Enrol Courses - Euroasia - Page 2

Bem-vindo à Língua Portuguesa!

Welcome to the Portuguese language – and to Portuguese language courses with Euroasia!

Why learn Portuguese?

New Zealanders are perhaps more likely to focus on Brazil than on Portugal.
Brazil is the giant of South America, and has a rapidly expanding economy. The country has great mineral wealth, and New Zealand undoubtedly needs to expand its links with this country, which is set to become a player on the world stage as the century progresses.
Quite a lot of Brazilian students have come to New Zealand, especially high school students, and some families here may have hosted young Brazilians.
Brazil is an exceptionally diverse country to visit, with attractions ranging from the Amazon rain forests to the famous sights of Rio. Also fascinating is the African-influenced culture of the North-East, while the spectacular Iguazu Falls are a major drawcard.
The country offers a pretty powerful combination of both the Latin and the tropical! Brazilians therefore tend to be very lively people, and young Kiwis in particular would enjoy the excitement of a stay in Brazil – and not just at Carnival time.
Some knowledge of Portuguese is the key to getting beneath the surface in Brazil, and also to travelling around effectively. Brazilians will greatly appreciate any efforts you make.
If you decide to visit Portugal, you will find a delightful country with attractive, lively towns and a countryside with a certain old-world charm rare elsewhere in Europe.

So what’s involved if you want to learn Portuguese… and is it hard?!

Portuguese is descended from Latin, and is quite closely related to Spanish; if by chance you have learnt Spanish, you will find it quite easy; French or Italian would also help.
Many Portuguese words will seem quite familiar to you right from the beginning. English also has a lot of words of Latin origin. If you know that “nation” is “nação”, and “situation” is “situação”, what do you think “organisation” will be?
Portuguese pronunciation may be a little harder than that of Spanish or Italian – Portuguese has a strong nasalised feel to it, which takes a while to get used to. However, it is not hard to achieve pronunciation which will at least be easily understood.
Most of the spelling of the Portuguese language is reasonably predictable, though the link between spelling and pronunciation is a little more complicated than it is in Spanish.
The basic grammar of Portuguese is not difficult, and you will pick up a lot of the key points as you start to learn phrases and everyday language.
Like most languages, Portuguese becomes a bit harder when you start to look at the grammar in more detail. And like all the Latin-based languages, it has a lot of verb forms and tenses which are quite different from those of English. However, you do not need to embark upon all of these all at once, and if you don’t get that far, you can still express quite a lot of useful, everyday ideas.
Brazilian Portuguese does differ somewhat from the language spoken in Portugal, but the two peoples understand one other in much the same way that speakers of British and American English understand one other.

No events to show