Want to Manage a Conversation in Portuguese ASAP?
Learn First What Matters Most!
In Rainy Days, Here’s How to Start a Conversation in Portuguese:
“Que chuva, hein?”
Brazilians talk with their arms and bodies...
That's why keeping a conversation in Portuguese is somehow like dancing: a lively, warm, cheerful experience.
These last days, researchers have found that "only 7% of our conversations are made of words. 37% are made of other sounds and intonation, and surprisingly 56% are made of...
...Gestures!"
That's it. But, when we read or talk on the phone, we can’t mime, right?
This raises another question:
Since through the Web we usually base our conversation in words, when learning a new language, which words should we learn first?
And how can we do that ASAP?
Well, after being involved with this matter for more than one decade (though I look much younger...), and seen people from 3 to 70 years old beginning to learn a second language, I think I got a gist of what matters most at first.
Here we go. Please excuse me for any mistakes (as my first language is, you know, Portuguese), and let’s try to set part of the scene in three steps:
1. Concentrate in your basic needs
What do you do and need every single day of your life?
You probably eat, drink, sleep (Oh-oh, you first wake up!), work, read, speak, see, listen, walk, watch TV, drive, study, think, kiss... and the list goes and goes.
Why not to start by these phrases in Portuguese*? For instance, look at how the previous paragraph would look:
Você provavelmente come, bebe, dorme (Oh-oh, primeiro você acorda!), trabalha, lê, fala, vê, ouve, anda, assiste TV, dirige, estuda, pensa, beija... e a lista continua.
Well, that’s what you’ll see in the following pages. The Portuguese Conversation Lever was designed to really leverage your Portuguese, daily.
By the way...
2. Make this subject a daily matter
Every time I want to concentrate in developing a new skill (play an instrument, develop a Web site) I go to bed and get up in the morning with that thing before my eyes - my wife can tell you...
OK. You are calling me crazy. Stand in line, you are not the first one. But the thing is, if you go nuts enough to give it a try, you will either
Quickly improve your performance in the task at hand, or
Throw it away, conscious that you were swimming 'out of your own beach'.
As you can see, I have reasons enough to keep trying. If you want to join me in this journey...
3. Revise constantly, and find a way to share what you learn!
Unfortunately, plaguing at school has been a common practice these days. Being a student and a teacher likewise, for countless times I heard the following words:
"I wrote the whole subject in a tiny letter to take a look during the test, but then it was not necessary to use this help anymore. I wrote it so many times, in so many sizes, that I finally got it by heart."
In order to improve your performance, I’d suggest you to start every study session with the two or three previous lessons. By now, however, you can start at the very first lesson – as there isn’t a ‘–1 one’!
As soon as possible, find someone else to share what you are learning. Both of you will succeed:
You - for reorganizing the subject in your own mind in order to make it clear for someone else, and
Your partner - as he or she will be learning a skill for free!
Long story short, I hope you take advantage of this Portuguese Conversation Lever and surprise yourself. I would like to have said all this in fewer words... If you find a way, please tell me how.
With a good conversation, especially in Portuguese, you can take a Brazilian anywhere (in a good sense, please!)
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