Portuguese, anyone???

[TheReader]

I'm fairly new to this board, and have popped over here a time or two but haven't seen anyone else doing Portuguese.

 

Is there anyone??

 

We use a private tutor, but I'd love to discuss games, supplemental material, etc. that we might have her incorporate into the boys' lessons.

 

Also - at what age do most of you begin formal teaching? I work with the 5 yr old some (my older boys are 13 and almost 10), we speak mostly English at home but do use Portuguese in some settings and he does understand. Just wondering when to have him begin formal lessons with the tutor. Clearly she'd use different materials with him than with the older two.

 

We're an American family living in Brasil (3 yrs so far), that's why Portuguese. We're not a cross-cultural family or bilingual in the sense of one parent using one, one parent using the other, but the older two are becoming something close-ish to fluent thanks to our time here.

 

Just thought I'd introduce myself and see if anyone has thoughts or suggestions for improving the fun factor of the boys' language learning.

[PRTGSw2K]

Hi! I know this is old, but I am trying to teach my kids Portuguese. Not Brazilian Portuguese though. My family is from Portugal, and I would like for them to be able to speak to their relatives.

[1bassoon]

Nothing to help, either, but my dh is Portuguese - wishes he knew more.

 

Hope you get some help!

[TheReader]

Thanks to both of you!

 

We are actually stopping the kids' Portuguese lessons as the tutor has progressed through all she can teach them. Anything more would just be conversation, and we can manage that with them on our own.

 

Nice to meet both of you, though!

 

emski -- I wonder how different Brazilian and Portugal Portuguese really is?? How interesting! Good luck in teaching your children!

[just Jenny]

We are doing Brazilian Portuguese instruction.

 

We use Rosetta Stone and I like it. Our kids are little (oldest in K right now), and we are just starting.

 

I try to expose them as I can to Brazilian Portuguese. We watch Bible story videos and also have some Bible story books, and Bible story songs we got from Brazil.

 

Don't know if that helps, but just thought I'd say hi.

 

Tudo de bom para vcs. :001_smile:

[MorganClassicalPrep]

We are doing Brazilian Portuguese instruction.

 

We use Rosetta Stone and I like it. Our kids are little (oldest in K right now), and we are just starting.

 

I try to expose them as I can to Brazilian Portuguese. We watch Bible story videos and also have some Bible story books, and Bible story songs we got from Brazil.

 

Don't know if that helps, but just thought I'd say hi.

 

Tudo de bom para vcs. :001_smile:

 

I'd be interested to see how the kids progress with Rosetta Stone. We are doing French right now with a different program (L'Art de Dire) and will be adding Spanish next year (La Clase Divertida). But I'd like to add Brazilian Portuguese in another 2-3 years, since there is a strong possibility we will be living in Brazil for 6 months or so in a few years while I do research for my dissertation.

 

Are you using the Rosetta Stone for yourself also? I need to learn Portuguese myself... planning on doing it in graduate school, but it would be so much easier for me to start now!

[just Jenny]

Hi Kymmie :001_smile:

 

I am not using Rosetta Stone, as I do speak Portuguese, but based on my observation of how Rosetta Stone teaches I would very much like to use it to learn other languages.

 

We are still on level 1, but already our oldest picks up words when my DH and I speak, and also from kid's videos we watch, which makes him very happy.

 

Feel free to PM me if you have further questions.

 

What is your dissertation is about?

 

Best to you,

 

Jen

[justamouse]

We will be and matter of fact, Dd and I were just talking about how to find a good curric for it (I'd like to stay away from Rosetta Stone if I can, but am willing to if a native speaker tells me it's worth it).

 

Why? Because I'm 1/2 Brazilian, and up until 6/7 I spoke it fluently. My Mom, though not Brazilian speaks it fluently, but is unable to do more than make sure we get a good verbal workout. :D

 

 

Question- anyone know how many reals a cup of coffee is going for in Manaus?

[MorganClassicalPrep]

Hi Kymmie :001_smile:

 

I am not using Rosetta Stone, as I do speak Portuguese, but based on my observation of how Rosetta Stone teaches I would very much like to use it to learn other languages.

 

We are still on level 1, but already our oldest picks up words when my DH and I speak, and also from kid's videos we watch, which makes him very happy.

 

Feel free to PM me if you have further questions.

 

What is your dissertation is about?

 

Best to you,

 

Jen

 

I haven't really explored Rosetta Stone for us, since my DD is so young (just turned 5) and I most need to be able to read/write Portuguese. But there aren't many options out there for Brazilian Portuguese for kids, so Rosetta Stone may be it.

