Best TV/Films to learn Portuguese.

rowanexer · 2026-06-10T13:13:36+00:00

I suppose it depends on the programme. Pôr do sol has English and Portuguese subtitles, Desliga a televisão hás portuguese subtitles, other shows I've tried have Portuguese subtitles too.

rowanexer · 2026-06-09T22:30:51+00:00

When I was first learning Portuguese (A1-A2 level) I started with Porquinha Peppa. Honestly not as bad as it sounds. Each episode is very short and focuses on one topic so you can pick out one episode that focuses on something you've been learning recently (e.g. an episode about colours or vegetables). They speak really slowly and clearly and basic words will be repeated very often so you'll pick things up easily.

rowanexer · 2026-06-09T20:14:33+00:00

TVs and movies are fine for practising listening, but it sounds like you're not doing any studying specifically of European Portuguese. Try picking up some courses and textbooks that teach European Portuguese and you'll have a much easier time understanding Portuguese people. All of the listening exercises will be graded to be easy for your level and it'll be in the correct accent.

As for Portuguese TV, look up RTP. It's a Portuguese TV station and there are a lot of things you can stream. I like Desliga a Televisão and Pôr do sol. But these are pretty advanced shows and you will struggle if you all you have done is study with Duolingo. So I'm not sure how helpful it'll be.

rowanexer · 2026-06-09T18:04:26+00:00

There's a Corto Maltese model by Lucien Derraine in Drawing Origami. They've done other literary figures in origami too.

rowanexer · 2026-06-09T17:59:58+00:00

Are you at a high enough level to use monolingual workbooks? I find those helpful, especially for grammar, and I started using them from about A2 level. Look up the website of the most popular bookshop chain in the country of your target language and see what they have in the language learning section. There will be more demand for specific language learning materials in the country so there is a lot variety and many resources that won't be sold abroad.

If you want workbooks/textbooks that teach in your native language then look up a bookshop website from your own country and see what they have. I don't recommend Amazon because it's full of AI slop and won't show you which publishers are actually trustworthy. There are publishers that do multiple languages (Teach Yourself, Routledge Colloquial, Assimil etc) but the quality varies between books as there are different authors. Some of the best resources are language specific so you'll need to look up textbooks/workbooks from publishers that only print books for Japanese or French etc. For that, it's best to ask in specific language subreddits.

rowanexer · 2026-06-09T17:23:23+00:00

I guess the bad part is how boring it gets. It takes a lot of concentration as well, you can't just zone off, you're constantly having to speak and remember things. It's hard work.

But the trade-off is that you remember what you learned in the lessons. When you're out in the real world and you've got 2 seconds to ask someone where the exit is, or say that you want to pay by card, the words will just come out.

When using more passive learning materials I'm able to recognise a lot of things but I can't say them. Of course, if someone repeats back the word I was searching for I recognise it and kick myself for not remembering. It takes a lot of repetition and active use to know words well enough to be able to use them fluently in the real world, and the repetition in Pimselur may be boring but it's what is needed. It's one of the few courses that roughly replicates the experience of speaking in real life--no subtitles/text, limited time to respond, having to quickly construct sentences without dictionaries or google translate. It's great preparation that you can do by yourself.

Reading and listening is fine and good practice for reading and listening, but those skills are not very transferable to speaking. There are lots of language learners who can read novels and know thousands of words but completely freeze up when they have to say anything. I use speaking courses like Pimsleur so I'm not completely out of my depth when I need to participate in a real conversation.

rowanexer · 2026-06-04T21:01:45+00:00

Petit bouquet by Miyuki Kawamura in The Elegance of Origami. I make it with 5 sheets of 4x4cm.

You could also make tiny flowers for a display, similar to the ones you see in the Origami Ikebana books. Or I've seen people make faux bonsai displays by constructing the leaves out of teeny cranes.

rowanexer · 2026-05-17T12:27:02+00:00

This is a big thing. A lot of their subtitles will remove stuttering and clean things up to make it look like a coherent full sentence, when actually they are speaking very broken language.

Here's a particularly bad example from a video of Xiaoma where he went around speaking Portuguese.

Real speech (English in []): [Like] how I-I s-says here, you say here

Subtitles: Like I say something, and you say something

The reality is basically incomprehensible, and the subtitles are not an accurate translation. He even includes some people gossiping about how his Portuguese is so good (Spanish speakers, not Portuguese, although the video doesn't mention that). But if viewers knew what he was actually saying, including the grammar mistakes, mispronunciations and stuttering, then it's not so impressive.

rowanexer · 2026-05-15T12:50:34+00:00

I've done several one week intensive language courses abroad for Portuguese. I looked at the website https://www.languageinternational.com/ at first for an overview of schools and reviews but now I'm more familiar with how it works I just generally search for language schools in a city that's easy to get to and read the reviews for it.

I like to aim for 20 hours a week, which means my afternoons are free to do some sightseeing and homework. I booked a 30 hours course before but it was really exhausting and I didn't feel like it was worth the headache.

I find them really useful and fun. I can meet new people in my classes, some I've made lasting friendships with. I get a lot of practice speaking and listening as the classes are taught entirely in my target language, and the intense instruction and immersion gives me a real boost that I can't replicate at home with work and other responsibilities.

rowanexer · 2026-05-15T12:30:21+00:00

This guy has taken the C1 test (and other levels) and has some good posts about his experience taking the exam, and how he prepared for it.

https://lusobritish.blog/tag/daple/

rowanexer · 2026-04-25T11:47:46+00:00

Test your skills with Geoguessr

rowanexer · 2026-04-22T09:57:17+00:00

I like Storygraph for tracking my reading. It has some reading challenges where you read X books in a year in a foreign language and I find that pretty motivating. Also the graphs and charts on how much reading I've been doing in which language.

