Are you too old to learn Portuguese? | Reflections on Age & Second Language Acquisition

Want to learn more? Check the references below:
- Ellis, R. (2015). Understanding second language acquisition (Second edition.). Oxford University Press.

Video production and cinematography: @roblanghammer (IG)

*

Speaking Brazilian Language School specializes in Brazilian Portuguese. We offer online courses for students of all levels.

#BrazilianPortuguese #portuguesbrasileiro #portuguesdoBrasil #portugaisbrésilien #PortogheseBrasiliano #BrasilianischesPortugiesisch #Portuguesbrasileno

[djeanpierre]

I started learning Portuguese 11 years ago when I was 35 and now I'm fluent. Was it easy? No! But if you have passion for the language and a willingness to work at it and PRACTICE, you can learn any language. I will never be able to speak like a native Brazilian, but the purpose of learning a language is not to be perfect but to understand and be understood. Portuguese has opened so many doors for me so it was definitely worth it.

[ioanekirarahu]

Eu sou americano. Tenho setenta anos e estou aprendendo português. Mas é muito mais fácil quando você já fala francês, italiano e espanhol. Também é mais fácil quando você está namorando uma doce brasileira.

[lemieuxnicole]

Tenho 65 anos e comecei a aprender o português há cinco anos. Aprendei na universidade e no seu canal. Hoje posso falar, enterder e ler romance. Sim, e possível mais me parecia muito difícil!

[rainfinger]

Tenho 75 anos aprendendo português, já falo alemão, francês e holandês, atualmente navegando no Brasil ao norte de Salvador na Baía de Aratu.

[PetaTracey]

Thank you for this interesting video - and your enthusiasm which is infectious! I am 69 and just starting to learn Brazilian Portuguese - I notice a huge difference from my younger years in my capacity to retain what I learn! I prefer explicit learning, but have no opportunity to practise speaking, so implicit learning is also useful to reinforce the listening and pronunciation skills.

[Chris_UES]

Great advice! I’ve been learning for 4 months both implicit and explicit. It really helps to know someone who is fluent who can help you. Watching Português language TV with Português subtitles is great. The key is practicing every day for 10-15 minutes. I’m 58 and finding it much more enjoyable than when I was in high school because I really want to learn.

[ImmigrantPress]

I began learning - from zero - Spanish at the age of 36, some thirty-two years ago, now. At 51 I moved to Spain and, after sixteen years there, (and during which I often forgot in which of my two languages I was communicating) I've recently settled in Colombia. My study of Spanish has been greatly helped by working as a translator of fiction into English, this particularly in respect of broadening my vocabulary; everyday conversation with Spanish speakers tends to be quite repetitive (as daily conversation is in any language) and uses a generally restricted vocabulary.

I've just begun studying Portuguese, having always wondered whether a 'third' language would be easier to learn now I have the experience of understanding the size and shape of 'the forest' I met when setting out with Spanish. As someone else mentions below, a good knowledge of Spanish certainly helps with the learning of grammar in Portuguese, and because of this knowledge, I've quickly begun reading original Portuguese texts daily. Fiction is always the most difficult, I find, of written materials, because of fundamental element in normals is the use of ambiguity. (Nevertheless, the beautiful simplicity of a novel such as 'Vidas secas', by Graciliano Ramos, is already providing useful in deepening my vocabulary study.)

What works best for me is reading articles in Portuguese-language newspapers, which can be read in five or ten minutes and therefore don't test the powers of concentration (of this 'old dog') for too long; watching videos posted on YouTube by DW Brasil, for example, many of which are 5 to 10 minutes in length, is another excellent resource for exposure to 'naturally spoken' Brazilian Portuguese.

And at the end of the year I'm going to spend three months in Brazil in order to get some intensive practice in receiving and producing the spoken language.

Many thanks, Virginia, for your excellent recordings and well-structured teaching. And good luck, fellow students!

