are quite a few free situational lessons on there.

[Eric Menchen]

The problem with this is that it's Brazilian Portuguese.

That is the problem with just about any source, certainly Rosetta Stone and Babel, and Pimsler after level 1. I'm going to look into some of the sources mentioned earlier. There is also the Portuguse Lab channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb0zJh ... fzcZdU0Xkw

[Bryan H.]

I've done the Pimsleur level 1, on my third pass through it now. I find the method pretty effective, and would probably have pretty good retention if I didn't take 3-4 month breaks every time I listen to a few lessons. I figure if I keep going through it, hopefully a bit more will stick each time. Sure do wish they had more than level 1 though.

[Eric Menchen]

I too have done the Pimsleur European Portuguese three times, but then what? I bought Rosetta Stone Brazilian Portuguese, but I've been pretty disappointed in it, even besides the fact it is Brazilian. Oh, and Google Translate is Brazilian as well.

[Glenn E.]

I have also done Pimsleur European Portuguese 3 times, and yes it does stick better each time.

What's great about Duolingo is that it encourages you to do just a tiny little bit every day. And it's that constant practice - even if it's just 10-15 minutes - that really helps with retention. I'm at (IIRC) a 157-day streak now and allegedly know 440 or so words. I've already noticed a few differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese, but everything I've been told is that the Portuguese can understand either, it just make take a double-take or two for them to realize that it isn't just your American accent that's weird, it's that you're also speaking Brazilian.

And this phrase helps:

Por favor fala devagar, só estou aprendendo português.

(Please speak slowly, I'm just learning Portuguese.)

[Eric Menchen]

I think Brazilians and Portuguese can understand each other, but I found this line interesting:

The choice is even more striking with Portuguese; long ago I opted for Brazilian and to this day I still can't properly understand speakers from Portugal.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/lear ... index.html

In my limited learning, Brazilian seems more Spanish-like, pronunciation in particular, whereas European has some more English-isms, pronunciation and grammar. At least one thing I read suggested that Brazilian is more like old Portuguese, and the European has actually drifted more.