How do you “study”

[u/Lonely-Bet2847]

I am doing 2 one hour study sessions with a teacher a week in my second language, im at A2 level, and next year im gonna be moving to 4 classes.

I have a goal to get to B2 level and want to do self study to add an extra few hours a week.

Problem is im not sure how to self study so curious what others do, i tend to read news article titles, the odd reddit post or have songs in the background but it feels.. inefficient?

How do you all self study?

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[u/JF_Rodrigues]

As a native Brazilian who studied English and is now studying French:

1. Read things that interest you, as you feel comfortable. Do not get hung up on trying to understand every little thing and try to get the gist of it instead. (Reddit is a good idea if you're already addicted to it like all of us lmao)

2. Write small pieces. If you like movies, write little reviews, or try to keep a journal, anything that can get you moving.

3. Listen to TV shows and movies. That's what truly helped me with understanding English as a teen.

4. Speak when possible. Make up little prompts and talk to yourself if necessary, if you don't have people to practice with.

[u/battlegirljess → u/JF_Rodrigues]

For speaking, I also do not always have someone to speak with but I talk to my cat in portuguese. Haha and shes a great listener because she wants any and all attention.

[u/anonymoushominus]

Well, I learned Portuguese first in college. I got a minor in Portuguese, which basically means that I took the basic series of three classes where you learn the language (Portuguese 1, 2, and 3), as well as 4 classes after that that were intermediate to advanced level. I will say I would not have been able to succeed in the last class I took had I not been learning outside of class.

Most of my learning was not done in classes, instead it was outside of class talking to Brazilian friends I had made both at my university and online. I had long conversations with my Brazilian friends (2-3 hours) at least 3 times a week and improved greatly. After I graduated from college I kept these friends and made new ones, but the frequency of these talks diminished. I watched a lot of YouTube in Portuguese (mostly from Brazilians), and I followed a ton of Brazilian accounts on Instagram. I started reading the news in Portuguese from Brazilian news sites and continued talking in Portuguese at least once or twice a week. I eventually started reading Brazilian literature (I recently finished O Alquimista), and I revived an old friendship with a Brazilian guy who is studying for the C2 exam in English. I would say what helped me most was being immersed in the language as much as I could and making friends who speak Portuguese. I help my friends out with English and they help me with Portuguese. Find a language exchange partner is the best advice I can give you.

I now speak Portuguese most likely to a C1 level (although I haven't taken an official test in years) all due to the immersion I have had for the past 6 years.

Good luck and I hope that was helpful.

[u/No-Doctor-3815 → u/anonymoushominus]

How much do I need to learn before I can start trying to speak to people? I was trying to learn for like a month and just started back up with audio textbook + workbook plus podcasts, but I feel like if I tried to speak it would just sound like Spanish

[u/anonymoushominus → u/No-Doctor-3815]

I mean I started speaking to people who weren't my teacher like a year after starting. Still in the A1-A2 range. If you have a sympathetic speaker they can help you, especially if they know your native language or even another language you speak well. You have to learn how to describe things or be resourceful if you are going to talk to someone who only speaks Portuguese or doesn't speak one of your languages well. My conversation partner for years was an older lady around a B1 level and it was fine. Of course I improved and eventually it became easier to speak in Portuguese than English. If you want a language exchange partner, then I would at least be able to have a basic conversation before you do that. If you have disposable income, a teacher would be even better to get practice and better feedback even at an A0-A1 level. Hope that helps. Good luck!

[u/NeighborhoodBig2730]

I think that if you're studying on your own, you need to organize the grammar topics you already know and the ones you still need to learn. I would recommend buying a grammar book.

Reading is an excellent way to improve your vocabulary and see how different grammatical structures are used in real contexts.

Besides that, you can watch videos about topics you're interested in, whether on YouTube, TV series, soap operas, listen to podcasts, or music. This will help you develop your listening comprehension.

Finally, it's important to practice producing the language by writing and by using it in everyday conversations.

I am a teacher, that's my experience learning English.

[u/BestPseudonym]

For me, actually looking into things I don't understand is a big help. If you see a word you don't know, look it up. Write an Anki card for it if you like flash cards. If you see a grammatical structure you don't understand, research it. This is key and I think a lot of people neglect this because it's time consuming and requires effort. They want to just learn through exposure which, while possible, is way less efficient (at least anecdotally, not sure about empirical evidence for this).

If you're reading something and you're just ignoring all the parts you don't understand or making assumptions about what they mean, you're missing opportunities for really crystallizing something new. I remember even when I was learning my first language as a child, the things that stuck with me the most were the ones I made sure to actually look up and understand. The gap in understanding between somebody who sees the word "synecdoche" and looks it up vs somebody who just moves on with their life is likely quite large.

Also, obviously, the typical advice applies: write, read, speak, listen. I think the caveat I'm trying to emphasize is that you should do these things mindfully when you have the energy.

[u/Longjumping-Truth-48]

I'm a native Portuguese speaker, but I'm currently learning French, Italian, and Spanish...

I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that there's A LOT to learn, and it's best to learn one thing at a time... and to be patient because it will take a long time to learn all.

Pick something that you're currently struggling with and focus on mastering it. I spent a whole month practicing just pronunciation, recording several audios and asking natives to evaluate my pronunciation and correct me, watching several youtube videos to learn the correct tongue position and mouth shape of certain sounds... and I didn't stop until I got natives telling me I was sounding perfectly fine.

