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Learning a language on your own - any thoughts on this?!

So I've been teaching myself Portuguese for a couple weeks (anyone on the same boat? :D) and I'm loving it. I just suddenly felt like doing it (who needs a reason for learning a language?) and, as French say, <em>je me suis donnée les moyens</em>. Just for fun, no intention of archiving fluency. Kind of a personal challenge.

 

But I've been lately wondering whether it's possible to archieve fluency (or something similar) working on my own. I speak three Romance languages fluently, so Portuguese shouldn't give me a hard time. I mean, yeah, I'm not learning Chinese.

 

I would love to read your experiences on learning a language on your own! Met your expectations? Are you proud of your progress or thinking of giving it up? Which language did you pick up? What's the hardest thing about learning on your own? Did that experience change you somehow? Did you archive fluency? If not, do you think you eventually will? Any advice you'd give on things to do/not to do? Those are just a few questions that came to my mind, feel free to share your thoughts, whichever they are.

 

Enlighten me guys! :D Thanks and waiting for your answers!

Jul 29, 2014 10:08 PM
Comments · 3
1

What book are you using, Nelson? I'm using <em>Falar, ler, escrever Português: um curso para estrangeiros</em> and I'm loving it so far! I found it online but it was really expensive, so I just downloaded it and printed it. I would absolutely recommend it to everyone out there. It may seem a bit too slow at times, and, if you speak fluent Spanish, you can even skip some of the lessons (we don't need anyone to explain to us the difference between 'ser' and 'estar', do we? ;) I also managed to find the audios and it's really helping me. Immersion remains, of course, the best of choices, it's not always possible, though. And, if you, living relatively close to Brazil, can't just go there, imagine the few chances I've got of going there since I'm from Spain. :D

As for people to help me, well, I've probably messaged all Brazilians in here, lol I thought they would follow through on their end, yet they haven't followed through our Skype meetings. So I guess I still have to find the right person. :)
Anyway, thanks for your answer!

Again, anyone who archived fluency learning on his own and would like to share his story? :D

August 1, 2014

Hey! I have that one too, with his audios and everything but I feel more comfortable with "Bem-Vindo! A língua Portuguesa no mundo da comunicação". Just check it out, you are right we don't need anyone to explain us those stuff. Well I'm not that close of Brazil, haha. 

 

I think it's kind of complicated to find the right partner, but just keep trying.

You're most welcome and let me know if you find some other tools for learning Portuguese. Salud!.. 

August 1, 2014

Hi Rina, I'm in the same boat but sailing other seas or something like that :o. Well I've been learning Brazilian Portuguese on my own for a couple weeks, I just downloaded a book which contains an exercise book and audios to practice your listening and pronunciation.


This book is helping me a lot of course I'd love to have it physically but I couldn't find it here in my country and it seems being pretty expensive online. Anyway I think I'm progressing at least a little bit and I've finally found a partner to practice with. So I'm sure it will help me even more.

 

I think if you find a partner who really wants to exchange the language, you will gain the fluency enough. And a tip to learn it faster would be surround yourself completely by the language. You know people say that the better way to learn a language is to go to the country where it is spoken but I just can't go to Brazil so I just surrounded myself with portuguese, music, tv, videos, change your mobile language and stuff. :) 

All the best with your learning. Salud!..

July 29, 2014