Good day, good morning or good evening!
Good evening, Leo or Leonardo, from Lisbon.
- Exactly. - Exactly.
It's already evening here.
Oh, so it's already evening. Well, let's speak in Portuguese.
To me, it's a language I've been trying to learn and can't speak very well,
because it's influenced by my Spanish and everything.
Doesn't matter, let's talk about it today.
Leo, or Leonardo, has a YouTube channel. And we're going to leave all the...
- How do you say? - The links.
Leave the links.
- How do you say? - We say "links".
- Links? - Yes, we basically say the English word.
The English word.
I want to talk about Portuguese.
Portuguese is a very interesting language, it's very similar to Spanish.
From Galicia.
- It's a language that's spoken in Brazil. - Mostly.
A country with around 200 million people.
And it's also spoken in the language's originating country, Portugal.
Which has around 10 million people, I believe.
What advice can you give to those who want to learn Portuguese?
What's the importance of the differences between both dialects
of the Portuguese language?
So, the advice I'm going to give is...
Speaking against me, that's an expression that means...
I'm not going to suggest what would be more convenient to me.
And that would be, "Learn European Portuguese."
I think the best advice I can give is...
When in doubt, learn Brazilian Portuguese.
For two reasons.
The first reason is because most of the native Portuguese speakers
speak Brazilian Portuguese.
So, the likelihood of speaking Portuguese with a Brazilian person
when you're traveling or when you're in a country and you meet native
Portuguese speakers from other countries, the likelihood of meeting Brazilian people
is much, much, much higher than the likelihood of meeting people from Portugal.
So, from that perspective, Brazilian Portuguese would be more useful.
And the second reason is that, overall,
the level of spoken English is higher in Portugal than it is in Brazil.
So, the likelihood- You need to know how to speak Portuguese in Brazil
more than you need to know how to speak Portuguese in Portugal.
So, for these two reasons, when in doubt...
Or alternatively, if someone wants to learn Portuguese in general,
because that someone wants to learn the language and doesn't really have-
If, for that person, it doesn't really matter any country specifically.
In that case, Brazilian Portuguese is their safest bet.
Of course, if they want to learn Portuguese because they have a special interest
in Portugal and in the Portuguese culture, or because they want to live in Portugal,
in that case, they should learn European Portuguese, because it'd be more useful.
But of course-
I think I know what you're going to ask, and I think my answer would be...
"How important are these differences, really?" Was that your question?
I think- Since that's always an important question.
Basically, especially in the beginning, not at all important... Honestly.
The core grammar is the same.
Someone should learn the language, period.
Worrying about which dialect is small talk, you should just learn the language.
Then, later on...
Specially, if you start to use the language in the formal or the informal context...
Or if you start to get caught up in cultural situations
in which the context might be different...
Then yes, it becomes important.
But for 90% of people who learn Portuguese in order to be able to communicate,
it's more important to know the words, the language itself,
than it is important to know for certain if you're speaking Brazilian Portuguese
and not European Portuguese.
Or to know for certain if you're speaking European Portuguese
and not Brazilian Portuguese.
What matters is being able to speak.
The only issue is, really, cases of formal or informal context.
Those are the cases in which there are some differences that are important.
And if you want me to, I can talk about them, Steve.
Do you want me to...?
My point of view is the following.
Someone who lives in Europe,
be them British or Swedish, or just someone who wants to travel to Portugal.
For them, I believe the European variation might be more important, more useful.
So, this depends on your life, on where you live.
- Exactly. - But that's just something.
The other thing is, the Brazilian dialect of the Portuguese language
is somewhat easier to understand.
Because Brazilians pronounce all the vowels more clearly.
The vowels, exactly.
So, Portuguese from Portugal is somewhat harder to understand.
I, for instance, don't speak Portuguese all that well,
but I understand nearly everything. Not nearly everything, but a lot.
And I have listened to many podcasts in both dialects.
In both, in Portuguese from Portugal [???] and in Brazilian Portuguese.
To me, the most important thing in language learning is understanding.
So, I want to understand Portuguese from both Portugal and Brazil.
It's understanding.
And whenever I speak,
it's likely that I sound more like someone from Spain than any other country.
But people understand what I'm saying and I understand what people are saying.
One question: In Brazil, "a gente" means "we."
Is that also the case in Portugal?
Yes, it's the same here.
Maybe we don't use it all that frequently, but when we say "a gente", we mean "we."
That's not the same in Spanish.
- "La gente." - "La gente" means "the people."
- "The people." - Yes.
Over here, that's even a very common mistake from those who speak Portuguese
and already know how to speak Spanish.
So much that, over here- Exactly. Over here, to say "la gente" from Spanish,
to say the equivalent over here, you'd have to say "as pessoas."
"As pessoas."
"As pessoas" means "the people." "A gente" means "we."
And in Brazil, the word "tu" is also not used to say "you."
Or maybe not in the South. I don't know, but they mostly use "você" to say "you."
