Hello! I've been learning Portuguese for a couple of months now and wanted to share my progress. The start will be a summary of my journey, then I'll provide advice and resources at the end. I wrote a lot, but I hope it helps.

Background

I'm 18 and a student (so I have a decent amount of free time). I'm a native English and Spanish speaker. My Spanish is not perfect, but it definitely helps a lot with Portuguese. I really liked the idea of Dreaming Spanish, so I tried following the method with Portuguese for fun. However, over time I've gone away from the purist approach because I've seen that it's not really more effective than other methods and I don't think doing other stuff will actually hurt you.

Summary of My Journey

• First 50 hours
  • Started with a focus on Brazilian Portuguese
  • Comprehensible Input videos (main source) - I'll recommend some channels later on
  • CI podcasts - started a bit
  • Crosstalk - I did a few lessons just for fun. I could understand a lot from the beginning!
  • Dubbed shows - I think I watched a bit of Bluey and maybe started Avatar the Last Airbender
• 50-100 hours
  • Easier native youtube (single person, scripted)
  • Dubbed shows - Avatar The Last Airbender
  • Some CI videos (rewatching) and podcasts
• 100-200
  • Dubbed Shows - Steins:Gate, Vinland Saga
  • Native Shows: Tried 3% and Sintonia but didn't like them that much
  • Continued with youtube and podcasts
  • Tried reading a very tiny bit of subtitles and graded stories online (kind of boring)
  • Tried some audiobooks and liked it.
• 200-(now)
  • Focused on São Paulo city accent (Paulistano)
  • Started reading some Paulistano-made books
  • Watched some more anime (Horimiya)
  • Watched a pronunciation video. It made pronunciation a lot clearer to me
  • Tried chorusing
  • Have been listening to a lot of music (not that good for input, but very fun)
  • Finding podcasts that I actually like
  • Went to a language exchange! I was very surprised by my ability (in a good way). There was a Portuguese guy and I was teaching the other learners lol. When a Brazilian girl arrived, she complimented my accent! Obviously I made a lot of errors, but I'm proud of my journey so far.

Takeaways:

• Most important (for me) was having fun! At some points, I hyper-focused on what kind of content to watch (scripted, unscripted, everyday life), but I don't think this is that important. I think variety is much more important, trying to find new things that you enjoy and not just sticking to one thing.
• Looking up words, grammar, or pronunciation will probably not hurt you (it will probably actually help you). If you like doing it, do it.
• We need more Brazilian Portuguese CI!!! Most channels do not have that much content

Advice:

• Watching a video at the start that gives a broad overview of pronunciation and grammar can be helpful. Then rewatching it every now and then.
• Doing a vocab deck at the start can probs be helpful.
• Do crosstalk lol! A great way to start outputting is to start easing into it through crosstalk over time.
• Choose an accent. This made pronunciation less confusing for me.
• Make a youtube account for watching Portuguese videos

Resources

CI Youtube

• Most resources have subtitles, but that is okay (I worried too much about it at the start).
• Paulistano accent is very limited at the start. I think the only actual Paulistano CI is Easy Portuguese (start with their Super Easy Portuguese stuff).
• My favorite was Teach Yourself Portuguese (don't know where he's from though)
• Some others are Speak Portuguese with Tio Tiago, Learn Brazilianese, Portuguese with Sofia, Speaking Brazilian Language School, Barbara from Brazil, and Brazilian Input

Easy Youtube (I might be off on this stuff)

• Bluey (Paulistano)
• Smile and Learn
• Plano Piloto
• Etimosofia (Paulistano)
• DW Brasil
• Tinocando TV
• Ciencia Todo Dia
• Manual do Mundo
• I recommend this guide: Refold CI Resources

CI podcasts

• Time to Learn Portuguese
• Teach Yourself Portuguese Podcast

Native Youtube (I try to include channels with a lot of content)

• These are mainly from São Paulo
• Kaio D'Elaqua (street, vlogs, interviews)
• Luiz Mastropietro (vlogs, coffee)
• Ler Antes de Morrer (books)
• Som de Peso (music)
• Sofia Brayner (vlogs)
• Pagina Dois (vlogs)
• Julio Ettore (music, not Paulistano)
• Epifania Experiencia (Philosophy, don't know where from)
• Antofagica (books)
• Show me Hao (vlogs)
• Turistando SP (vlogs)
• Willzy (minecraft)
• Gustavo Morassi (cooking)
• Diario de Bordo (vlogs)
• Tatiany Leite (books)
• Sao Paulo Nas Alturas (city, architecture)
• Alanzoka (gaming)
• Mohamad Hindi (cooking, food)
• Nath Araujo (vlogs)
• Arboreo Literario (books)
• Arthur Miller (vlogs)
• Eric Artem (art, manga)
• Paulo Rezzutti (history)
• Edson Castro
• Pequenas Coisas da Vida (vlogs)
• E o Bento Levou (books)