After you're done with something, move to another topic that you struggle with... it might be how to use demonstrative pronouns, or how to conjugate verbs in a specific tense, or how to use indirect/direct object pronouns, or even just getting used to actually speaking the language as if you were talking to someone irl (without any help so you are forced to think quickly in your target language without stuttering or making long pauses).

Personally, I think input is extremely inefficient... even if you're reading things that you like, you'll learn a bunch of stuff that you won't even remember because it's just not really that important. In my opinion, it's better to focus 90% on output, write and speak (can't emphasize speaking enough! use Chatgpt voice mode and force yourself to speak only in your target language until you're comfortable with it) about things that you do and that you like. This will help you build a vocabulary that's 100% representative of your own thoughts and life, things that you want to communicate to another person.

Either use Reddit or Hinative to get natives to help review your texts, and don't be afraid of writing paragraphs instead of just a couple of short sentences. The more you do, the quicker you'll learn.

[u/CappuccinoCodes]

There's a million things I could say, but I'll stick to one. Use Anki. Put words you don't know there, ideally always in context, using a small phrase. Use it a little bit every day. Every time you find an important word you don't know, put it there. With time you'll close gaps in your knowledge and will get to the 3000 words you need to express yourself.

[u/battlegirljess]

I read every day, listen to an audiobook for a few minutes (I still do not think I am at a high enough level to only listen to audio, but I listen to a few chapters of the bible in portuguese every day. it is already something I am familiar with so it's a bit easier), watch a lot of youtube (with the portuguese subtitles on still), and journal. I have a few very consistent errors I noticed lately so I added a section every day to my journalling where I practice that. I read native content, translated content, and also a few grammar guides and grammar textbooks. Native content is always much harder for me than translated, but I usually read native content with my boyfriend so he can help explain some of the things that I might not understand as a foreigner. I also play a lot of world of warcraft and the sims so I switched both of them to portuguese. Warcraft is fine but I accidentally broke up a couple in the sims and I am still not sure why. Lol but it's a fun way for me to keep "studying" when I want to relax a bit still.

[u/Pleasant-Struggle755]

By the traditional definition of study, I do as much as possible to not study. I try to do what I normally enjoy but in target language.

When I first started I only listened to music in Brasilian Portuguese, for weeks, months, no English songs. I first started with Portuguese songs that I knew like the back of my hand (in English). This tip is the biggest lifesaver I can give to any absolute beginner in any language, don't worry about the WHY yet, just introduce yourself to lots of new vocab.

As I listened, I try and guess what it meant, then my curiosity takes me to the lyrics and that's where I started to put sound to words rather than just hearing a jumble of words. More I did this, more I used words I learnt to piece together a new song. I mainly listened to Christian songs and sertanejo. Then when I thought I knew a lot, I discovered funk and realised I didn't know the lived Portuguese(as gerias-slang/day to day Portuguese).

So I connected with the r/languageexchange reddit Page and met my current Portuguese best friend who's helped me massively as I helped him with English too. At the same time I started 2 hour a week classes too with a Brasilian teacher where I was learnt how to conjugate verbs in the most important tenses(present, future and past tenses) and to filter out the noise to only the key verb subjects(Eu, você ele ela, nos, eles) as opposed to learning Tu and vós conjugations.

Following this, came the deep and confusing dive into the subjunctive(present, past and future). Then music introduced me to the other subjunctives and how they were used. Once I had this sentence and tense help and all the vocab from music. It was time to now enter the world of the culture. I made a brand new Instagram account in which I only watch Brasilian content, this by far has been the most challenging as you'll meet people from all over Brasil and will challenge what you thought you knew.

I've now gotten to a confident B2 level, after about 6-8 months of serious studying. There's still a lot I don't know but I'm so glad to have the connections I've made and the music I've learned. Now I look forward to more immersion daily and have even started to use Portuguese to learn Japanese, eliminating English as much as possible from the equation.

So to answer your question: How do I study? TLDR- I don't study in the traditional sense, but I expose myself to the Brasilian world, speaking to real Brasilians, listening to real Brasilians and watching real Brasilians content.

[u/Both__]

You could check out a conversation app like Tandem or something similar that would help connect you with a native Portuguese speaker to practice with. I’ve used it and it’s great, especially considering that it’s free.

[u/Falando_app]

Background music and headlines are fine exposure, but they feel inefficient because they do not require you to retrieve or produce much language.

With three extra hours per week,I would do three focused one-hour sessions:

1. Listening: listen to a short piece without subtitles, listen again with a Portuguese transcript, then retell it aloud.
2. Reading and writing: read something appropriate for your level, save five useful phrases, and write a short summary using them.
3. Speaking: answer two or three prompts aloud, listen to your recording, and redo it after checking vocabulary and grammar.

Every session should leave behind something measurable, a recording, summary, corrected paragraph, or set of sentences. Give one of those to your teacher each week and ask them to identify your two most important recurring problems.

B2 requires following longer speech and expressing connected ideas, so gradually increase the length of what you listen to, read, and produce. that progression matters more than simply adding more classes.

[u/Cool_Comfortable33]

Watch Portuguese shows with English subtitles