How is My Portuguese After 7 Months of Living in Portugal and How Am I Learning It

Bom dia a todos! Hope you're all doing well.
Before moving to Portugal, I was so concerned about learning the language. My goal by moving to Portugal is to assimilate myself as much as possible since I saw this move as a long term (potentially permanent) place to live. That also means that I will need to learn the language.
So how is it after 7 months of living in Portugal and how is my Portuguese? I'm definitely not fluent and I still speak a little, but I am learning everyday. Not in the most conventional textbook type of way, but by learning on the streets. To me, I find it way more interesting than in a classroom setting because you are actually using the language in real life.
After 7 months, I am able to comfortably go about my daily life and use my limited Portuguese without asking if they speak English. The other day, I received a phone call from the hospital about changing my appointment. The person didn't speak English (which I typically prefer speaking in when it comes to anything medical), so I was left with two choices. One, I could have asked them to find an English speaker or I could have figured it out using what I already know. I chose the second option and I SURVIVED! I was able to reschedule my appointment and ask some basic questions without any issues.
I think, we as humans, tend to shy away from difficult situations, but that's how we learn! In my 7 months of living here, I have never once had someone laugh at me or walk away when I tried to speak Portuguese. Instead, they waited patiently as I formed horrible sentences.
All I know for certainty is that if I can do it, YOU CAN DO IT! I have faith in you ❤️
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Resources ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️
My favorite Portuguese KZbin channel- Portuguese Lab
Lingq- www.lingq.com
RTP Play
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ABOUT US:
Hi! My name is Josie and my husbands name is Florian. We have three kids- Charlie, Lily and Chloe. After living in the United States my entire life, we have decided to explore my husbands side of the ocean- Europe! Hope you enjoy our journey.
#silvercoastportugal #portugal #movingtoportugal #caldasdarainha #familiesinportugal #livingincaldasdarainha #movingtocaldasdarainha

[@hugofevereiro1408]

This lady speaks Portuguese better than I do English. I'm portuguese. Congratulations.

[@VictorPMarcos]

Parabéns, já fala português! O seu sotaque está muito bom e já tem bastante vocabulário. Em sete meses de prática a Josie evoluiu muito. Continue, pois vai muito bem. Nota: Por vezes falamos muito depressa, entre nós, portugueses. Sempre que não entender, diga: "por favor, fale um pouco mais devagar". Estou muito feliz pela Josie e desejo muita sorte e felicidade em Portugal, seu país.

[@josieinportugal6454]

muito obrigada 🙏

[@Nubianette]

This was very good. I always save resources. Funny, I already subscribed to Portuguese Lab, but I forgot about it, since there hasn’t been any new videos in months. I need to explore them. I really like Portuguese with Carla. I think it helps because she’s closer to my age (I’m still a lot older). I also think her speaking tone is also closer to mine. I think this will help with pronunciation. I often listen as I go to sleep.

[@sharilove6222]

I like her too.

[@emanuelcamacho9316]

Very well Josie, you can understand very well 👍👍

[@ashwinbush]

You gave me much confidence! Been here a month and finding useful ways like childrens books helps 🙂 I hope to be to your level by 7 months!

[@josieinportugal6454]

I know you can do it!! ❤️

[@lokishadowcat]

It certainly took me more than 7months at school learning English to get to the equivalent level of your portuguese... It might even have taken me 7 years, for what I recall🤔 🙄🤣🤣 ( I eventually made it to C1 level and I'm just missing the C2 diploma, I went out of money for the final Cambridge exam so I made the C2 level studies but I have no diploma, unfortunately) So, congratulations and keep up with your great work and progress 💯💐🎉

[@pama2892]

Hi Josie, my wife and I were so happy to find your vídeos. Thank you for making them. We are planning on moving to the silver coast next year (2023) with our 2 kids, 10 and 12. We had to postpone the moving due to COVID. We’re in California- my wife is originally from Thailand and I am originally from Carcavelos, Portugal - been in the US for 30+ years. Your testimony in the videos has confirmed to us that the silver coast is one of the best values as far as locations to live in Portugal. The Cascais area is unfortunately way too expensive for what you can get as far as real estate. My wife wants to ask you what has been your experience with medical care and medical insurance- any tips and names of insurance providers you can share? Perhaps you can do a video on that topic soon. 😉. We’re not sure what private insurance we should get while there. We understand there’s the “caixa de previdência”, a socialized type of coverage but I am told private insurance is a better option. Is there a big hospital in caldas? A couple other questions we’re curious: 1) what part of t US you used to live? 2) what did you and your husband do for work and how did you manage that aspect of your lives in Portugal? Do you work for a US company remotely or were you able to find jobs? THANK YOU!

