Colebra

I think that you have to kind of forget about the word, and allow your brain to process nothing but sounds. You know what I mean? Think of it as abstract sounds.

I have never used this technique for language learning, but I have used it to win at tongue twisters and it works like a charm.

And repetition, of course, plays a big part on your success.

I don't know about all this, but I have been able to risk having foreign kids because of language skills.

I'm proud to say that, so far, I have conquered Spain, and italy 

But sure... If you are actually in a situation like that, go for it son.

I think it can actually help if you play your cards right.

Nice post! I sure have made some of these mistakes.

Loose and lose used to drive me crazy! Finally some closure on this!!!

Elance, as far as I know, is not US only.

I've also been trying to scrap some bucks working from home, and I've had no luck with translation work...

I'm thinking about giving it another shot. I'll post some feedback when I do.

I'm trying to see how much it would benefit me at this point, to put some real hours aside for learning.

Also: For those jobs, did you need to have a formal document, or was your experience enough?

Era uma vez uma jovem menina chamada Ana Maria que gostava muito de comer gelados com sabor a morango.

Um dia, ela decidiu que já estava farta de comer gelados, por isso foi procurar outra coisa que lhe agradasse.

Decidiu então partir à procura de dois frangos assados e apenas encontrou baba de caracol.

Does anyone know if there are any resources online to practice grammar. I need to practice conjugation for all the verbs. I know present and simple past well, but not so much of future and conditionals...

Preferably it would be someplace that also has a good explanation of when you use the various forms as well.

Obrigada!

I think your best bet is to go to Amazon and buy a Portuguese grammar book.

I've also had a hard time trying to find such resources for other languages...

If your serious about learning Portuguese, I guess you are going to use the grammar book a lot, and you'll only spend like 20$. Maybe less...

That's what I would do.

I'm down for this!

I was born in Portugal and have lived there all my life.

My family on my mother's side is Brazilian though, so I'm just as confortable with that variant of the language.

As you can see, I can actually speak English fairly well, but I'd like to improve my grammar, as I'd like to write for a living.

Let me know how we should go about getting started 

This looks very interesting:

http://www.michelthomas.com/learn-portuguese.php

I had quite a bit of success when I tried to learn Italian with audiotapes. And I didn't even tried that much...

I guess this must be useful, but I haven't really tried the product.

It costs about 50$, but it seems that you can have it for free with a Audible trial account!

I have used Audible, and that I can recommend. I also took advantage of their free audiobook with a trial account, so...

If you want to learn Portuguese, you should really take advantage of this.

Basically it's a program where senior citizens from the U.S. chat with Brazilian kids over Skype, and teach them English.

It's a pretty awesome program from a Human perspective!

Have you ever heard of this?

Do you know if this sort of thing exists for any other language?

I have also learned English through television.

I just watched a lot of Cartoon Network and old films... One day I just woke up, and there it was. It was literally like that.

I always give thanks to Charlie Chaplin for my English... Which is funny because most of his career was in silent film! But I can't tell you how many times I watched "The Great Dictator".

For your entertainment, here's a list of movies where I swear I can say the lines at the same times the actors do, while the movie is playing:

"The Great Dictator"

"Home Alone"

"Home Alone"

"Terminator 2"

"Uncle Buck" - maybe not the whole movie though...

I've been a musician and I've toured Europe twice.

Whenever we went to Italy, like any other countrie, we started to learn the local language...

We would be long gone, already two or three countries after Italy, and we would still be talking Italian!

And even doing the hand signs and stuff...

It's just awesome... You might be just saying gibberish, still sounds like sweet poetry!

Plus chicks dig it... And I won't even get into Italian women. You guys figure it out for yourselves...

- O Menino Maluquinho by Ziraldo. Ziraldo is a household name in the Brazilian children literature, and this is his most famous work. Very lovely story about a quirky boy and his adventures.

You guys should definitely take this one... This book is just awesome!

I'll share "Capitães da Areia" by Jorge Amado. Hands down, the best novel I ever read!

It's a shame the movie was a bit disappointing...

It depends on what kind of music you're into...

But I see you guys want the classics... So I'll share:

Portuguese:

Rui Veloso - Não me mintas

Brazilian:

Jorge Ben Jor - Fio maravilha

Which is Portuguese for "Hello good folks from the Forum!"

I'm a Portuguese, 28 year old dude. My family is Brazilian so I also have a lot of contact with that part of the language, which is quite different...

I'm looking to improve a little bit on my Italian. Just because Italian funny, and chicks dig it...

I always go through labels and learn a little bit when I can...

Io capisco l'Italiano! Aspiratutto! Spaccalegna a benzina! Super Mario!

See you out there!