The Portuguese Language

I decided to make a separate post on the Portuguese language. Being a linguist, I am very curious about any language I was exposed to in one way or another. Language is not only the way to communicate, language refrects the culture and how people think. Elaborating on the language is my favourite approach to learn the culture better.  

Many people, who doesn’t speak either Portuguese or Russian, say that these two languages sound very very similar. Of course, as a native-speaker of Russian, I hardly can be objective in my comments on that simply because I understand everything in Russian, but not in Portuguese. 😀 This makes me in a way insensitive to the Russian phonetics, meaning that it sounds ‘natural’ or ‘normal’ to me. Nevertheless, we always look at other languages through our mother tongue consciously or not. 

Indeed, Portuguese has some sounds which are extremely easy to pronounce and which are so familiar. Actually Portuguese phonetics is something I feel comfortable with. 

For me, Portuguese sounds very sharp, confident, concentrated, straightforward, addressed to the particular person. And I really like it.

Another thing which I absolutely love is that Portuguese is a very polite language. The language contains a big variety of politeness forms and ‘por favor’ is a must if you order something in a cafe, buy a ticket, ask for help and in many other situations. 

After learning Finnish, Portuguese looks very easy, and yet with a character. Like any other language, Portuguese requires attention and consistency in learning.

Portuguese people are very encouraging if you try to speak their lovely language. They wait patiently when you are slowly recollecting the word, which escaped from your brain exactly at the moment you need it most. More then that, locals will be happy to correct you and explain the rule in case you make a mistake. 

Another big plus: not that many people in Portugal speak English. This helps a lot to learn the language quicker as the necessity is the best motivation force. 🙂 During my first visit to Portugal,  I went to buy fruits and a shop assistant didn’t speak any English. By miracle, I recollected all the words in saw in plane and airport, I even recollected Latin which I studied 13 years ago. 😂

Learn languages, learn cultures, be curious about others! ❤