When you work up the courage to speak some Portuguese and the answer comes back in English it can feel absolutely gutting.
You immediately think:
I must sound terrible
They think I suck
I probably shouldn’t bother trying
I am here today to stop that narrative in its tracks and give you some tips on how to persevere with Portuguese when people respond to you in English!
Starting from Scratch?
If you can’t string a sentence in Portuguese yet, check out this blog article where I offer tips on how to start learning Portuguese from scratch!
Who am I?
If you’re wondering who I am, my name is Liz and I’m a Brit living a life I LOVE in Lisbon. I’ve been studying Portuguese academically for over 15 years and I help people who are relocating or retiring to Portugal build their confidence and conversation skills in European Portuguese so they can live Portugal at its best.
This situation is SO common for anyone learning Portuguese: you try so hard to memorise what you want to say, you give it a go and you are met with an English response. The first thing I want you to realise is that this may not be a reflection on your Portuguese at all!
Yes, you are going to jump to the conclusion that it’s because your Portuguese is the worst, but what if we reframed that negative thought? Here are some other reasons they could be doing this:
- They want to make you feel more comfortable. They don’t know that you are making a monumental effort and WANT to practice your Portuguese. For all they know, you want to be rescued. I think this is the most common one, and is not a reflection on your Portuguese. Also, the fact they are responding at all shows they understood you, so you are definitely not doing as badly as you think.
- They are in a hurry or are not in the best mood. Sometimes in transactional situations, the person serving you may be rushed off their feet or tired, and simply want to speed things up. It’s a shame when this happens but, to be fair, it makes sense, so maybe try to pick moments that are not busy. You can’t avoid the odd grumpy person all the time, so just chalk it up to experience and once again, don’t blame yourself.
- They want to practice or show off their competent English. This one also makes total sense and will happen a lot if you are in a city. So once again, it is not about you and your Portuguese skills at all – they are just happy and comfortable with English.
Now that we hopefully feel a bit better about ourselves, what can we do to turn these situations around?
Well, you simply need to assess the situation. In cases one and three, you should absolutely persevere. If someone is grumpy and giving you bad vibes – don’t bother, just try again with someone else later!
So if you are going to persevere, we simply need to make the other person understand that you want to practice your Portuguese. For that, we just need some simple phrases. Here are some I recommend to my students:
Estou a aprender Português, queria praticar.
→ I’m learning Portuguese, I’d like to practice.
Preciso de praticar, podemos continuar em Português?
→ I need to practice, can we continue in Portuguese?
Or go for some flattery!
O seu Inglês é muito bom! Mas preciso de praticar Português, pode ser?
→ Your English is great! But I need to practice Portuguese, is that OK?
If you feel like your pronunciation is letting you down, you will benefit from improving it in situations like these.
Download my free pronunciation guide that helps you master seven of the most difficult sounds in Portuguese, complete with audio drills.
The previous phrases should be enough for someone to smile and oblige if they are going to – again, not everyone will, but you can’t win them all!
The important thing is to keep trying and keep your goals small – don’t try to do too much in one go and then feel defeated when you get stuck, build up from the smallest interactions and your confidence will grow from there.
Don’t forget the magic phrases when you are stuck for words, such as:
→ Desculpe, não percebi!
I’m sorry, I didn’t understand!
Or
→ Podia falar mais devagar?
Could you speak slower?
I have a whole video on this as well as a video on what to say instead of não percebi, (I don’t understand) so be sure to check them out next.
I hope this blog post was helpful and that you won’t beat yourself up next time you get an English response to your Portuguese – it is a normal part of your journey and with these tips you will get there.
If you want to go further and study with me inside my Portuguese Pro program, you can take a free 60-minute taster lesson – I promise if you are just starting out, it is the best place to make progress fast.
I’ll be back soon with more tips and tutorials!
Beijinhos pessoal,
Liz Sharma