Learning Portuguese is taking a lot more effort than I had originally thought. No, that's not true, because I've been struggling with the language for several years, ever since I got interested in seriously looking at the Portuguese and their heritage. Learning how to read it was pretty easy, and since before my trip to São Paulo in 2004 I've been reading newspapers, magazines and history books.
Oral comprehension and expression weren't advancing at all, though, so this fall I started taking classes at the Université de Montréal. Luis Aguilar and Vitália Rodrigues teach the class twice a week for three hours, and I come back wrung out but exhilarated. What's more I'm beginning to understand!
One of the exercises on Monday was to listen to this video of Manuel Freire singing The Philosopher's Stone, a poem by António Gedeão. It's really lovely--reminds me of Jacques Brel--and I've been humming it ever since the class.
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2 comments:
Is it normal that I should find Brazilian Portuguese far easier to understand than the European variety? I can pretty much follow lectures and comments in it if I'm familiar with the subject - find the sound system in the parent language far more difficult. I speak fluent Italian and half-decent Spanish and unfortunately have not yet had time to study Portuguese (I'm working on my German now) though I certainly want to.
Yes, it's completely normal to find Brazilian Portuguese easier to understand than continental Portuguses--you are far from the only person who has made that observation to me. I think it has to do with a slightly slower speech pattern in Brazil as well as a tendency in Portugal to swallow the end of words.
But keep at it: even I am beginning to understand!
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