Post: #1

What's the best way to learn some very basic Portuguese for getting around in Brazil? Any recommended books? Preferably something, short, straight to the point, helps you understand the odd pronunciations in Portuguese and wouldn't mind learning a few "love phrases" to help out with the ladies.

Post: #2

You speak Spanish? If you do, you should be ok, so don't sweat it up and pick it up while you're there.

I speak decent Spanish and for the most part was ok in Brazil last time.

Post: #3

I can speak survival spanish

Post: #4

Pimsleur
download the torrent and get to work

Post: #5

Get the lonely planet brazilian portuguese pocket phrasebook. it's tiny, compact, and has everything you need to know from basic phrases to hitting on girls. I speak spanish pretty well, and with this book i was conversational in portuguese within 3 weeks.

Post: #6

(03-04-2009 02:19 AM)chinogringo Wrote:  Get the lonely planet brazilian portuguese pocket phrasebook. it's tiny, compact, and has everything you need to know from basic phrases to hitting on girls. I speak spanish pretty well, and with this book i was conversational in portuguese within 3 weeks.

I actually bought this last night on amazon as it happens.

Post: #7

It's much much easier for a spanish speaker to get caught up to speed with portuguese than an english speaker. I think you need to focus on hearing the language and practicing pronunciations before hitting books.

But then again if you're leaving in a couple weeks...

Post: #8

(03-04-2009 12:40 PM)Roosh Wrote:  But then again if you're leaving in a couple weeks...

I won't be in Brazil till mid April so I think I have time to pick up a few basics.

Post: #9

Just know these:

Uma cerveja por favor: a beer please
Beleza: A greating, kind of like what's up or also like, sweet! (Though what's up is actually "qual e")
Voce gosta de gringos: Do you like gringos?
if you smoke.... Um maço de _____: One pack of _____.
Valeu: I don't really know. Can mean a lot of things. You can use it for thanks or goodbye. Beleza as well can mean lots of different things
Pao De Quijo: The dank cheese bread they have.

Post: #10

Don't forget ga-cheen-ya. It's a term of endearment to women. Not sure how it's properly spelled

Post: #11

gatinha?

Post: #12

Just got my Brazilian Portuguese phrasebook. I'm studying the first part on pronunciations. My god, whoever invented this language must've been on crack. Nothing sounds the way it looks!

Post: #13

Yeah gatinha

Portuguese is a tough language indeed.

Post: #14

I second Roosh's recommendation. Torrent the pimsleur course and do it in your car 30 minutes a day before your trip. I learned a lot that way and if you already know spanish, then 80% of the words are the same.

Post: #15

Do this: Ask locals if you're pronouncing the word correctly. Ask them over and over until you get it right. Pronunciation is everything. You want to sound like a true "carioca" aka local. I'm not talking about sentences, just basic phrases for example:

valeo/belleza - you can san say this to ANYONE and get a positive response. I don't know what the exact translation because it does not exist in English. it pretty much means "what up" or "viva brasil" I probably said this word 200 times a day.

boa noite/boa tarde/bom dia
oi. como vai tudo bem?
tudo bem.
voce de onde?
cual e seu nome?
voce e muito fofa!
eu quero gozar na seu cara.
eu gostei muito de voce.
vamos pra a cama.

I also suggest learning the chorus to a "baile funke" song. ex: abres piernas e helais
voce quer meu cu
voce quer meu buceta
... ...
girls love this shit. they'll bust up laughing and teach you more cool local rio slang.

also, always carry a notepad and pen. dedicate at least an hour a day to repeating every word in your book. goodluck

Post: #16

Quote:vamos pra a cama

We're going to my bed? haha

Post: #17

There are various ways to learn portuguese, but Pimsleur helped me a lot when I was learning Portuguese a few years back. I downloaded it, listened to it for an hour a day for a few months and it helped me a lot for my first trip back in 2005. Another thing that helped me a lot was making friends online with Brasilians and chatting with them via MSN. I also listened to a lot of Brasilian music which I LOVE. This helped me with the toughest part of Brasilian portuguese and that is pronunciation and getting used to sounds in Portuguese. And make sure when you're learning the lingo to get books/cds/courses on BRAZILIAN portuguese and not continental portuguese as the 2 are quite different. It would be a total waste of time and money to learn continental portuguese if one is looking to go to Brasil.

A quick clarification on valeu/beleza. Valeu can be translated as "thanks a lot" or "cheers" while beleza in the literal form means "beauty" while the in the more commonly used form, means "sounds good" or "great" or "sweet" or even "ok" or "cool".

Speaking Spanish helps a bit in Brasil, specially in the big touristy parts of the country and in the south. You'd be able to get your point accross but when a Brasilian speaks, if you only speak Spanish, you'd have a hard time understanding them and would only get maybe 40-50% of what they're saying. All in all, investing the time and the $ to learn some Portuguese will greatly help and make the experience in Brasil so much better.