Can you tell me how it is in Portugal?
How do you use the word "tu"? How frequently do you use the word "tu"?
Is it similar to Spanish, where they mostly use the word "tú"?
How is it in Portugal?
This matches precisely with what I was saying just a while ago, which was...
Really, what actually matters is learning the language.
And the differences between Portugal's and Brazilian Portuguese are few.
But in context, there is a difference that is sometimes important to know, which is...
We use the word "tu" basically the same way the word "tú" is used in Spain.
Or in Italy, for example.
Maybe, compared to Spain- In Spain, that word is used a bit more.
What I mean is, in Portugal...
[???]
What I mean is, in Portugal, the word "tu" is the informal form of "you."
And also, it's in the third person.
While "você" is the formal form of "you." That's basically it.
Maybe, compared to Spain...
In Spain, if we go into a store, we say "tú."
Unless it's to a very old person.
In Portugal, if we go into a store, we say "você."
We're a bit more formal with the people we don't know.
But the logic here is the same,
"Tu" is the informal form. "Você" is the formal form.
However, there's a caveat, there's something a little more complex.
In a formal context, we use the third person without saying the word "você."
In other words, if I say-
I'm speaking with you right now in the informal form.
But if I were to speak with you in the formal form,
I would say "consigo", not "com você." (with you)
"Estou a falar consigo, Steve." (I'm speaking with you, Steve)
"Steve, o que é que você acha?" (Steve, what do you think?)
"Steve, não sei o quê." (Steve, I don't know)
Or maybe, rather than saying,
"O que é que você acha?" (What do you think?)
Maybe, I would say, "O que é que o senhor acha?"
"O senhor" is the person who we're talking with.
But we don't use the word "você."
The word "você" is already implied, because we're speaking in the third person.
But we use "o senhor" or "a senhora" to say the word "you."
And we use "consigo" rather than "com você" to say "with you."
That's basically it.
Okay, another question.
Leonardo, you create content for learning Portuguese.
Content that is more or less for the intermediate level.
How important is it for people who want to learn Portuguese
to listen or to use the content that you've made for learning Portuguese
if these people want to learn Brazilian Portuguese?
Why is it important? I have my own thoughts.
Is it also important to use good content made for learning European Portuguese?
You know, I have never really thought about this, but...
Why is it also important for those who want to learn Brazilian Portuguese?
I think, just like you've said, first of all,
if we're learning a language, our main goal is to understand.
And so, being exposed to the highest possible number of accents
and dialects of a language can only help, it's a very positive thing.
It's important, even for those who are interested in Brazilian Portuguese.
It's useful to listen to European Portuguese, Angolan Portuguese,
Mozambican Portuguese, any at all.
And the truth is, all of its dialects are mostly not that different.
It's Portuguese, after all.
So, it's just more content. And if there's something that I think we know well,
we, people like you and me who are learning languages from online content on the web,
is that it's always lacking, there is never enough content.
So, someone who's learning Brazilian Portuguese,
after watching all available videos for the intermediate level of Brazilian Portuguese,
will always want to watch more intermediate content.
And so, that's not negative at all. Rather, it's very positive
to watch content made for people in the intermediate level of European Portuguese.
And vice-versa. I think whoever wants to learn European Portuguese
should also watch content made for Brazilian Portuguese.
Yes, what we need is content, specifically content for the intermediate level.
And whenever we start learning a language, any language, we can't tell the difference.
We can't say for certain if something is Portugal's or Brazilian Portuguese.
So, even for some who are in a very advanced level, there's no such difference.
Once we want to speak with an accent from Rio de Janeiro or from Lisbon,
then, we can focus on that issue, so we can pronounce more like a Brazilian.
My experience is the following, if I travel to Brazil for a few weeks,
I will sound more like a Brazilian.
And then, if I travel to Portugal, my accent will change as well.
Because it's more- I have the impression that our accents are more flexible
when we're learning another language.
Our native language will not change, but the languages we are learning
are always influenced by other people.
We are very susceptible to imitating the form of the language we're listening to.
That's why I believe this doesn't really matter all that much.
What really matters is interesting content, interesting voiced content.
Of course, it's easier to understand when you're listening.
And how do you say... I'll leave the link
for our listeners, so they can use your content to learn Portuguese.
- Thank you very much. - Be it European or Brazilian Portuguese.
Thank you very much for leaving my content, for sharing my content.
And yes, I think we fully agree on this.
There's no real disagreement here, what actually matters is listening.
What matters- It's just like you've said, when we're starting to learn a language
and when we're in an intermediate level-
And I know many people who speak, let's say, English very well.
And even those people, be them British, North American, Australian,
even them can't tell the difference, what matters is understanding the language.
- And that's basically it. - Exactly.
Thank you very much for the conversation, it was very interesting.
Thank you, Steve.
And I hope we can do this again sometime.
That's fine by me, whenever you want, we can talk once again about Portuguese
and about languages. Until next time, thank you.
Until next time, thank you.