Emigrating To Portugal: How Do We Learn Portuguese? | Quinta Da Cerejeira

We've been living in Portugal for almost a year now. The most frequently asked question is: How's it going with the language?

We’ve now been living in Portugal for almost a year, but we knew exactly one year ago that we would be moving to Portugal. In this blog, we share our experiences with learning the language. How hard is it to learn Portuguese?

Our starting point

We didn't even know how to say 'yes' or 'no.'

When we moved to Portugal, we truly had no idea what to expect linguistically. We’re not exaggerating when we say we didn’t even know how to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in Portuguese. In 2023, we traveled through Portugal for two months and could manage a few phrases, but we didn’t get much further than ordering a beer.

It turned out the language barrier was much bigger than we anticipated. Add to that the fact that neither of us are exactly linguistic prodigies—I barely scraped a passing grade in French in high school!

So yes, learning Portuguese was (and still is) a challenge. But with perseverance, patience, and a good sense of humor, we’re starting to make slow but steady progress. It’s a long process, but every new sentence you learn feels like a small victory.

Test your Portuguese #1

Yes and no

Sim e não

A beer, please

Uma cerveja, por favor

Good afternoon

Boa tarde!

Thank you

Obrigado

How did we get started with the language?

When it was decided that we would move to Portugal, we knew one of the biggest challenges for us would be the language. So, we started looking for a language tutor. Online, we connected with an experienced Portuguese teacher who had years of teaching experience. Every Tuesday evening, he came to our home for a Portuguese lesson—a kind of crash course in the language.

It quickly became clear how complex the language is. Using the textbook *Português XXI – nova edição 1 caderno de exercícios*, we had about 15 hours of lessons. We learned some basic phrases and began to grasp the grammar a little.

What made the lessons especially engaging was that our tutor didn’t just teach us the language; he also shared a lot about Portuguese customs and culture. This gave us not only language skills but also a better understanding of life in Portugal.

In addition, we watched a lot of *Portuguese with Leo* on YouTube. We also tried the app Duolingo, though we stopped using it fairly quickly. The app primarily teaches Brazilian Portuguese, which differs quite a bit from European Portuguese.

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Test your Portugues #2

How are you?

Como você está? of Tudo bem?

I love Portugal

Eu gosto de Portugal

Where is the bathroom?

Onde fica o banheiro?

See you tomorrow

Até amanhã

Once in Portugal

When we emigrated to Portugal, we were immediately thrown into the deep end when it came to the language. Many Portuguese people don’t speak English, so we had to rely on our limited knowledge of Portuguese. And then there are the phone calls… Portuguese people love to make calls, and when you run a campsite, you quickly find yourself dealing with a lot of them. 9 out of 10 times, we managed to get by, but sometimes it was such a challenge that we politely asked if we could continue the conversation via WhatsApp. And yes, there were times when the receiver was unceremoniously put down (very charming, right?).

After the high season, we decided to get serious about our language lessons. Twice a week, we had one-hour private lessons with a wonderful teacher here in the village. The best part is that we’re now starting to notice real progress. We’re understanding more and more and can now hold a simple conversation with neighbors or friends. After 20 lessons, we can honestly say we’re pretty proud of how far we’ve come—it’s hard work, but totally worth it!

Practical tips

Watch (children's) movies with Portuguese subtitles.

Together with my little son, we often watch children's movies like Shrek or Kung Fu Panda. I set the spoken language to Dutch and the subtitles to Portuguese.
Set your phone to Portuguese.

I read this tip recently and immediately put it into practice. This way, you pick up a few extra words, and many apps automatically switch to Portuguese.
Read (children's) books.

Every week, I go to the library with my son and we pick up some picture books. Nowadays, I study them in the evening, and the next day, I read them aloud.
Listen to podcasts.

There are many podcasts available nowadays for learning Portuguese. I listen to them, for example, while cleaning or driving.
Ask them to speak slowly.

If Portuguese people notice that you're not speaking Portuguese very well and they speak English, they often switch to English out of kindness. I usually ask them to continue speaking Portuguese, but slowly (devagar).

Next year..

We’re going to do a few things the same, but we’ll definitely be doing some things differently. We’ve realized that handling the high season just the two of us, without any support, is quite tough. So, we’ve decided to bring in help next year, especially for cleaning.

We’ve received a lot of positive feedback that the campsite is peaceful and calm, even when it’s fully booked. We had already decided to keep the spaces spacious, and we’ll continue to stick to this approach.

This winter, we have a few projects planned that will add value for the next season! We’re going to switch from a chlorine pool to a saltwater pool, my yoga studio is being built, the toilet block will get an update, workspaces will be created for digital nomads, and the fourth family apartment will be built.

There are also plenty of ‘small’ ideas we’ll brainstorm about this winter, like expanding the bread selection.

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