 

I haven't yet nailed down a specific topic, but I'm interested in 19th and 20th century Brazilian social/cultural history. I'm currently writing a paper about civilizing attemps at the turn of the century - "whitening", public health intiatives, etc. I'm also interested in changing conceptions of gender and sexuality. :D

[linguistmama]

Dd did well with Rosetta Stone for most of this year, but the last time I suggested we do some she started crying :( I think it's a great program if you can afford it, we got access through a K12 charter for free. Unfortunately that means I can't use it to help myself :)

 

When I did a google search an old wtm thread came up about Projeta Prosa and it looks good. But I can't find anywhere to buy it in the states and the shipping alone is horrendous! I had hoped that we could get some basic fluency with Rosetta Stone and that it would jog my memory enough to hold basic conversations with the girls. (I was an exchange student in Brazil 15 years ago and spoke fluently at that time. Later I got a BA in Portuguese at a US university). We would continue to read books and listen to podcasts and music for a few years. Then in 3rd or 4th grade we could look at a curriculum like Projeta Prosa starting with the 1st grade book. I have my old college texts that we could use for later, but not until at least middle school with modifications.

 

I'm considering buying this for later as well, I'm just having a hard time finding something for beginning Portuguese.

 

Someone lead me to the perfect thing :) I love this board for pointing out R&S Spanish. I should email my old professors.

Edited March 22, 2011 by linguistmama

[ilovemy4kids]

My son is almost finished with Rosetta Stone level 1 portuguese and he loves it...

Sandra

[just Jenny]

For those who did not like Rosetta Stone, what were the things you didn't like about it?

 

Just curious.

 

I bought a few books on Amazon, but just found that the texts were mostly geared towards adults. I wanted something that would do phonics and go slowly, not start out with "What is your name?" and "Where are you from?". My littles don't even know all the country names in English yet...one thing at a time :001_smile:

[linguistmama]

With Rosetta Stone the speech recognition didn't work well for dd even though we adjusted it for children and then with the finer controls. I was able to tell if her pronunciation was ok so she would just say the phrases to me. We are also skipping the reading and writing parts in levels 2 and 3.

 

What books do you have from amazon? :)

 

I went to a close university bookstore today and they used this for 1st year and this for the 2nd year. I ordered levels 1 and 2 of the second option since it's cheap :) DD surprised me by coming and asking to do RS this afternoon so I'm crossing my fingers. I want her to be speaking and understanding enough spoken Portuguese first. Then I'll help her start reading and doing copywork for some writing. After that the books I bought or another beginning curriculum.

[MorganClassicalPrep]

Someone lead me to the perfect thing :) I love this board for pointing out R&S Spanish. I should email my old professors.

 

You should! My French professor (who also speaks Spanish) has been an awesome resource for helping me find foreign language materials for my DD. She didn't know any curriculums, but she has pointed me towards a number of websites/online bookstores and such.

(They also might be able to point you towards a good program to jog your memory. Have you checked your local library to see if they have anything? I don't particularly like the audio programs as a primary learning tool, but I have found the French/Spanish programs useful for reinforcing what I already knew. It might help you remember enough to start teaching the kids)

[TheReader]

We will be and matter of fact, Dd and I were just talking about how to find a good curric for it (I'd like to stay away from Rosetta Stone if I can, but am willing to if a native speaker tells me it's worth it).

 

Why? Because I'm 1/2 Brazilian, and up until 6/7 I spoke it fluently. My Mom, though not Brazilian speaks it fluently, but is unable to do more than make sure we get a good verbal workout. :D

 

 

Question- anyone know how many reals a cup of coffee is going for in Manaus?

 

I don't feel like Rosetta Stone was too good for building usable language; nice for vocabulary, but for becoming fluent and starting to speak it -- not so much.

 

As for coffee in Manaus, I'm thinking around R$2 or so. Maybe R$2.50. I don't recall actually ordering any coffee in a restaurant when we were there last May, but other prices were similar to what we have where I live. A normal cafezinho for after dinner will be R$2 to R$3. Hope that helps!

 

A fancy coffee would be more, of course. A can of coke (or such) is running about R$3.90 most places right now, if that helps....

[TheReader]

For those who did not like Rosetta Stone, what were the things you didn't like about it?

 

Just curious.

