by Ramses on December 4, 2010
In order to become better than the average Portuguese speaker, I have to take in Portuguese audio like a madman. In an earlier post I explained that it’s my goal to watch at least five hours a day Portuguese television. However, the problem is that I don’t really have five hours per day to only watch television.
That’s why I “hacked” my workspace. Ok, it isn’t really a hack, as I just added a netbook to the mix. Let’s see what my workspace looks like when I’m working on my blogs or when I’m writing essays for college: [click to continue…]
by Ramses on December 1, 2010
Beginning my Portuguese experiment, I want to watch crazy amounts of television to actually understand what people are saying to me. Now, the easiest way to get Portuguese television would be getting a sattelite dish and a smart card to receive Portuguese and Brazilian stations. Unfortunately I’m not so technical when it comes to this, nor do I have the money to buy the equipment. Luckily we have the internet nowadays.
I’ve compiled a short list of the 5 main sites I use to get shows and movies in Portuguese. [click to continue…]
by Ramses on November 30, 2010
I'm on a diet. A Portuguese diet, to be precise.
I always like to compare language learning to following a diet. Like in a diet, there are dos and don’ts you have to stay true to. Doing something ‘bad’ for a day or two can set you back several weeks, especially in the beginning. That’s why I’ll have a strict diet for the first 1000 hours of my Portuguese learning. That means 200 days, if I’ll spend five hours per day on Portuguese, but I guess it can be less if I spend more during the holidays.
Now, spending five hours a day on a language may sound like a lot, and maybe it is, but those hours are spent in the most relaxing way possible: watching television. [click to continue…]
by Ramses on November 29, 2010
Do I have the right mindset?
Let’s summon all the languages I’ve dabbled with, or tried to learn. I’ll start with the first language and work all the way down to the last language I’ve had a struggle with. Let the humiliation commence!
All the languages I’ve studied at some point
1. English – As it seems, I’ve mastered it pretty well. I still make the occasional mistake, but hey, I’m only human!
2. Russian – My second foreign language. Bought some crazy expensive books and courses, invested a great deal of time and effort in learning the basics, but I soon quit because of my lack of knowledge on how to learn languages. [click to continue…]
by Ramses on November 28, 2010
Are the differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese really that big?
As I explained in my first post, I will be staying in Galicia for at least three months. This period may get longer, but three months is the minimum. Now, I know that’s not nearly enough to learn Galician to fluency, so that’s why I won’t even bother.
Instead I’ve chosen Portuguese as my next language to learn to fluency. Living in Galicia can actually help me to reach that goal, as Galician and Portuguese are like brother and sister. The question rises: What dialect should I learn? European or Brazilian Portuguese? [click to continue…]
