Post: #26

(02-06-2012 03:10 PM)Golden Boy Wrote:  Hello Solo,

I have been to Brazil 5 times, and the first time going there I was pretty lost even though I am fluent in Spanish (have been speaking it since i was a boy). I decided to learn Portuguese after getting a girlfriend from Rio (smoking hot by the way). I did language research and the best way for a Beginner to learn another language IMO, is through school. In my city, I yelped Language Schools and found several schools willing to teach Portuguese. After 6 months of classes at only one time a week, i found myself conversational. After 1 year, i was intermediate, but to really be advanced and have good grammar and converse without mistakes, the advanced students in my school have been taking it minimum 2 years or more. If you sit in front of a computer and try to learn a language, you will inevitably make mistakes and not have a teacher to correct your pronunciation of the language. My teacher really helped us learn the accent, and we practiced and spoke in portuguese and she would interject when we made a mistake. But for those of you who plan on travellling to Brazil, 6 months should be plenty of time to feel confident in your conversational skills to not feel lost while you are there. Good Luck !

Hi Golden Boy,

Personally I see both advantages and disadvantages to learning another language through school. While it facilitates your discipline to have scheduled classes, you loose out on flexibility. I've learned other languages partly in schools so for Portuguese I think I will do it on my own (I'll save some money this way too), maybe combined with some classes at a university or something.
For one's first foreign language(s) though, I think its important to have a teacher if one doesn't have the experience and know-how.

(02-07-2012 02:35 PM)Pilgrim37 Wrote:  

(02-07-2012 01:47 PM)scotian Wrote:  Already speaking a different language will definitely speed up the learning process of another quite a bit, especially if you learned it later in life because you are familiar with the entire language learning process.

Learning a Latin based language after already knowing another one (in my case learning Spanish and already speaking French) will be even easier!

two days ago, I bought this guy's language hacking guide:

http://www.fluentin3months.com/

At $100, it was a bit pricey, I'll let you guys know how it is once I get through it all.

Benny is great....If it has anything to do with what got him speaking it should be good.
Looking forward to your report!

I've skimmed through the Fluent in 3 months site. I think he has some very good points, not least the one that being a perfectionist is really bad if you want ot learn foreign languages, and pretty much for all other aspects in life as well.