Learning a new language is said to be relatively easy at a young age. Even easier would be to spend time in a country where a new-to-you language is spoken. Perhaps the best would be to have parents who speak two different languages to you from the get-go. Unfortunately, none of the above happened to me.
Honestly, my school-learned French was pretty good years ago, but lack of use has taken its toll. And when I decided Spanish was the most useful language, I took a semester of Spanish at night in my sixties. I had a knee replacement half-way through the second semester and that put an end to my Spanish efforts.
So why at my advanced age would I try to learn Portuguese, a language that is much harder than the other two I attempted? Well, if your child was completely bi-lingual in Portuguese and he told you how much Brazilians appreciate Americans who try to say even a few words, and he lived in Saõ Paulo half of every year, and you were going to visit, wouldn’t you try?
A free version of Duo Lingo online has been my guide. It takes five minutes a day. But one should do it every day, and that’s a lot.
Nonetheless, I have a Portuguese vocabulary that includes some names of fruits, some animals, some verbs and a few phrases. I am solid with obrigada (thank you) and bom dia (good morning).
It’s a start.
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