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I spent many many hours using Duolingo for Spanish pre pandemic and the last year moved to Portugal (long story!), left quite a few months between dropping the Spanish and picking up the Portuguese and obviously being here is also helping (or forcing) but the Brazilian Portuguese of Duo (much the same as the Mexican Spanish) is causing irritation. Does anyone know of a similar format online platform that is European rather than American?
Having done Duolingo French and now having French lessons (1-2-1) I'd say just find someone in Portugal to teach you (much cheaper than lessons in the UK). Duolingo was OK for vocab but pretty rubbish for everything else.
Agreed that Duolingo is a good base but not good enough on its own.
My late g/f tried to teach me Welsh for nearly four years - the best I’ve managed is ‘good morning, how are you?’ and ‘good night’.
I do not have a good head for languages, which ties in to my inability to remember names.
Agreed that Duolingo is a good base but not good enough on its own.
It's possible almost a hindrance as I advanced through it learning lots of words and phrases but not understanding any of the grammer necessary to use them properly. So I've ended up a rather odd student, huge knowldege of bits of french, none of which I can use properly. Am now having a crash course in grammer and trying to unlearn lots of bad habits.
Also been introdcuced to lots of language resources out there far better than Duolingo (well for French anyway).
Not used it but maybe look at the Italki app.
could try memrise.....
Language Transfer. It's free but absolutely 100% capable of getting you to conversational Spanish. It is again kind of geared towards Mexican pronunciation but it constantly let's you know what the European Spanish would be
As suggested, finding a good Teacher would be a good next step. Either 121 or in a classroom environment.
It's taken me about 13 years to get to conversational Swedish and I found having a Teacher/classroom was the best for me.
Date or try to date a local girl. It really helps lots (I have tried myself for English, Brazilian Portuguese and french 😉 )
Brazilian Portuguese is very different to Portuguese one I was not too bad in the Portuguese version(learned in Angola and Mozambique). But struggled lots in my fist weeks in Brazil and my teams said you speak like a Portuguese and we don't understand it that way. I took on on one courses and chatting lots with my cute local cycling fiend helped lots fo Progress.
CountZero
Full Member
My late g/f tried to teach me Welsh for nearly four years – the best I’ve managed is ‘good morning, how are you?’ and ‘good night’.
I do not have a good head for languages, which ties in to my inability to remember names.
Sounds like you just weren't trying tbh. 😆
CountZero
Full Member
My late g/f tried to teach me Welsh for nearly four years
How far did you get with numbers?
I have used the Michel Thomas Method for French & Italian. Not sure it is been updated enough to be an app. I used to listen to it when commuting to work.
Once I got over his accent I found it be pretty good.
My biggest weakness in French is audio-comprehension eg I can ask a question but whenever I do (in France) the local just spits out a load of fast native french and I haven't a clue what they have just said. So, I've been doing to things to address this, one is Dictations. This site: https://www.podcastfrancaisfacile.com/apprendre-le-francais/french-communication-dialogues-fle-daily-life-listen-mp3 has hundreds of conversations which I dictate word for word, very good practice as they give you the full text which I can check against afterwards. The intermediate level ones are good as they simulate real French chit chat / expressions not just 'Can I buy a loaf of bread', 'yes, here you are' etc. I did one last night where the shopkeeper goes off on a rant about how he hates Parisians whilst serving someone! ( https://www.podcastfrancaisfacile.com/dialogue/dialogue-fle-produits-bio-fle.html)
The other thing is graded books with CDs. Hachette do loads of french ones: https://www.eurobooks.co.uk/results.php?entrydate=999999&publisheddate=999999&rpp=30&title=lire+francais+facile&_searchtype=quick&_search=1&_searchtype=quick&offset=30
I listen to each chapter first (no text) and then re-listen with the book to try and improve recognising French words. I really enjoy the books, reminds me a lot of being a teenager and reading The Hardy Boys, all advanture story style stuff.
I used a CD from Michel Thomas to learn Dutch. They have a Portuguese version https://www.michelthomas.com/learn-portuguese/
Could be worth a try? I get by with the outlaws and pubs/restaurants. That said I'm not surrounded by the language enough to build my conversational Dutch. You'll probably stand a better chance.
I use Michel Thomas for Spanish. Problem is if you do it well, people answer you like you can speak it, but you cant understand at the speed they talk. You need to ask questions that have a yes or no answer.
We'll be moving into out new house next week so hopefully we'll be more exposed to the language, what with having to deal with utilities etc. Looking forward to getting my bike back!
Obrigado o todos!
learn the vocab you need to use to ask what they just said to explain the bits that were too fast or too complicated. Then you can continue to think/speak in the other language while building up your knowledge. If you live in the country you will more likely be able to understand a lot more than you can speak. If you do the ground work and listen to other people in context it is much easier to understand.
Sit in the bar, get drunk and talk to the locals. Join a bike ride. Get a job working with a bunch of yokels who can't speak English.
Worked for me learning German. I must add, it did help that I was in Germany at the time.
My biggest weakness in French is audio-comprehension eg I can ask a question but whenever I do (in France) the local just spits out a load of fast native french and I haven’t a clue what they have just said.
May worth getting on YouTube and listening to more spoken french with french subtitles but tbh this is alway the issue with learning a language programs, they’re all just stabilisers to get you wobbling along 🙂
Your language requirement is also an unknown, you may require more diy terms than school terms.
I did have some fun with a puncture in Spain as Duolingo doesn’t have conversational, Spanish for punctures or which arm do you want the vaccination in tbh.
I have found, that if after you've asked for something and you don't get a simple reply that you can understand. Simply explain that are not native and ask them to repeat more slowly. You can have a predetermined phrase that can be called upon in moments notice.
It's much more appreciated that you have a go amd struggle than not having a go.
Date or try to date a local girl. It really helps lots (I have tried myself for English, Brazilian Portuguese and french 😉 )
Worked for me, fluent in Spanish thanks to it. There is one slight risk though, of course...