Introduction To Brazilian Portuguese
What good would any site be if it didn’t first start off by giving a
backstory of the topic at hand?
Well… not very good, I think. So, let’s do that now.
As you are aware by this point, Brazilians do not speak Spanish, as a
majority of the English-speaking world tends to assume. But rather, they
speak Portuguese which comes, of course, from the country of Portugal.
Now, the reason so many people think that Brazilians speak Spanish is due
to the fact that pretty much the rest of South America does.
Spain and Portugal are countries in Europe that border each other and both
countries colonized different areas of South America hundreds of years
ago, much as the British colonized the United States. For this reason,
pretty much everywhere south of Texas and California, people’s first
language is typically either Spanish or Portuguese, rather than English.
As you can imagine, the hundreds of years that have passed since Brazil’s
colonization has led to the Portuguese language differing a bit from its
native homeland in Portugal. In fact, Brazilian Portuguese can be
considered quite different at this point. Much like the differences between
American English and the English you would encounter in England, for
example.
The languages are the same at their core, but there are many
words, phrases, euphemisms, and slang terms that simply would not be
understood from one country to the other without familiarity of both.
And not only that, but even in Brazil itself, depending on the region in which
you are physically located, there are differences in words, pronunciations,
and even in the accent itself. For example, think about the differences
among the accents in say, Louisiana or Alabama and that of New Jersey or
New York.
The language is still English, but the differences among the accents,
depending on which state you are in, cause the language to seem almost
foreign. It is the same way in Brazil. As we go along, we will discuss more
about the various accents for specific regions and how to deal with this as
you continue learning.
And don’t worry, it’s not as difficult as it might seem at first. And, as always,
I’ve got a few tricks to help you through it!
If you are looking for the best place to start with learning Brazilian Portuguese, then I have no higher recommendation than to head on over to Rocket Languages Portuguese to get started.
They have all the tools you need to fast track your learning journey and get you speaking like a native in record time!
Good luck my friend, e até a próxima!
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