Portuguese is a really beautiful language. It is also the fifth most spoken language in the world, with almost 200 million native speakers in Brazil alone. An increasing number of English-speaking foreigners visit Brazil for holidays, sporting and cultural events and, of course, for business. All of these visitors would benefit from having a basic working knowledge of Portuguese, and most of them would certainly like to be able to understand and be understood in common, everyday conversations and situations.
Here are some tips you can give these visitors or anyone who knows English and is interested in learning Portuguese.
Tell them that they may be surprised to find that Portuguese is not as difficult as they might have imagined. If they already know any Romance languages, like French, Spanish or Italian they will soon notice that there are many similarities with Portuguese, which also belongs to the Romance family of languages.
The English language also has a lot of Latin influence, and many words in Portuguese have the same root as English words. Sometimes the words in English and Portuguese are the same or very similar. For example:
English | Portuguese | English | Portuguese |
|---|---|---|---|
| moment | momento | bank | banco |
| repeat | repita | correct | correto |
| passport | passaporte | fantastic | fantástico |
| goal | gol | radio | rádio |
| salary | salário | computer | computador |
| service | serviço | credit | crédito |
| car | carro | check | cheque |
| information | informação | band | banda |
| banana | banana | president | presidente |
Another piece of good news you can tell learners is that Portuguese has incorporated many English words, which have become very common, everyday words, like:
e-mail mouse link site hot dog self-service
shopping center laptop happy hour diet van
piercing OK internet pet shop airbag
barman marketing check-in home theater blush
In addition to a considerable number of anglicisms, which Portuguese has incorporated, many English words have been slightly modified to look and sound like Portuguese words. For example:
Steak in Portuguese is bife (from ‘beef’)
Football is futebol
Shampoo is xampu
Delete is deletar
Tell learners that when they start learning a new language it is absolutely natural to make mistakes. This is how we learn. The more they practice, the fewer mistakes they’ll make. Invite them to enjoy their learning and try to laugh at their own mistakes. Explain that the goal is effective communication, not grammatical perfection or native-like fluency. Tell them not to worry about not understanding everything at the beginning. They should try to listen for key words to get the gist of what is being said. Also they should not feel frustrated about not knowing exactly how to say in Portuguese what they would say in their native language. There are a million and one different ways of expressing the same idea. The important thing is to communicate effectively and efficiently, to understand and be understood. Also, learners will be delighted and relieved to know that Brazilians are extremely friendly. They will also find that Brazilians are incredibly patient and helpful and will thoroughly appreciate and admire their efforts to speak their language! Finally, tell learners of Brazilian Portuguese to have fun and enjoy learning this fantastic language and culture!
Jack Scholes has a first degree in Modern Languages from Liverpool University, a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education and EFL from London University, and he is also a Licensed Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. He has lived in Brazil for more than 30 years, and is now a freelance writer and teacher trainer.
