O curso de português

…and the things it taught me about learning languages on my own.

Bem, vou começar com um pequeno parágrafo em português para practicar um pouco. Faz alguns dias, terminei o material do curso de auto-aprendizagem que tinha comprado no ano passado. Como sei espanhol não foi difícil entender a gramática (básica). Também as dois línguas têm em comum tanto vocabulário, é fácil entender textos escritos. Mas às vezes frequentemente confundo as terminações dos verbos ou pronuncio uma palavra portuguesa de modo espanhol (e tendo para usar palavras espanholas que não existem no português). E lamentavelmente o curso só vai até o nível A2 do Quadro Europeu Comum de Referência para Línguas. Então, há que aprender mais com um livro de gramática e buscar um grande número de fontes para entender melhor o português falado. Isto é o meu problema máximo.

I finally finished the self study course I have for Portuguese. According to the packaging, I have now reached level A2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Which means I should be able to understand basic sentences and have a good chance of survival (i.e. not die of hunger or thirst) when interacting with speakers of Portuguese – as long as they are patient and do not mind repeating their sentences slowly over and over again (yep, been there in other languages).

Well, actually, it is difficult for me to say which level I have reached. Because I have a fair knowledge of Spanish, I do not have too many problems figuring out written texts in Portuguese. To be honest, learning Portuguese was like revising Spanish and the basic question always was where the difference between the two idioms was. However, spoken Portuguese is something completely different. While I did grasp most of what was said in the dialogues in the accompanying audio files, some sentences still remain a mystery to me (even when I see the transcription). Spoken Portuguese tends to connect certain words (similar to spoken French) and some of the e’s and a’s sound so very similar to me that I have difficulties distinguishing them. Unfortunately the course did not have an introductory chapter about pronunciation – a definite drawback for me. (Some aspects of pronunciation were introduced at the end of each chapter. Too little, too late, in my opinion.)

Anyway, I am confident that I will be able to progress in Portuguese to a good level at least in writing by consulting and learning from the grammar book I have. Understanding and producing spoken Portuguese will be a lot harder but I think with enough opportunities I should be able to progress there, too. A native speaker would be great, but at the moment there is none within reach.

So, what have I learned – apart from basic Portuguese grammar and some vocabulary?

1. Next time, choose a course with an introductory chapter about pronunciation. (check, the other courses I have lying around all have that)
2. Concentrate and pay attention to detail. (oh yes, having two closely related languages did make me lazy/sluggish and I neglected sitting down and learning verb endings and vocabulary; plus, I am a lazy student anyway…)
3. Be consistent and revise. (i.e. I should sit down every day and either work on a part of a chapter or revise)
4. It is good to have a grammar book (and a dictionary) by your side in addition to the material the course book provides. (check, already have them for most of the languages that will be next)
5. It is frustrating that self study courses only take you to level A2 and rarely any further. (and those that do are rather expensive and seem to employ a mode of tutoring I do not feel comfortable with)

Anyway, I am now off to the next language – and I already had a sense of achievement yesterday, when at my local süpermarket I recognised my first spoken Turkish word: ekmek (bread).

Olá!

It feels like cheating. It absolutely does.

I could not resist and have bought myself a self-study course for Portuguese. Just quickly listening in to some of the audio material, I actually grasped a good deal of one of the more advanced dialogues and knew the translation to some of the Portuguese vocabulary listed in another audio file. Ah, the perks of having learned Spanish.

Which makes me feel like a cheater. At the moment it looks as if learning Portuguese will be dead easy, as if I will not have to put much effort into it. Maybe I am right, at least in comparison to some of the other languages I have learned, am learning, or still want to learn. Still, something deep down inside of me cautions me, saying learning languages is never easy.

Blimey how time flies

Several posts were started but still lie unfinished in the drafts section of my account. I really need to change that, so much time has passed since I last posted anything. So, brace yourselves, book reviews are coming.

Also, I noticed that I have now been a Postcrossing member for 1111 days. Yes, time really does fly. A couple of days ago, my 1000th “sent card” was registered (I have sent more, some are still on their way, a couple of others apparently vanished somewhere along the way). And it will not be long till I receive my 1000th postcard from a random sender. Actually, I am surprised because it does not really feel as if I have sent or received all that many cards to be honest. But I still enjoy the whole project, receiving postcards from places I have never really thought about before. Taiwan seems to be a very beautiful part of the globe and I should definitely plan several voyages (with or without my bike) to all those countries in the more eastern parts of Europe. But unfortunately this whole postcard-sending-thing also gives me crazy ideas, like wanting to learn even more languages, for example Russian or Portuguese. Ah yes, I have to admit that it actually feels pretty good to be praised for attempting to write messages in a foreign language (even though I fear they are often riddled with mistakes) – so, naturally, I crave more praise. Plus, it also boosts my confidence being able to understand messages in other tongues (admittedly, those messages are short and I wish I would receive more in Spanish, French, and Japanese…). But I am waffling. I had better head over to the unfinished posts.

Assignment Blogging101

I have a confession to make. Yesterday, I did not leave comments on other people’s blogs. Oh well, I did leave one comment, but on a blog I had already commented on a couple of days earlier. So, technically, this did not count for yesterday’s assignment. (By the way, Emberiza citrinella, I hope my annotations came through today. If not, please leave a comment.)

I browsed through the posts that came up in the topics I am following in my Reader. But somehow there was nothing that reverberated with me yesterday. I also took a look at the Blogging101 Commons and there I came across an interesting post about education in Japan, where I was tempted to leave a comment. But then I did not. It would have meant only recounting someone else’s experience, not my own. I could have told shammau that my teacher of Japanese also told us stories about what is summed up under the header “Theory vs. practice”. But that would have been all, only a little “I’ve heard about that from someone else!”, not a conversation starter. So instead of babbling just for the sake of making myself heard, I reconsidered and chose not to comment.

I hope I am not coming across as the creepy lurker of the neighbourhood with this type of behaviour, the one who is constantly spying out of the window, silently judging. I promise, I am not that kind of person.

And if you are still with me at this point and asking yourself what it was that triggered my interest in reading posts from the two blogs I have linked to: language and culture. To me, learning different languages is fun as it opens up new worlds, new perspectives, even a different type of perception. It gives you a key to understanding other cultures.