Well I have started Pimsluer for Portuguese. I went through the first unit so far and this is what I have learned how to say.

1. Excuse me, miss. (With permission)
2. Do you understand English?
3. No sir, I don't understand.
4. I speak a little Portuguese.
5. Are you an American?
6. I am, miss.

If anyone wants to spell out the translations for me, I would greatly appreciate it. Sometimes it is easier to pronouce the words if I know how they are spelled. If I can stick to it I am going to try and make a post for every unit I go through.

http://www.freetranslation.com/

You can use this site to translate

Xenono

If you wish to study Portuguese well (spoken and written), and are willing to invest the time, I recommend Mastering Portuguese, not Pimsleur. Pimsleur may be helpful afterwards to get your tongue going.

Sabio, the only Mastering Portuguese I have been able to find are on cassettes. The set is around $80 or so which is a lot cheaper than Pimsleur except that I don't have a working cassette player anymore. I've been slowly, very slowly, downloading the Pimsleur. The reviews I have seen on the MP tapes all mention that the first lessons are nothing but repeating individual letters and sounds over and over. I am beginning to understand why that is important.

Your reply to a question I had on the main board concerning pronounciation got me looking for more details concerning "open" and "closed" and the different types of accents used. It only seems to get more confusing, especially with the letter E. I swear that the two people on the Pimsleur lessons are saying this letter differently with the exact same word. The word "e'" or "is" with the man comes across as it would sound in Spanish. The English word "hay" has that sound for the letter E. However, the woman is making it sound like "hat" for the same letter E.

One more with the same darn letter. "I know" or "eu se" has the Spanish sound for the letter E. However, "you know" or "voce sabe" has the E in "voce" with the Spanish sound and the E in "sabe" just like our English long e. At least, that's how they are pronouncing it.

I'm beginning to think I should forget about going back to Rio and just use the AMPs where I live.

Xenono, by the time you finish lesson 5 you will have learned the following very important phrases.

"Eu fallo um poco de Portuges."
"Senora, eu nao tenho 300 reals. A senora vei bem com 200 reals?"
"Onde fica a terma Solarium?"

Tight fit:

I sympathise with you! It is not easy, but it is doable. The initial part of learning a language correctly is painful, but it pays off big time because speaking correctly becomes a second nature. If you are going to get used to something, it might as well be the correct thing.

About your specific questions, e (as in and) has some regional variations in pronounciation, the most common is i (as in kiss). It should never be pronounced as in the a in hat.

Eu sei (I know): sei is almost identical to "say" (but don't extend it like saaaaaay). The e in voce has a ^ accent on it, and is patently closed (as in "say" without the y sound). The e in sabe is pronounced like a short i.

Hang in there.

It's funny what motivates us as humans. The only darn reason I am studying Portuguese is because I want to be able to have even better sessions the next time I go to Rio. And the only reason I would ever go back to Rio is for the women.

I still can figure out what "normal" people see in the place as a major tourist destination. It's crowded, noisy, and the beaches suck compared to those you find in the Carribbean. I guess Carnival is fantastic but what about the rest of the year if you aren't into sex?

My local Borders has at least 10 books on Brazil/Rio and not a one of them devotes more than a single negative paragraph concerning the sex industry. And only 2 out of the 10 even mention Help in their night entertainment sections. Every darn one of the books gives a good solid 1/4 to 1/2 page to Gay & Lesbian travelers. Talk about screwed up priorities in this country.

If someone from Mars could only learn about Americans from reading what they write in travel books they would think that no one except queers have sex, that no one every takes a pee, and that women travelers are only interested in shopping. That's 2 wrong out of 3.

Excuse me, miss. (With permission)
Com licensa, senhora
2. Do you understand English?
A senhora entiende ingles?
3. No sir, I don't understand.
Nao senhor, eu nao entiendo
4. I speak a little Portuguese.
Eu falo um pouco de Portuguese
5. Are you an American?
O senhor e Americano?
6. I am, miss.
Eu sou, senhora.

