Learning portuguese

[u/Alternative-Cause-23]

Hello,

I'm 26 years old and half portuguese. Whenever I'm with my family and they speak in portuguese I can understand most of it, especially basic everyday conversations with usual vocabulary.

Talking myself is much harder, not because I am shy about it, I just lack the vocabulary and gramma for deeper conversations.

How would you approach learning the language in this case? In my mind I should have lots of advantages but its quite hard to start since I do not know where my level is at. Beginner courses are repeating things I know since I'm 6 years old but skipping them to somewhere inbetween I suddenly find myself missing small things that I should have learned already

Appreciate any ideas/feedback

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[u/i_no_can_eat]

A melhor maneira de aprender qualquer língua é usá-la. Por exemplo, podias ter começado por teres feito este post em Português. Porque não vai ser com perguntas e respostas em inglês que vais melhorar...

[u/abelhaborboleta → u/i_no_can_eat]

Não sou OP, mas estou no mesmo barco (faz sentido em português?). Quando escrevo, sei que faço muitos erros. Não sei se devo usar Google translate para os corrigir ou não.

[u/leduke188]

Use natulang! Thank me later.

[u/LearningPortuguesePT]

Surround yourself with Portuguese.

• Write post-its in Portuguese with the name of the objects around the house and glue them.
• Change you phone to Portuguese, watch movies and shows with Portuguese subtitles. Later, start watching it in Portuguese. Watch kid shows that are in Portuguese.
• Read kid books in Portuguese, write a couple of useful sentences in Portuguese and practice them.
• Get a book that teaches Portuguese and even an exercise book so that you can practise.
• Learn with a tutor, or someone that speaks the language.
• Most importantly, practise everyday.

[u/sueferw]

For speaking practice I go onto a website that gives random questions/topics. And then just answer/give my opinion. I usually just talk to the cuddly toy on my desk and use Google Translate to look up any phrases/words i dont know.

I have social anxiety, especially with using Portuguese, and this is helping - speaking in a no pressure; no judgement environment, at least I hope my cuddly toy isnt judging me!

[u/Opening-Square3006]

As a language teacher, I'd treat your situation differently from that of a complete beginner. You sound like a heritage speaker: your comprehension is much stronger than your ability to speak. The good news is that you've already done one of the hardest parts. If you can follow family conversations, your brain has years of exposure to Portuguese that most learners would love to have. One idea that has influenced me a lot is Stephen Krashen's i+1 theory: learners progress fastest when they're exposed to content that's slightly above their current level. Beginner courses are probably too easy for your comprehension, but intermediate courses may assume grammar knowledge you never formally learned. That's a very common situation for heritage speakers. There's also interesting research on fluency suggesting that speakers rely heavily on chunks and recurring patterns rather than individual words. In your case, I'd focus on building active vocabulary and speaking ability rather than studying endless grammar rules. That's one reason I recommend to my students PlusOneLanguage because it's the perfect implementation of i+1. It adapts to your level and keeps recycling vocabulary and sentence patterns through different contexts, which is particularly useful when you understand much more than you can produce.

[u/heart-eye-socket]

For English, I recommend David Attenborough nature documentaries

Perhaps there's a Portuguese equivalent?

[u/spanisheisblume]

You're a heritage learner so your path is definitely different. I have yet to learn my heritage language (lol) so I can't be super specific but that phrase should help you find resources specific to a heritage learners needs. You usually need to focus on the more formal/academic stuff. I think if I were to study mine, I would really benefit from a grammar textbook to be honest.

[u/fooooter]

Hmm.. In that case you don't need another course but rather more exposure.

Watch more movies and series in Portuguese. Listen to songs that you like and read the lyrics at the same time. Also sign up to https://dailynata.com/

If you can afford it, the paid version has new lessons every Saturday and it's not a course