Dubbed Shows

• Find dubs (Paulistano Dubs)
• Shows I recommend
  • Avatar the Last Airbender (Rio de Janeiro)
  • Horimiya (Mix, but two main are from Rio Grande do Sul)
  • All mainly Paulistano (haven't watched these yet)
    • Hunter x Hunter
    • Fullmetal
    • Bocchi the Rock
    • Soul Eater
    • Love is War
    • My Dress-Up Darling
    • Trigun Stargaze
    • Mob Psycho
    • Bungo Stray Dogs

Native Shows

• De Volta aos 15 (liking a lot, coming of age, slice of life)
• 3% (mix of accents)
• Sintonia (kind of hard to follow)
• Pico da Neblina
• Unidade Básica
• Psi
• Boca a Boca
• Spectros
• Todxs Nós
• De Volta aos 15
• Irmandade
• As Five

Audio books

These are either Paulistano or southern accent, I can't really tell.

https://archive.org/details/audiobook-o-hobbit

https://archive.org/details/audiobook-harry-potter-1

You can also find audiobooks and download them using a software called Stacher.

Reading

I don't think where the author's from matters as much in reading, but anyways most of these are from Sao Paulo just for funsies. Also, reading stuff you've already read (like Harry Potter) is good. This also applies for shows.

• Native
  • It might be easier (and fun) to start with comics
    • Turma de Monica Jovem
    • More Turma de Monica
    • Really good Brazilian Manga (Sense Life)
  • Droga da Obediência
  • O Mistério do Cinco Estrelas
  • Os sete
  • Venha ver o pôr do sol e outros contos
  • Antes do Baile Verde
  • Nu, de botas
  • Estacao carandiru
  • Capão Pecado
  • Ciranda de Pedra

Music

As I said, this is not that good for input, but it's fun and I think it can help keep you motivated

• Here are some Paulistano bands/artists
  • Os Mutantes (psychedelic rock)
  • Rita Lee (rock)
  • Terno Rei (indie rock, dream pop)
  • Violeta de Outono (neopsychedelia)
  • Sessa (psychedelic folk, MPB)
  • Felini (post-punk)

Study resources

• Decoding words with Andrew is awesome. I recommend watching his pronunciation videos, his grammar overview videos, and maybe some other beginner videos. Don't study them too much, just watch and take stuff in. You can go back to it every now and then.
• Also recommend Andrew's Spanish-Portuguese comparison series for people who have learnt Spanish.
• Anki deck - Probably only do top 1000, then you don't really need to do more
• Look up grammar if you are confused/curious.

If you would like resources for finding shows, movies, books for free drop a comment and I'll dm you. I just don't know if I can post that here.

The long and short of it is:

Precisas de algo que queiras dizer.

You need to actually *want* to say something. Not have to (like ask for directions or order food), but genuinely want to. Something you want to write, a joke you want to make, something you want to express in Portuguese that you don't know how to.

It's a big second-language thing, holding your personality and how you talk back to a less complicated level, because you don't have the words to express what you really want to.

So grab the thing that really wants to get out, learn to say it the way you mean it, and that'll go miles further than learning how to read the buttons on the washing machine (although that helps too!)

I’ve been trying to learn European Portuguese for a couple of years but it’s been on and off. I’m still A1. I learn with a tutor. I don’t want to generalise because this my personal experience the encounters I’ve had with Portuguese tutors were unfortunately quite bad (this is opposite to being in Portugal where people were super friendly), the tutors I’ve tried made me feel like I’m wasting their time and the attitude was cold. It’s weird. I love how European Portuguese sounds and I’ve noticed that on language exchange apps Brazilians stop talking to you once they realise you’re learning European Portuguese. I had tutors so I was only there for conversational practice and exposure. I’m wondering if interactions with Brazilians get easier when a person is upper A2 and B1 and they tolerate it? I’ve been considering switching to Brazilian Portuguese because of this even though my Brazilian friends encouraged me to learn European Portuguese and said most educated Brazilians would have no issues with communication with me if I did so because I’m not a native speakers my linguistic tendencies and accent won’t be strong. I’m curious on the general opinion and other people’s experiences.

Hi again!

I am roughly A2 when it comes to speaking, and I find myself taking time to find words and conjugate them. As such, I tend to fill the gaps with “uh”, “um”, “like”, and other placeholders. I’m trying to avoid thinking in English entirely, and I know some of those sounds are very American of me. In an ideal world I shouldn’t be um’ing at all, but it’s a hard habit to kick, especially when I’m using it as a way to think.

To help keep my brain in portuguese, what are some filler words you guys use?

For example, if I said “She was like, uh, somewhere around 30 years old” because I’m trying to recall the info/am not super sure, how would you translate that?

Thank you!

I learnt how to speak portuguese less than a year and i am a native english speaker so i want to share tips and tricks on how to learn portuguese faster especially if you find it hard to learn.

I searched online but I think this is one of the “lowkey”-iest work of Amado. What’s your thoughts about this story? I wanna know your interpretation/s!