Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e Empresa

For me Portuguese was a very hard language to learn. The pronouncation of the language is very hard. Between the young generation in portugal it's no problem to communicate in english. With the older community there sometimes it is quite hard to understand them or make them clear that you don't understand them. Especially for things like open a bank account, getting a tax number it is very helpful to have a native speaker aside or have at least basic knowledge in the language.

Because I did not speak any Portuguese before I came to Lisbon, I was fortunate to notice that most people knew a little bit of English. After a few weeks it became easier to make myself clear to the locals, because of some phrases and words I learned in the language course. I talked mainly with my fellow international students who all spoke English very well, so this was not a problem.

I had a portuguese language course at the university during the semester that was quite good but in a big group. Because I was eager to learn the local language I did a language course at an institute 2 times a week besides the course at the university. All people at the university spoke good english so it was easy to communicate & understand.

I took some classes in portugues in order to get a bet feeling about the language. I also bought a tv, so i could watch a few hours a week... This helped me a lot to improve my knowledge. At the end of my semester I did quite well and could have a normal conversation with the portuguese.

i didn't speak portuguese at all before I came to Lisbon, but after 1 month I was able to communictae a little bit. At the end I could say (sometimes using my hands also) what I wanted to say. Portuguese is difficult in pronunciation, but not so difficult in grammar.

it was really great to have the possibility to learn portuguese in iscte for 60 euros for the semester, with a really interesting teacher. The courses in portuguese really helped me to improve