Update on My Portuguese Progress

I was thinking how odd it is that Spanish is one of the “easier” languages to learn and Portuguese is one of the more difficult, and yet, here the two countries sit, right next to each other, sharing the Iberian Peninsula.

Like, what the hell?

I am 16 days into my new Portuguese app and it keeps asking me to rate it. Sorry, I’m not rating it until I’m at least 30 days in. But I can tell you this: So far, I really like it.

I’m using 17 Minute Languages (and yes, that’s an affiliate link*). The first thing I liked about it was that you bought it once. I don’t like subscriptions. (Yes, I know SubStack is a subscription; the irony does not escape me.) I like to pay for something once and be done with it. It’s €60 for the “complete course” as opposed to the “beginner” course at €50. (Talk about pricing psychology!) There’s also an upsell to ALL their other languages for about €100. A great deal, but I have learned not to bite off more than I can chew.

The Buying Process Sucks.

I clicked on the 48-hour free trial (even though I’ve been eyeballing this course for over a month) and I think I got offered a discount (which probably wasn’t a discount) if I bought now! Which I did because I knew I was going to buy the course. I was just procrastinating, something I am a total pro at.

Here’s what I didn’t like: All the upsells and add-ons. When I buy something, I’ve bought it. Done. I don’t want to have to click “No thanks” to half a dozen upsells to get to the final checkout. I’ve seen the stats of how much more revenue upsells bring in; I’m in marketing for Pete’s sake. But I don’t like it as a consumer and if I control the checkout process, I don’t do it to people. I know I’m “leaving money on the table.” I don’t care. I don’t like it done to me; I won’t do it to others.

There’s a “Language Extension Package” that includes flirting in Portuguese in addition to some specialized niches (gastronomy and tourism?), that I skipped without blinking. You can ignore the upsells. Unless you want to flirt with Portuguese chefs. Valid.

Ignore them all with the exception of… There’s one upsell where you can add a friend for $20. But guess what? The offer still stands after you’ve bought the course.

Don’t let the upsells deter you. You only have to go through the buying process once. Click your way through all the “No thanks” and check out.

Where I Started:

I’ve taken the A1/A2 course offered by the government. A year of twice a week, in-person classes. The classes were good and we learned some Portuguese, but could we actually speak Portuguese at the end? Nope. Not really.

I spoke to one of the women who had gone on to the B level classes at the mid-year party.

“Can you speak Portuguese now?”

“Nope.”

Did I mention Portuguese is hard?

With the A1/A2 classes done, as well as ten Pimsleur lessons, and the Michel Thomas European Portuguese course (which is excellent, by the way, particularly for grammar), and having lived in Portugal for four freaking years, you’d think I’d speak Portuguese better. I speak “restaurant” and “grocery store” Portuguese: Enough to get you by on a daily basis, but if you need to do anything serious, fuggedaboutit.

I started fresh with this course, as if I were a rank beginner, starting with the A1/A2 and, in time, I hope to work my way completely through. My €60 also includes the travel language, business language course (three levels), and audio trainers for the A, B, and C level courses. I haven’t even started on those yet.

You can set the amount of time you want to learn each day. I choose twenty minutes and at the end of the twenty minutes, I can add on an extra five or ten if I’m feeling ambitious. I am in the groove by then and almost always click for an extra ten minutes. There’s some sort of point system for those who like to keep score. I don’t. I save that for websudoku.

Here’s what I like:

The information is presented in several different ways. There’s multiple choice, where a word is presented (in either English or Portuguese) and you have to pick out the translation (four choices). There are several voice overs, male and female. When you’re first starting out, the woman’s voice sounds out the words REALLY SLOWLY. This is super-helpful. You can hear how the words are pronounced. I notice as I go along, she’s getting a bit faster. There’s at least one other female voice that is more normal speed and so far, one or two male voices that speak probably a little slower than normal speed and clearly.

I’m a visual learner, so seeing the word and hearing it at the same time (something I didn’t get from the Pimsleur or Michel Thomas courses) makes it easier for me to understand. I mean, the word for yes is spelled s-i-m, but the M isn’t really pronounced; it’s more inhaled, like a nasal N. Sometimes an E is pronounced ee, sometimes it’s a soft e and sometimes it’s swallowed and you’d never know the E was there if it wasn’t written out.

