BRAZIL FORUM IN PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE

I find it absolutely amazing that while Brazil is the nation that has the largest number of Portuguese speakers in the entire world the Portuguese language version of the Brazil Forum is one of the least used.

Almost every expat that I've ever dealt with in my capacity of the Brazil Expert for the EB Experts Team states that their greatest difficulty in the process of adapting to life in Brazil is learning the language, nobody is using this forum as a learning tool. What's up with this? The Brazil (Portuguese) Forum is free, available to everybody and it's an excellent way to practice and to learn the language if you'll only use it.

By reading the postings you'll get a grasp of the grammar, the Brazilian "way of speaking" and you'll also probably get lots of tips and encouragement from native speakers of the Portuguese language that will assist you greatly in your learning process. Nobody's going to make fun of you if you write something incorrectly, they're much more likely to point out better ways to say what you're trying to get across. Brazilians just love people that express an interest in learning their language, they're impressed by that and almost every last one of them will do whatever they can to help you learn the language the way it should be spoken.

Try it, you'll like it. I'm sure that if you do, that in very short order you won't be saying, "I'm having so much trouble with the language" anymore. Instead you'll find that your language skills are improving much more than you ever believed they would.

One side benefit of speaking the language better will be that you'll probably find that you're able to get slightly better prices for the things you buy. If you learn the fine art of haggling prices, which is very much a part of the Brazilian culture, and if you speak to merchants in THEIR language you'll probably begin to establish friendships with them and this always translates into getting better deals. You're not going to be seen so much as an "outsider" (gringo) anymore, but rather like a RESIDENT.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team