A new website

Earlier today, I came across Margaret Clarke's (University of Portsmouth) excellent, ever-evolving and broad-ranging website for learning Portuguese http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~clarkem/ Definitely worth a look in.

Rio and beyond

I have managed to let this lie for many months. I know I learnt from that experience and need to reflect on it here at a later date. One key issue recently seems to be that my motivation has slipped. Having made considerably progress in my Portuguese, I have all but stopped studying. Let's see if a return to the blog can help me. More soon.

See February 2010 post, 'Feel the Fear', for my afterthoughts.

Countdown

Only ten days to go until I go to Rio, I have been incredibly busy so little learning has happened other than revision in idle times.  That is I have gone over various things in my head as they float by.  

A bridge - corny, but fits the journey

Portuguese sites

http://www.easyportuguese.com/  good basic vocabulary with audio.  Although there is some hissing and popping on the audio which can make some of it difficult to follow.

http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/index.html excellent tips and guide for anyone eager to learn a language.

Russell Walker’s very thorough Portuguese learning guide.http://www.learningportuguese.co.uk/. It is very useful and practical. Of particular note is the comparison between accents of Portuguese speakers from different parts of Portugal, Brazil, Goa and Angola.

 http://www.learn-to-speak-portuguese.com/free-online-lessons.html this is Maria Oliveira’s language page.  There is a limited amount of free stuff, but you can sign up to her classes.

Popling http://www.popling.net/poplings/index.php?cat_id=90 a way of using pop-ups to learn language, presented as efficient in the vimeo on the website, could be annoying.

http://www.sonia-portuguese.com/ Sonia’s site focuses on Brazilian Portuguese.

Nothing to do with learning Portuguese but this blogger does write cogently about what it is to learn and teach languages as well as many other issues.  Written with great enthusiasm.http://www.searchfindlearn.com/

100+ language learning websites from which some of the above were gathered.http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/Showcase/100langlearning.html

Language learning links

These are some links I have found useful:

http://thelanguagelearningblog.com/ see here for 25 tips for language learning

Sign up to podcasts in several languages http://www.thelinguist.blogs.com/

History of Language Teaching video http://metamexico.ning.com/video/history-of-language

http://www.byki.com/subscribeFLS.plex

Why Portuguese?

This is the beginning of the middle.  I have wanted to learn Portuguese for quite some time, but I got sidetracked specializing in Spanish, Latin American narrative and film.  Recently, given the opportunity to travel to Brazil for a conference I decided that the time has come to learn.  This blog is my way of cataloguing, reflecting on and figuring through my process and, in that way, maybe draw together links and methods that may help others.   

It's the middle because I have spent a few months now learning Portuguese, have covered some of the basics and want to start blogging about how I'm doing, what I find and what I use to learn.