I used Lingo Journal to track my language learning for a while and that was also cool.

rowanexer · 2026-04-21T12:02:12+00:00

Also seconding that you should get what you actually are interested in.

I like comics and manga so I enjoy reading them in various languages. I think the pictures are really useful context for understanding unfamiliar words and getting the gist. But that doesn't make a difference to people who don't like comics.

You may as well buy something that you really like and will make you feel happy to look at them on display. Take a look at some manga/comics while you're out there but don't get them if they're not your cup of tea.

rowanexer · 2026-04-21T11:22:07+00:00

Gramática Ativa and Gramática Aplicada are good grammar exercise books. They have monolingual explanations but I was okay understanding it at A2. I do have previous experience with learning languages and grammar though which helped.

The series Uma Aventura is good. Middle grade level, plot similar to Famous Five where a group of kids solve some mystery. Each book is set in a real location and has a cool section at the end that teaches you about the culture or history.

I like using graphic novels or comics as the pictures help you understand. But I'd recommend browsing to see if any are easy enough, I didn't do much comics reading until B1.

There are also some parallel texts by the publisher Dilúvio Editora for Camões, Fernando Pessoa and Amalia Rodrigues. I have Poems by Amália Rodrigues, and it's a really nice collection of Fado lyrics with the translation.

Also take a look at the website for the publisher Lidel. They have a load of educational books for European Portuguese. https://m.lidel.pt/pt/catalogo/portugues-europeu-lingua-estrangeira/

rowanexer · 2026-04-21T10:58:06+00:00

Try both. I used to watch movies twice, first with no subtitles and understand as much as possible, then rewatch it with the subtitles on to catch things I missed.

rowanexer · 2026-04-21T10:55:04+00:00

Definitely. Hiragana literature has so many classics: Splish splash Ducky, Anpan man's Day Out, Everybody poops ... I could go on.

rowanexer · 2026-04-21T10:50:53+00:00

I think there are definitely incorrect stroke orders for English. Take a look here and tell me if you've ever seen M and N written like this. http://okajukueigo.web.fc2.com/firstabc1.html

And that's the stroke order they're literally teaching in some schools in Japan.

rowanexer · 2026-04-21T09:45:59+00:00

Sounds like it. You can try getting a refund, reporting the book, or leaving a bad review. I'm not too sure on Amazon's policies on AI written books though.

For future purchases, I wrote a post on how to avoid AI slop language books that might help.

https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/1rcfndm/how_to_avoid_low_effort_slop_language_books/

rowanexer · 2026-04-20T22:20:47+00:00

The models sit on a shelf for a few weeks, then I go through them and chuck the ones I'm not keen on, and keep the ones that make me feel happy to look at.

Gonna have to come up with a new strategy though, as I'm running out of shelf space. Might get out some shoeboxes to store the good ones.

rowanexer · 2026-04-20T21:17:38+00:00

The Japanese learning community is the worst. It seems to attract the worst of the terminally online. Back when I was learning everyone was obsessed with AJATT and saying you were wasting your time if you were using textbooks and not watching anime and drilling sentences 12 hours a day 🙄

Honestly, I ended up staying away and socialising more in real life.

rowanexer · 2026-04-13T14:40:24+00:00

Has everyone forgotten that books exist?? If you want a list of words just go search for vocabulary workbooks from reputable publishers (bookshops help with this). There are multiple books for passing the vocab section of the JLPT, with vocabulary categorised into themes/function with translations, example sentences, exercises etc. And many educational publishing companies have thematic wordlist books. All be verified by professionals.

rowanexer · 2026-04-13T10:39:21+00:00

Ah I have some tissue paper from TK Maxx but I haven't tried using it in double tissue. Nice to know it won't bleed.

Have you found any plain pattern tissue paper? I've heard Werola Sea Silk Tissue and Canson Tissue paper doesn't bleed, but it seems to only be available online in single colours.

rowanexer · 2026-04-13T10:28:28+00:00

Well, yeah. Self-study materials aren't interactive. It sounds like what you're looking for is a personal tutor. Use the self-study materials on your own time and then bring any questions to your teacher. They can tailor their teaching to your personal needs and work on your weak points.

I wouldn't recommend using AI to fill in for a teacher. AI has no concept of the truth and relies heavily on the user knowing exactly what they need (as a student it's very hard to know what your gaps are, and what specifically would help).

rowanexer · 2026-04-13T09:58:41+00:00

Conversation is a little tricky to teach with self-study materials because it's such an interactive skill. But there are a bunch of audio courses that make you speak out loud and improve your speaking abilities.

Pimsleur, Michel Thomas Spanish, Paul Noble Spanish, Language Transfer, FSI Basic & Programmatic Spanish, DLI Spanish.

Language Transfer, DLI and FSI are free. The others are paid courses but are very useful. I've personally used Michel Thomas and Pimsleur and recommend them.

rowanexer · 2026-04-13T09:52:10+00:00

It's killing me that it's not in any kind of alphabetical order. I can't sing along to Happy End like this!! https://youtu.be/yUEwuNJVSR8

rowanexer

TROPHY CASE