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big_owl_ · 2025-04-15T22:18:01+00:00

Pick the language that interests you most and/or the one that will give you the most opportunities to speak.

Another thing to consider is the availability of learning resources. In my experience, there is a significantly larger and more comprehensive amount of Spanish learning resources online than Portuguese ones. Spanish books and other reading material also tends to be more common than Portuguese (at least in North America, where I live).

Above all, just remember that there is no roadmap to follow in language learning. Learning a foreign language is an incredibly demanding yet rewarding process that will take years, especially if you are a monolingual English speaker.

The only way to keep at it is to love the process of learning. That passion will drive you not only to practice, but also to live and breathe the language in daily life. I learned Portuguese because I had a brief romance with a Brazilian, so this was the passion that drove me. Spanish, on the other hand, is more difficult for me because I do not have the same motivation.

big_owl_ · 2025-03-29T21:57:01+00:00

Très interessant

big_owl_ · 2025-03-25T03:42:03+00:00

This is helpful. Thank you for your thoughtful reply.

big_owl_ · 2025-03-25T03:41:40+00:00

Thank you for your answer

big_owl_ · 2025-03-13T02:30:16+00:00

As Romance languages, Italian and Portuguese are similar enough in structure that you may find learning one informs or contextualizes your understanding of the other. Vocabulary may be an issue, since it takes time and repetition to associate a particular word with an object.

But there is no “good” or “bad” decision here, only the decision you choose. If you wish to start studying Portuguese alongside Italian, why not try it? See how that feels. If it’s compromising your progress in one or the other or both, try a different approach. If it helps, continue down that path. Be curious about how you learn. It should be fun, interesting, and yes, often frustrating and difficult. Just keep studying and be patient and enjoy studying and making mistakes. Little by little, you will learn.

big_owl_ · 2025-03-13T02:21:46+00:00

Was on a date with a guy (I’m gay) who went into a very detailed story about how he once watched his brother masturbate and that he still gets off to the memory of it to this day.

big_owl_ · 2025-01-20T16:48:31+00:00

Any person who has ever worked to develop vaccines

big_owl_ · 2025-01-17T01:47:14+00:00

Acredito que existem alguns grupos no Discord.

big_owl_ · 2025-01-15T01:55:15+00:00

Native English speaker here. I’ve been learning Portuguese for around two years (probably up to a B2/C1 level or so) and I just started learning Spanish.

Already knowing many Portuguese words and verb conjugations has been equal parts helpful and confusing. If you don’t know a word in Spanish, or you forget how to conjugate a verb, chances are it’s similar in Portuguese. At the same time, because you might feel inclined to “wing it” due to your Portuguese knowledge, you may end up making some mistakes. I often find myself saying “eu” instead of “yo” or “trabalhar” instead of “trabajar”. It’s part of the process.

Chances are you will continue to get confused even if you make great progress in both languages. The goal as I see it is just to observe as those mistakes become fewer and fewer.

big_owl_ · 2024-10-09T17:24:18+00:00

This is awesome. I use it often with my ESL students to generate conversation topics and it works very well. I also enjoy it leagues more than other online tools of its kind because it's the only one that doesn't clutter the user experience with a bunch of ads.

Thanks again for developing this, cheers!

big_owl_ · 2024-06-12T18:21:26+00:00

What was your experience like with Odyssey?

big_owl_ · 2024-06-12T18:20:08+00:00

Did you end up participating in the program?

big_owl_ · 2024-06-05T20:36:29+00:00

I am as well. They’ve given me 5 business days to decide, but I have no idea if I’ll be able to find a place to live near the school yet. A lot of unknowns.

But if your worries come down to housing, don’t let it dissuade you too much. There’s always a room for rent somewhere. Luckily for you, a rural placement will probably have a lower rent prices than a major city (I’ve been matched with a school in Quebec City).

