Easiest ways to Learn Portuguese at the age of 18

Portuguese is a Romance language originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is the sole official language of Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Brazil,  while having co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, and Macau. A Portuguese-speaking person or nation is referred to as “Lusophone” (lusófono). As the result of expansion during colonial times, a cultural presence of Portuguese and Portuguese creole speakers are also found around the world. Portuguese is part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia and the County of Portugal, and has kept some Celtic phonology and its lexicon.

With approximately 215 to 220 million native speakers and 50 million L2 speakers, Portuguese has approximately 270 million total speakers. It is usually listed as the sixth-most spoken language and the third-most spoken European language in the world in terms of native speakers.  Being the most widely spoken language in South America and all of the Southern Hemisphere,  it is also the second-most spoken language, after Portuguese, in Latin America, one of the 10 most spoken languages in Africa, and is an official language of the European Union, Mercosur, the Organization of American States, the Economic Community of West African States, the African Union, and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, an international organization made up of all of the world’s officially Lusophone nations.

By age 18, many teens are feeling a combination of excitement and fear about the future. There are a lot of decisions about life after graduation and 18-year-olds invest a lot of time into thinking about what type of life they want once they’re on their own. The fear of the future—as well as the fear of failure—can still be problems, however. Some 18-year-olds will begin to resolve these issues successfully, while others will continue to struggle well into their adult lives.

Young adults who have plenty of life skills often feel ready to move out of the home and begin the next chapter. But those who experience a lot of self-doubts may regress a bit as they think about entering the next phase of their lives. It is a time for big changes that comes with a lot of freedom and happiness, along with feelings of nostalgia and apprehension.

There are a lot of resources available on the internet and in libraries that you can refer to for learning Portuguese but most of these can be very intimidating to you. So, here we have compiled a list for you of the easiest ways that you can use to learn Portuguese by investing a very short amount of time every day. 

Devote time to learning Portuguese

Working out how much time you have helps to set realistic goals. If you have an hour to spend a week, then you will not achieve the same results as someone who can work on Portuguese for an hour a day. There are good and bad ways to spend time learning Portuguese, but having an initial figure in mind and committing to that is an important first step. The more time you can devote, the better, but be realistic now to avoid disappointment if you feel you aren’t making progress further down the line.

Establish a base

As a beginner, the most important thing we need to do is to get out of the beginner zone, and learn enough so that we can actually go and start practising. For this, we need a base of vocabulary, a stock of phrases, and an idea of Portuguese grammar.

Build your vocabulary

Building up a strong base of vocabulary is one of the most important initial steps in learning a language. When building your vocabulary, you need to consider both the “what” and the “how”. The “what” covers what kind of vocabulary you need to learn, and the “how” is concerned with methods for memorisation and recall.

Learn how Portuguese sounds

If you can’t hear it, you can’t say it. In order to pronounce Portuguese, you need to be able to recognise the sounds, and this is not something that you can do from a book. There is a wide range of podcasts available to give you exposure to this, including our own range of Portuguese audio for every level. Listen to the sounds of Portuguese, and follow along with transcriptions to get an idea of how to pronounce written Portuguese. Remember that good pronunciation starts with listening!

Watch movies and TV shows with subtitles

The first is for beginners: watching Portuguese movies with English subtitles.

The second is for advanced speakers: watching Portuguese movies with Portuguese subtitles.

It might seem odd to watch in Portuguese and read in Portuguese at the same time, but it really does work wonders. Reading skills develop a lot faster than listening skills. By reading and listening at the same time, I was really able to improve my pronunciation.

Learn through mnemonics. 

Mnemonics are very easy to remember, it is a learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval in human memory. There are so many things that you need to memorize while learning a language like grammar, vocabulary, phrases, idioms, etc and mnemonics can help in learning all this very easily. You can create your own mnemonics while learning or refer to some available on the internet. Once you’re good at them, they easily repay the initial time investment. They’re an extremely effective way to memorize large amounts of vocabulary.

Invest in a tutor/ enrol yourself in online classes 

You can join an online class where you get an opportunity to learn the language directly from a well-experienced teacher. This allows you to understand the pronunciation and learn how to read, write and speak properly. Learning with a teacher allows you to clarify all your doubts and find the right approach to learning Portuguese.

If you feel you are a self-learner and can manage on your own, there are many YouTube channels that allow you to learn Portuguese starting from the basics.

With all that said and done, find out which way works the best for you and totally immerse yourself in it. If you love learning Portuguese through an app and you find it much easier, then continue learning through this method. If tutoring is your best bet, spend more time with your tutor to learn Portuguese. 

Lastly, learning a language is neither hard nor easy, but it is also not a piece of cake so you can’t take it a bit too lightly. But by following all the tips given above you can ease out the process for yourself. And of course, the easiest way to learn anything is to make it fun. Nobody likes to stick with boring things, your brain also adapts more to things that you enjoy doing. So don’t stress your mind, you have plenty of time to invest in learning Portuguese, invest it wisely and make it worth it. 

And who knows if you’re consistent enough, you will become a Portuguese-speaking polyglot by the time you turn 19 or 20! 

What are you waiting for? Start now. 

All the best!!!