 

I bought a few books on Amazon, but just found that the texts were mostly geared towards adults. I wanted something that would do phonics and go slowly, not start out with "What is your name?" and "Where are you from?". My littles don't even know all the country names in English yet...one thing at a time :001_smile:

 

I'm one who didn't like Rosetta Stone for actually learning to speak a language. Before we moved to Brazil, we did all of level one, but it really didn't teach us much. We then used a tutor over Skype (a native speaker) and that did help, a lot, but we didn't have enough time with him before we arrived. Then we took local classes once we got here. Plus then DH did the online extra levels of RS (I guess up through level three...?) -- in those later levels, it did get to useful stuff.

 

The main problem with Rosetta Stone, imo, is that there's room for error. We all found it hard to work out the little nuances of language that you don't get from the intuitive, immersion style teaching they use. NOW -- we were not using the homeschool version, only the regular, so we weren't doing written work, only the computer stuff. Maybe that makes a difference.

 

But in our experience, it gave us some vocabulary, and very very very basic knowledge, but not nearly enough for coming here and being able to communicate.

[MorganClassicalPrep]

I'm one who didn't like Rosetta Stone for actually learning to speak a language. Before we moved to Brazil, we did all of level one, but it really didn't teach us much. We then used a tutor over Skype (a native speaker) and that did help, a lot, but we didn't have enough time with him before we arrived. Then we took local classes once we got here. Plus then DH did the online extra levels of RS (I guess up through level three...?) -- in those later levels, it did get to useful stuff.

 

The main problem with Rosetta Stone, imo, is that there's room for error. We all found it hard to work out the little nuances of language that you don't get from the intuitive, immersion style teaching they use. NOW -- we were not using the homeschool version, only the regular, so we weren't doing written work, only the computer stuff. Maybe that makes a difference.

 

But in our experience, it gave us some vocabulary, and very very very basic knowledge, but not nearly enough for coming here and being able to communicate.

:iagree:

 

I think Rosetta Stone would be a *great* supplement to language learning. When it comes to vocabulary acquisition and such, it would be very helpful. But honestly, the only way to really learn a language is to speak it. You can be as fluent as you want while reading/listening, but actually producing the spoken language is much different! No program will give the same experience. (I'm dealing with this now.... I can read in both French and Spanish fairly well, but while speaking I often switch back and forth between the two in the same sentence! :tongue_smilie:)

 

But really, who can afford a supplement like RS? I think the money is better spent on a tutor. Even once a week conversation (with private study in between of course!) would do so much for fluency.

[Renivee]

Hi The Reader,

 

I'm new to this also. I'm Brazilian born and raised for half my life. I've raised my children speaking Portuguese first, and English came as they socialized and through dad. Since your kids are older, what exactly are looking for to further their Portuguese education?

 

I was just visiting home last month, and was hoping to find some workbooks for my 4YO who has just begun reading and writing. Unfortunately that stuff is not as easy to get a hold of as it used to be. When I was going to school, we were given the list of books for the school year and you would go to a few bookstores especialized to sell the books on the list. Now all the books are being sold by the schools themselves with each school printing their own stuff. Are your kids going to an American school or a Brazilian school? If they're not in Brazilian schools, I'd consider going to a school in your area (private of course), and seeing if they will sell you the portuguese text and workbooks. That's pretty much the only way they'll learn grammar, I believe. The other thing you can do is just buy classical literature for them in Portuguese, as they grow they get to keep reading and hopefully speaking to you and your husband.

 

In terms of European Portuguese vs Brazilian Portuguese, it's pretty much the same with the exceptions of a few words here and there. They main difference is the accent. For grammar it would be 98% the same if not more.

[4littleones]

Hello all!

 

I tutor ESL to three Brazilian friends and I really enjoy their musical language when they explain things to each other! So far I only know a few words: por favor, bon dias and obrigado!

[TheReader]

Hi The Reader,

 

I'm new to this also. I'm Brazilian born and raised for half my life. I've raised my children speaking Portuguese first, and English came as they socialized and through dad. Since your kids are older, what exactly are looking for to further their Portuguese education?

 

I was just visiting home last month, and was hoping to find some workbooks for my 4YO who has just begun reading and writing. Unfortunately that stuff is not as easy to get a hold of as it used to be. When I was going to school, we were given the list of books for the school year and you would go to a few bookstores especialized to sell the books on the list. Now all the books are being sold by the schools themselves with each school printing their own stuff. Are your kids going to an American school or a Brazilian school? If they're not in Brazilian schools, I'd consider going to a school in your area (private of course), and seeing if they will sell you the portuguese text and workbooks. That's pretty much the only way they'll learn grammar, I believe. The other thing you can do is just buy classical literature for them in Portuguese, as they grow they get to keep reading and hopefully speaking to you and your husband.

 

In terms of European Portuguese vs Brazilian Portuguese, it's pretty much the same with the exceptions of a few words here and there. They main difference is the accent. For grammar it would be 98% the same if not more.