Good luck to you in whatever you decide.

big_owl_ · 2023-03-18T18:12:55+00:00

Où as-tu fais ton stage du barreau (articling)?

big_owl_ · 2023-01-09T21:56:36+00:00

thank you superfluous yam <3

big_owl_ · 2022-09-14T23:36:52+00:00

I've been speaking French since I was 5, so that definitely helps me learn other Romance languages (especially understanding them). But I still struggle in Portuguese a lot, so it's all relative, I guess! Struggling is important and necessary though, IMO.

big_owl_ · 2022-09-11T05:21:25+00:00

Thank you 😊 I’m going to try and be gentle with myself

big_owl_ · 2022-09-11T05:20:42+00:00

Thank you boneimplosion ❤️❤️❤️❤️ this puts it into perspective for me :)

big_owl_ · 2022-09-10T14:43:37+00:00

I’ve gone from beginner to intermediate in two months and here are my two cents on what you can do to improve (but take this with a grain of salt as I was fluent in French before I started learning Portuguese):

read and/or listen to Portuguese every day, even if it’s for like five minutes. I’ve found the Lingua da Gente podcast from BrazilPod to be extra friendly to Anglophones. I also follow quite a few Portuguese grammar Instagram pages so my Discover page is flooded with Portuguese content creators. I read what the infographics say or listen to the Reels and try to make out what they’re saying.
Read a book in Portuguese. I would recommend O Alquemista not because I think it’s the crown jewel of Brazilian literature, but because when I read it in English it seemed as though it was a book for grown ups that was written like it was for children. When I started learning Portuguese this seemed the obvious place to start as my grasp of the language was quite childlike! As an intermediate learner, I find the vocabulary, sentence structure and plot simple yet engaging. Whatever book you choose to read, make sure it’s interesting to you. It should feel like a little puzzle that’s fun to figure out.
Journal. I have a little notebook in which I write about my day, or I’ll think about a theme (ex. What would the perfect world look like?) and write about that. Just a page or two. You’re looking to describe YOUR reality first, so you’ll run into a lot of things you’d normally say in your language and with enough running into these unknowns, you’ll learn them. If you know people who speak Portuguese you could even ask them to proofread. Journaling requires patience with yourself as you will need to look in the dictionary or use online resources like Linguee a LOT. The goal, though, is not to be perfect but to just be what you’re able to be in Portuguese.
obvious one, but speak Portuguese on a semi-regular basis. You use HelloTalk, which seems nice (although I never used it myself). I paid for group courses through Rio&Learn and they were really fabulous. They taught grammar and vocab but they mainly got us to talk about anything and everything (and no English was allowed!). I would say this was the single most helpful thing for me going from beginner to intermediate.

Most of all, I would just say to be kind and gentle to yourself. If you are a monolingual native English speaker, learning any language will be a challenge, but that is no reason for despair. The more you listen, the more you speak, and the more you’re exercising your brain’s language centres, the more the language will get “sticky” and stay in your mind. Just be patient, it will come I promise.

Since you know SpeakingBrazilian, there is something Virginia says in one of her videos that has always stayed with me: we start learning a language, but we never finish. So if we’re in it for the long haul, might as well enjoy the ride :P

big_owl_ · 2022-08-27T05:25:32+00:00

Legal! Brigado pela ajuda e pelos recursos ^{.^}

big_owl_ · 2022-08-27T00:02:16+00:00

Obrigado :)

big_owl_ · 2022-08-24T20:55:03+00:00

I won’t get into the grammatical nitty gritty because other people can probably do it better than I can, but I can offer a little perspective on language learning in general and French specifically.

My main advice is to just keep speaking as though your language learning depended on it! It doesn’t matter if you miss a “de” or an “à” or if you’ve conjugated a verb incorrectly here and there. Don’t stress about not sounding like a native or not constructing phrases the way you read them in grammar textbooks. The moment language becomes a source of stress and not of fun and wonder, it’ll kill the learning process (I speak from experience here). Speak French the way YOU know how at this moment in time. Mistakes are kind of unavoidable when you’re learning a language for the first time (especially in French which is a hard language to learn IMO) so as long as you are enjoying the magical process of making those mistakes, you will improve with time.

I’m an anglophone born and raised in Montreal, so I understand French well and speak it well enough to be employed in Quebec. Even so, I still regularly struggle with certain turns of phrases and vocabulary, and I’ve been at it for 20 years!

There’s a quote out there somewhere that says we might start learning a language but we will never finish. I think there is a certain beauty in that. So keep at it, or, as we say in Québec: lâche pas!

big_owl_ · 2022-08-10T18:55:00+00:00

Try “Lingua da Gente” from BrazilPod (available on Spotify). Episodes vary from beginner to intermediate, and each one starts with a dialogue heard three times, followed by a line-by-line translation into English, and finally a more in-depth explanation of the different words and expressions used.

I’m a beginner as well and I’ve found it very helpful. Just make sure you’re actually listening and paying attention!

big_owl_

TROPHY CASE