For right now, I wouldn't worry about the little intricacies you might come across either with the pronunciation or the spelling. Just keep listening to the CD's and you will get it.
As they say, all will be revealed to you in good time. Com=con de=gee nao=now
It certainly helps to be able to write down the phrases you are learning. Get a paperback English/Portuguese dictionary. Check out the following website: www.sonia-portuguese.com
Has some really good charts on grammar, etc.
One of the hardest things I faced was pronouncing the words in Portuguese that were spelled the same and meant the same thing in Spanish. ex. the word "juntos"-takes awhile to stop pronouncing it the way I first learned it in Spanish. I diligently went through the first 30 lessons in between a February trip(which gave me the incentive to learn to speak more than just a few words)and a May trip-during which I also met and partied with Tightfit at some of the termas. Just armed with some basic conversational skills enhanced my trip immensely.
Can't tell you how much better of a time you will have with the girls. Here is what I did.
I needed to get some exercise and lose some weight and learn some Portuguese. I would take one CD with two lessons on it and walk around a track until I finished listening to both lessons.
Each lesson is about a half hour. I didn't push myself on the walking, just went at what I would call a brisk pace.

I would then listen to each track again and write down just like you have done what I had learned. I would then take that CD and put it in my car and listen to it anytime I drove anywhere. If I had a hard time comprehending I would listen again while walking. I was able to go through the first 30 lessons in about two months and felt like I had a really good grasp of what to say and how to say it. Just before my next trip, I listened to all of them one after another taking a couple days to review all of them. I lost 23 lbs, going from 200 to 177, the walking never seemed boring and I learned to speak some Portuguese. (I also ate a lot of oatmeal, cereal, fruit, vegetables and did not drink anything but water-I love Cokes.) Supposedly, exercising while listening to the tapes, due to the increased blood flow and releasing the endorphins in the brain, makes it easier to learn. It takes a little while to get the hang of it, but by the fourth or fifth lesson, things start to go pretty smoothly. The tapes keep reinforcing what you have previously learned. Worth it also to go to the Pimsleur website and read about their methodology.

On the May trip I was so proud of myself for doing all of this, that I drank as much beer, caipirinhas, and cuba libres as I could, ate as much as I wanted and talked to and fucked as many of the garotas as my body could handle. I gained five pounds, killed many brain cells and just about wore my little dick out. Again, really made a big difference.

I haven't exercised or listened to any tapes since I came back due to some health problems, unrelated to the trip, but have my doctors ok to start again as of July 1st. Next trip for me is end of August and I plan on weighing 170 and finishing the second 30 lessons-there are 90 total. Next trip after that is in November, 160 and the last 30. I don't expect that they will make me fluent, but it does impress the girls and it is nice to be able to talk to the taxi drivers, waiters, etc. I made it a habit of telling the girls, in Portuguese, what efforts I was taking to learn their language and they all seemed to appreciate it. Also helps to go with the girls that do not speak any English-you will have to speak Portuguese which will make you learn more and you will also tend to be able to avoid the hard core, been around gringos too much type of girls. I also belong to a local travel website and posted my goals and would make a weekly update as to how many lessons I had completed and how much weight I had lost. Kept a little pressure on me to not slack off. If you guys want to keep track of each other I am all for it.
I am starting Unit II, Lesson 1 tomorrow.

Hey all,

Thanks for the info and all the help. I am trying to learn at least a little Portuguese for my upcoming trip. I figure it might help siutations with the locals. I only have about a month and half before I go, but I fugure whatever I can learn between now and then will be a benefit. I figure it certainly can't hurt and like Costaricardo and Tight_Fit mention, it may help to improve the sessions. So we'll see how it goes.

Thanks again!

You have plenty of time and there is no maybe to it. It will help you.

Xenono:

If you have only a month to learn, then Mastering Portuguese would be next to useless. You would end up learning how to pronounce individual syllables perfectly, but not much else. Stick to Pimsleur, and have fun.

The Pimsleur is pretty fun. And thanks for all your help and advice Sabio. I appreciate all the extra help I can get. Thanks to the others that have helped as well.

It is not too bad so far. I use the free translation tools and seeing the word REALLY helps a lot. I may check out the Mastering Portuguese later if I want to learn the proper pronunciations and really practice those more.

I think I need to better my Spanish skills as well. I am thinking about taking Spanish I and II again at the local JC or University (it is cheaper at the JC) and then maybe I will hit the Portuguese I and II as well. But going through Pimsleur Portuguese I should be a good start for my first trip to Brazil.