 

those are good ideas; thank you! We had a native speaker come for close to 2 years and she went through a grammar text with them, so I'm certain the grammar is covered.

 

For workbooks and things she used the little Monica and Picote (or Picole?) activity books such as found in grocery store check-out lanes. We do have a book store such as you describe, that sells the texts for the schools. I can certainly go there and buy materials if we want; that's a good idea.

 

At this point my oldest speaks more and better Portuguese than I do, and the younger two are learning. They did a LOT Of just reading stories in Portuguese as part of their classes; that's something we do continue, as well as movies/tv in Portuguese and encouraging them to get out and speak with their Brazilian friends. That part is a chore! but they do it some.

 

Thanks for chiming in!

[TheReader]

Hello all!

 

I tutor ESL to three Brazilian friends and I really enjoy their musical language when they explain things to each other! So far I only know a few words: por favor, bon dias and obrigado!

 

That is sweet!

 

One note --- if you are female (assuming so?), you would say obrigada rather than obrigado. Most words take their feminine/masculine from what you are talking about (ie, adjectives take masc/fem based on the noun they are describing) but Obrigada/Obrigado is determined by who the speaker is.

 

So, the little boys, obrigado, little girls (or big girls), obrigada.

 

I had to be careful of this with my boys; my youngest was saying obrigada because that is what he heard me say. I switched to the masculine pronounciation for a while there so he'd learn the right one, LOL!

[PRTGSw2K]

My husband doesn't really speak much Portuguese (just a few words). and since we don't know any other local Portuguese speaking people, I forget to speak in Portuguese, since English is my first language. I need to do a better job of speaking to them in Portuguese.

 

I have had friends and family send me books, movies, and CD's from Portugal. It's been the only way for me to find materials. Brazilian Portuguese has a different accent, and the grammar is slightly different.

 

4littleones-great job spelling those words! Just one small thing. You would say "bom dia" rather than "bom dias." Bom dias would mean "Good Days."

[julikins]

It's so cool to see this on here! We're in the process of trying to teach our children Portuguese. We've been here (Brazil) for two years and our children haven't "just picked it up" like everyone said they would. They're 9 and 6--so older and need more help. So we have been doing vocabulary and reading stories together. Before we go out, I try to practice (role play) different conversations they may encounter. We are going to be using Rosetta Stone starting next year and I think it will help with their listening and understanding skills. But I think the best thing is to strongly encourage them to play with acquaintances and make friends even though it's hard to communicate.

[Yenisei]

Can anyone recommend some classic Brazilian children's books, maybe something akin to Dr. Seuss in the Anglophone world? I'll have a Brazilian reading them to my 9 month old.

[Guest Betania Neuman]

Hi!

I'm brazilian and live in the US. I have 2 kids, 6 and 8 yo, both bilingual and good readers in both English and Portuguese.

For your 9 month-old I'd recommend you to focus primarily on understanding and speaking. Books in Portuguese for his age will be mostly translations from English, and you can find a large collection at any good bookstore in Brazil (I try to avoid translations, but for the very young it is hard to find something originally brazilian/portuguese).

By the time your child is understanding Portuguese well, I'd recommend books by Ruth Rocha and Ana Maria Machado. Also, you can try Turma do Cocoricó books and DVDs. There are several children's bibles and devotionals available at christian bookstores in Brazil. We read the Bible in Portuguese almost everyday and try to speak Port. as much as possible, also giving the children a chance to express themselves in both speaking and writing.

When your child is a little older, maybe around 7 or 8, you could introduce him to books by Monteiro Lobato.

 

Betania

[Yenisei]

Muito obrigado, Betania! I'll look into the books written by those authors.

[Yenisei]

My son has been attending a Brazilian nursery since early October, so he gets plenty of exposure to the language now, including the written word.

[Guest LouiseinMoz]

Hello everyone. I live in Mozambique with my 7 year old daughter, and work as an English / Portuguese legal translator. My daughter has learned Portuguese by being exposed to it (attending a Portuguese playschool and playing with other friends), and I intend to start her on a more formal curriculum next term. I'm intending to use Timi - it's the only worthwhile Portuguese curriculum for foreign language children which I have found. More info here - http://www.europeanbookshop.com/languagebooks/series/TIMI. For what it's worth, I believe strongly that children should learn to speak a language before they try to read / write it - and that immersion, in a normal setting, at as young an age as possible, is by far the easiest way to go. If your children don't live in a Portuguese speaking country, then I would at very least find a native Portuguese speaker to teach them, in a communicative manner.