The flags of (top row) Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Guineau-Bissau, and (bottom row) Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Equatorial Guinea and Portugal on navy background.

Olá!

I am learing Portuguese! I learned French in school and studied it at University. I also took classes in Italian at Uni. Swedish too, but I forgot most of that. So Portuguese is my third Roman language!

My sister told me about Duolingo, which is a lot of fun. I love their stories.

I even moved to Portugal to practise. Turns out the pronunciation in Portugal is so different that I have trouble understanding people. But I'm getting there, bit by bit.

Start date: June 2022

The Portuguese flag in an artist's rendering, meaning it looks like it has water droplets on it.

I practiced:

  • slowing down
  • pacing myself
  • repetition, repetition, repetition
  • organising my learning (you're a lot more likely to remember new information in the long run if you repeat it within 72h)
The Brazillian flag in an artist's rendering, meaning it looks like it has water droplets on it.

I learned:

  • about Duolingo, which is a truly fantastic app to get started with a language
  • I might be completely immune to Candy Crush and other games, but learning languages in an app is addictive!
  • the power of gamification when you learn something new!
  • that the pronunciation in Portugal is very different!