[PerlaEscobaryadira]

Oi Virgínia! Estudo o doutorado em linguística na universidade de Minnesota. Acho que é muito legal que você compartilha sua aprendizagem atual com nós.
Concordo com suas dicas. ❤

[leonardocaprisi]

Vc é uma professora muito bem! Eu aprendo agora português com seus videos aqui. 2008 até 2011 eu já aprendi português na escolha aqui na Alemanha, uma vez por semana por duas horas. Um geane abraço!

[fcolli]

Impressionante essas informações.

Eu sou brasileiro! E assim que comecei a estudar outro idioma, me dei conta o quanto o português é lindo. E é por isso sigo esse canal.

Eu tenho 50 anos e estou indo para meu quarto idioma. E essas informações realmente bate com o que eu tenho passado com a experiência de estudo de outro idioma.
Estou totalmente nessa estatística. 😅.

Muito obrigado.

[GoldGollum]

Eu acho que esse aspecto da idade é muito importante, principalmente se a pessoa tem uma idade com as habilidades neurológicas que favorecem absorver coisas, memorizar e ser eficiente para comunicar. Para mim eu notei que as pessoas que estavam jovem como os adolescentes a adultos (16-50) parecem mais receptivos ao aprendizado de línguas. Mas, eu tenho certeza de que há exceções. Além disso, eu diria que o aprendizado explícito é a melhor maneira de desenvolver a sua compreensão, porque você está consciente e disposto a aprender e fazer os esforços necessários: ler, falar, ouvir, assistir a programas e viajar para o país que lhe interessa...

[robertschlatter]

Muito obrigado. Agora tenho 74 anos e estou aprendendo o português. Mas antes de começar a estudar português já falava espanhol italiano francês catalão e latim. Acho que há muitas semelhanças entre catalão e português. Além passei umos dias no Portugal e comecei a falar depois de um ou dois dias. Agora estou nos Estados Unidos e preciso adaptar ao português do Brasil

[SdbiblestudyChurch]

You have a great channel for teaching Portuguese. I think it is a language people can learn at any age, and probably one of the easier languages to learn for anyone, and especially with any Latin grammar or Latin vocabulary (like English) background. I enjoy learning from your channel, too. It would be cool to add some song lyrics from Pagode, Forro, and Sertanejo. Brasil has a lot of music, and it could add another aspect. When I started Portuguese grammar in college, it was interesting to learn from poetry.

[kailar]

Very interesting video, having some lessons of linguistic is fantastic. I learn something unrelated to Portuguese while listening to it, keep it up! Un abbraccio!

[alejandrorodriguezperaza]

Tenho uma idade de 69 annos, eu estude portugues como terza lingua em São Paulo 1983, quero sempre voltar por isto fluencia é muito importante

[F.]

Thank you for this video. I've been inconsistent with my learning because of a busy life schedule but I really do want to learn Portuguese for a close friend and I'm trying to find better habits to just learn the language even if I do it slowly.

[BasedInBrazil]

Yes to a point, neuroplasticity declines with age however it depends how bad you really want to learn your target language.

[markkenney]

I very much enjoy your channel and have taken advantage of the many videos you share on You Tube. Thank you! I am a 64 year old English speaker and have gained an intermediate level of fluency in German and Russian over the years working and living in Russia and Switzerland. I retired now to the interior of Ceara and studying Portuguese using Rosetta Stone and other online programs. (A challenge here in the rural Ceara is the 'Cearese dialect' which is what I hear all around me. It is a very unusual Portuguese and not much help in immersion!) It has been proven that language learning is a great way to keep your brain active and to help ward off cognitive degeneration with aging.... another good reason to learn a language as an adult. I look forward to Portuguese Week!!

[wkaemena]

Eu aprendi o português dentro de um ano sem aula e sem livros solo com a 100% exposição ao Portugues - Eu tinha 36 anos nessa época (tenho agora 73 anos)e eu entendo o português como a minha lingua materna ( alemão)

[IvaanCroatia]

vc foi primeira pessoa quem me deixou interessado em pt-br e agora acho q ja to falando bom viu.. to aprendendo e espero q vou chegar no ponto quando eu posso falar com gnt sem problema.
Vou testar meu pt em julho quando eu vijagar pra br e vamos ver, mas obrigado mt!