[@josieinportugal6454]

Hi! I'm so glad that you and your wife have found my videos to be helpful. That always brings a smile to my face :). I am actually creating a video on my healthcare/ private hospital experience here and will be releasing it *fingers crossed* next week. So keep an eye out for it :) In summary- private healthcare here is exceptional. Might I even say- better than the states 😁 Prior to moving to Portugal, we used to live in Washington DC where my husband works in IT (still does remotely) and I used to own a business. Since then, I hung up my professional career and now enjoy spending time watching my children grow 😍

[@joemarques2617]

Parabéns! 👏👏👍you’re doing great keep it up! Don’t be shy about it just keep speaking it even if it doesn’t sound right that’s how you perfect it!

[@rickchandler2570]

Being there I think makes it easier to learn. I’m working on it myself but not there for at least a year. Not as easy. I’ve had a couple different classes but the one’s with Portuguese native speakers I found isn’t that good for me as they tend to throw you in the deep end of the pool much too fast. My current one is Talk the Streets and that’s been great because Liz is English so understands the challenges of learning Portuguese. Also she teaches common phrases and such that makes it easy to implement right away like you had stated.

[@fernandarosa4996]

Muito bom, estou impressionada, vivem cá estrangeiros á tantos anos e só sabem dizer "obrigado" não fazem um pequeno esforço, você é uma pessoa que se quer integrar e interagir com os portugueses, muito obrigado

[@tsjimbs]

Bom trabalho! Keep up the good work Josie!

[@emanuelcamacho9316]

Muito bem Josie, já dá para compreender muito bem👍👍

[@sergiosoure]

Parabéns Josie! A língua portuguesa é particularmente difícil, mas a Josie já fala num português muito percetível, fantástico, continue que e breve vai dominar completamente este idioma. Para mim já é uma portuguesa nativa :)

[@josieinportugal6454]

Obrigada. Amo Portugal e espero um dia ser igual a todos os nativos ❤️

[@iarehugo]

Wow I am utterly impressed! You should be very proud of yourself. Keep on going you are doing phenomenal!!!

[@josieinportugal6454]

Thank you for reassuring me that I don’t sound like a fool ❤️

[@JBSpecialMusic]

Awesome Josie! Just what we needed to hear. Confirms much of what I believe. In essence, even as adults we will start off learning Portuguese as a child. Motivation is key and we’re more motivated to learn language to survive in our environment and achieve our goals. Dive in and start swimming. Thanks for the heads up on LingQ. We’re also doing 30-60 minutes of television and video immersion per day. Big move to Estoril is in April. Decipher of written word comes before decipher of spoken, most likely due to written words being pre-parsed versus spoken words being parsed audibly in real-time. Add to this the Portuguese norm of sometimes ignoring vowels between words, though these same vowels must be written to be grammatically correct. The big moments are when your mind starts stringing thoughts in Portuguese. Click-whirr! Just keep doing it. Organic immersion will grow us to the next level. Our brain is already wired to do this, we just need to get our conscious adult mindset out of the way and let it happen.

[@thelanguageunschool]

We don't ignore the vowels. We marry words 😉

[@jedi_mapperp4073]

Learning happens best when it's relevant and on a need-to-know basis. As a teacher making lessons relevant and providing practical context helps a lot...but nothing is as relevant as being immersed in everyday life in a country with a different language. I've never asked students to make flash cards (only good for short term recall). Great perspective and tips. I notice that most immigrant students to the USA say they started learning the language by watching American TV shows.

[@trinamaia6531]

Woo hoo!!! Way to go Josie!! Awesomeness 👍💕👍

[@ruisilva3099]

Parabéns Josie. O seu português já é muito bom. Continue.

[@crystaleldridge3988]

Portuguese Lab is great!!

[@carinafigueira2844]

Está muito bom o sotaque está mesmo muito bom 😊 parabéns dentro em breve já nem se nota que não é portuguesa 😁

[@fatimadafonte1528]

Enjoy your video very much!

[@Hello_Pri]

What a great job speaking Portuguese! Great video!

[@patriciaa9372]

Muito bem! Parabéns!

[@i0r-r-tjtkttl]

Excellent. I can understand some of it!

[@JenShea]

Well done on your Português! I agree, learn what you need first… get those phrases and words down and get used to the sounds and nuances of the language and then you can start taking lessons when you have more confidence. 🇵🇹

[@JBSpecialMusic]

P.S. Bonus points for hiring Portuguese helpers. That’s in our plan too. They’ll never get any work done because we’ll waste most of their time making them speak to us.

[@manuelmachado1276]

beautiful

[@nelsonricardo3729]

That's excellent for seven months, Josie! You'll sound like a native in no time.

[@josieinportugal6454]

I hope so ❤️ !

[@pedromiguel9202]

Sofa in oortuguese is sofá. There are lots of words with the same meaning and writing like banana, hotel, chocolate, central, cinema, drama...

[@thelanguageunschool]

It all makes more sense when you adapt the learning journey to your reality, right?

[@flericelortizluis7465]

Do you study portuguese online? If so, can you tell me the company. I would like to learn too.

[@templarioaqui6760]

Estas fixe no português 👍