Job Discussion Forums

[Vecchia]

Hi I'm heading to brazil soon and I'm keen to learn some portuguese but I won't be able to afford lessons.
Has anyone used rosetta stone or a similar computer programme to help pick up the language?
The advert looks a bit cheesy but it's 'proven' apparently.

[spiral78]

Programmes like Rosetta Stone can be somewhat useful for raw beginners. At higher levels, they're not so....

[santi84]

I would recommend a good beginner textbook along with immersion (TV, radio, movies, daily newspaper).

I tried the Rosetta Stone (French) and I feel the structure is a bit misguided (for example - "C'est un jambon. Il est beau." (This is a ham. It is beautiful).

Whereas my textbook (Deux Mondes) introduces the chapter with Bonjour (Hello), Salut (Hi), Je m'appelle Santi (My name is Santi), Tournez a gauche (Turn left). etc... a little more practical, to say the least.

My (Quebecois) friends still laugh at me because of the ham sentence.

[Guy Courchesne]

Have you thought about a language exchange in Brazil? Find yourself someone that is willing to trade English for Portuguese...

It doesn't work for everyone but I found learning Spanish pretty easy moving to Mexico City from Canada, simply from being immersed. I had next to no Spanish before I left though I did pick up a couple of grammar books to start on the basics.

[Teacher in Rome]

I once worked with a Brazilian Portuguese teacher who has some free resources online. PM me if you'd like the link.

[warda]

I started using memrise.com to expand/brush up on vocab in my foreign languages (German and Arabic). I'm not sure how practical it is yet, but I find it to be an interesting system. It's also free. Check the beta pages for Portuguese.

[markcmc]

There are some good free Brazilian Portuguese courses available online. Try searching in the i-tunes store.

[riverboat]

To learn grammar, I highly recommend the Michel Thomas CDs. I used his Foundation course and then his Advanced course (which isn't really that advanced) to learn French before I came to France, and it was simply fantastic. It doesn't teach you a huge amount much in terms of vocabulary or "phrases" but in terms of helping you get your head round the grammar of the language (particularlly in terms of tenses) very efficiently and effectively, I think his method is second to none.

Having done a quick search I see that his method is available for Portugese. If you have an iPod, and an hour or so per day to work your way through the course, I'd say go for it.

[Vecchia]

Thanks guys, very useful replies which doesn't always happen on this forum!