The focus of the course so far is vocabulary. I am up to about 600 words, most of which I am retaining (and a few I have absolute blocks on!). I am getting some instant gratification as I learn more and more words.

Another thing I like is that the twenty minutes goes by fairly fast. I’m not bored. I’m not slogging through this. They mix up the learning enough—multiple choice, English or Portuguese words for you to come up with on your own, new words, old words, and verb conjugations—that my brain is happy.

That being said, conjugating Portuguese verbs is not my happy place. Yet. I took Latin in high school and university: I can conjugate me some verbs. I am awesome at present tense. Past and future? Not so much. The verb drills are frustrating as hell. They ALL can’t be irregular verbs but it seems that way! I need to go back over my notes from Michel Thomas about how the past and future tenses are formed off the infinitive and then, by gum, I think I will have it. I have finally begun getting the pattern of when the “formal you” and “they” will end in ão instead of am or em. And, I am “guessing” the forms better, which I think indicates improvement, but MAN! I will most likely keep marking myself wrong until these conjugations are drilled into my head. I also know that as I learn phrases, I won’t have to sit there and think, “Crap, which ending does the verb get for this person?”

Overall, I am enjoying this course. I do it every morning with my second cup of coffee. (Yes, I was smart enough to link an activity I was already doing with the new habit I am building.) It doesn’t take a lot of time and I am seeing progress.

Do the Claims Hold Out?

The ads that filled my Facebook feed claimed I’d be “having a Portuguese conversation” in three hours of training and “speak fluently in 50 hours.”

I am twelve hours into the course and I am not having conversations. Nor did I expect to. It might be that the path I chose—going through all the basic levels instead of starting with the Travel Language or Business Language courses. Those might be more conversation-based.

It could very well be that I am not putting myself out there to have those conversations. That will take a bit more confidence than I have right now. It’s building up. I’m constructing sentences in my head. It’s just that I know from experience if I say something in Portuguese, I’m going to get an answer in normal speed Portuguese and my ears are not yet attuned to that.

Attuned or not, I will say that I am understanding a lot more of what I hear around me: the instructions in my exercise class and the conversations of the Portuguese ladies in there. I can now add a phrase or two when I greet people on my walks and at least get the gist of a conversation that I’m shamelessly eavesdropping on.

And my reading comprehension is picking up. Which is pretty big because all official correspondence is in Portuguese. I still check it through Google translate, but I am gratified (chuffed, really) to discover that I am finally getting it.

Will I be fluent in 50 hours? I don’t think so. I think fluency will take a lot of conversations with native speakers. Which is fine, because there are plenty around. BUT, I do think this course will get me fluent enough that I will be able to hold these conversations. Right now, I have no conversational skills beyond how are you and Ay yi yi it’s hot! I hope in another two weeks I’ll be able to report back and say I have had a rudimentary conversation in Portuguese with a native speaker. Beyond ordering a glass of red wine. (I excel at that already.)

Would I recommend this course? I think I would. It depends on how you learn, but this has been a really good experience for me so far. There are TONS of other courses and apps out there. A really good one is Practice Portuguese which is about $15 a month. I just hated their intro/outro jingle that is on every five-minute session. Which sounds like a dumb thing, but it was annoying. Other people don’t even notice it. If you are intense and need to learn Portuguese fast, you would do better with private lessons and a live teacher, either in person or on Zoom.

I have my own learning process. Give me the subject and the instructions. I’ll go off by myself to learn and then come back to coordinate with whoever I need to. But I need to be off on my own to focus. That’s just me. Some people learn better with group interaction. Some learn by listening, others by reading or watching a video. You need to listen and speak to learn a language. Being able to SEE the words in addition to listening and speaking is what is making a difference for me this time around.

I’m feeling very positive about this course. There’s hope for me yet! Stay tuned for another update in a couple of weeks. But I’m kind of digging it!

*Affiliate Link: If you click on an affiliate link and buy, I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my coffee, dark chocolate, and single malt scotch habits!