Valeu.

Post: #18

Dude, the best way to learn hands down is meet a beautiful girl who doesn't speak english. It may be hard to pull her if you don't speak portuguese, but if you can do it, the best way to learn by far. First of all, you are getting portuguese lessons and banging a hottie at the same time, you can't go wrong there. Second, you are probably already pulling the better girl anyways because she isn't Americanized. But if you want to know anything in particular, ask me. I'm pretty fluent. You can also use google translator for some things, but it sucks ass for most things you are trying to say that are more than 3 words. IF you are fluent in Spanish, don't let that shit fool you. You are not going to understand that much in Portuguese, however, if you are fluent and you can get the pronunciation down, it will help you loads. For example (I'm not very good in spanish) the word gente is spelled the same in Portuguese and Spanish, but pronounced totally different. If you learn the pronounciation, I think you will do alright with spanish. But again, I only know my bullshit spanish from middle school. I know a lot of words are totally different, but at the same time, say I know 100 words in spanish, I would say at least 30-40% are spelled the same.

Post: #19

(03-08-2010 05:55 AM)Brandon E Wrote:  I would say at least 30-40% are spelled the same.

i think that i read as many as 70% are "cognates", i.e. the same spelling/meaning or derivation

Post: #20

(03-08-2010 05:55 AM)Brandon E Wrote:  Dude, the best way to learn hands down is meet a beautiful girl who doesn't speak english. It may be hard to pull her if you don't speak portuguese, but if you can do it, the best way to learn by far. First of all, you are getting portuguese lessons and banging a hottie at the same time, you can't go wrong there. Second, you are probably already pulling the better girl anyways because she isn't Americanized. But if you want to know anything in particular, ask me. I'm pretty fluent. You can also use google translator for some things, but it sucks ass for most things you are trying to say that are more than 3 words. IF you are fluent in Spanish, don't let that shit fool you. You are not going to understand that much in Portuguese, however, if you are fluent and you can get the pronunciation down, it will help you loads. For example (I'm not very good in spanish) the word gente is spelled the same in Portuguese and Spanish, but pronounced totally different. If you learn the pronounciation, I think you will do alright with spanish. But again, I only know my bullshit spanish from middle school. I know a lot of words are totally different, but at the same time, say I know 100 words in spanish, I would say at least 30-40% are spelled the same.

Thats exactly how I learned! I was banging a sao paolo chic in Miami for 4 years who could not say one word in English, and I could not say a word in Portuguese.

How did we communicate? 100% body language and eye and smile expressions.

We broke up four years later, after we fully understood each other verbally!

Oh well, time for a new safada in my cama!

Post: #21

I like to watch movies in English but with the Portugese/Spanish subtitles turned on. And vice versa, In Spanish/Portugese but with the English subtitles turned on.

Before you rent it or or buy it, just make sure it has subtitles in the language you want.

Post: #22

Brandon is right on the money that by far the best and most practical way to learn any language is to have a girl from there. That's how I learned Italian and initially how I learned Portuguese 6-7 years ago! All the other methods are just gravy on top of that.

Post: #23

Pardon my ignorance but where do you download the Pimsleur torrents? Anyone got a web address for legal and safe torrents?

Personally I found the Michel Thomas CDs very effective for learning both Portuguese and Spanish. They are a bit boring but if you stick at them for 20-30 mins a day you can become conversationally competent surprisingly quickly.

Post: #24

voce e muito fofa!

Dont say that unless you wanna get bitchslapped, means your fat.. dunno how that fit your game plan, but unless she is and is stealing your champagne I dont think that sentence will do you good..

If you want her to get lost try " voce e mutio legal, voce e muito sympatico"

Your very cool and very sympatic.. that should tell her that she is not your kinda fuck... otherwise saying your a bad dog and stuff should bring a smile.. I liked pimsleur, jsut didnt help me much here to be honest..

Post: #25

(03-08-2010 06:09 PM)Quasi Wrote:  voce e muito fofa!

Dont say that unless you wanna get bitchslapped, means your fat.. dunno how that fit your game plan, but unless she is and is stealing your champagne I dont think that sentence will do you good..

If you want her to get lost try " voce e mutio legal, voce e muito sympatico"

Your very cool and very sympatic.. that should tell her that she is not your kinda fuck... otherwise saying your a bad dog and stuff should bring a smile.. I liked pimsleur, jsut didnt help me much here to be honest..

Voce e muita fofa means "you are very cute" by the way.

I also wante to add... The way I really learned was I left the town the chick was in and we would talk on the internet, I would use a translation program and eventually learned to speak well.