By: Edward Punt

Edward Punt — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:51:14 +0000

I am also taking the Brazilian Portuguese language course through Rosetta Stone. Fortunately, since I’m in the National Guard it is a free online course but I noticed that the 2nd and 3rd levels aren’t available to me yet. I’ve had a good deal of success. I’m pretty much in the same boat as you. My wife is a Portuguese speaker from the Açores, Portugal and we’ve been married for 23 years. I learned a little Portuguese when I lived in Portugal but long since forgot most of it. I tried working with people in Skype and MSN chats to help me learn but with little success. I also bought a few books and such but nothing has taught me more in such a short amount of time as the Rosetta Stone software. Unfortunately, there are some differences in Brazilian Portuguese when compared to standard Portuguese. My wife says that Brazilians tend to drag their words out and over pronounce them. The word “verde” in Brazil is pronounce ver-de or ver-dge in Rio. In Portugal it’s pronounced “verd” with the final “e” being almost silent. Since the Rosetta Stone software is in Brazilian it has actually made it easier to learn standard Portuguese because the speakers in the software speak more slowly than I’m used to hearing when I listen to my wife or her family speak. I’ll finish unit 5 today and hopefully finish level 1 by fall. The only problem I’ve had with the software is the speaking part. It rarely seems to work correctly but I try to pronounce the words when I get to the reading only section. This truly is a worthwhile investment and I would have bought it even if it wasn’t free for the military.

Comments on: Rosetta Stone: A Great Way to Learn a Language

By: Edward Punt