How I'm Learning Portuguese

Okay like no-one asked (I wasn't really expecting anyone to anyway) but I can't think of anything else to blog about this week so here ya go:

I discovered Babbel >>> earlier this year, because I wanted to increase my Spanish vocab (since school Spanish only teaches you how to say certain things).
Mini Babbel Review:
You join for free, and have access to the first lesson of every course module of free (I'll post a picture explaining at the end). To buy access to all courses - there are currently 8 courses for Spanish and 6 for Portuguese - you have four subscription options: £8.95 for 1 month, £17.85 for 3 months, £29.70 for 6 months and £53.40 for a year. Within each course there are many sub-courses and modules. The content is based on proper framework, so it's basically like walking into a language class, just without a teacher and on your laptop, phone etc. The website also includes a chat board and a friends tab, so you can practice interacting with people from all over the world. It's available as an app on iOS, Android, Kindle Fire and Windows.
Personally I think Babbel is excellent if you want to learn as if you are being taught in a language class (although I had to consult Google for a few of the grammar rules that Babbel didn't explain very well), and it's a bargain for the price in comparison to £200+ of Rosetta Stone.

(I'll link the site at the bottom (check it out to see prices in your country or browse the 10+ languages it has to offer)) 

Another platform I use is DuoLingo which I thought was going to be rubbish because it's totally free, but is actually really good.
Mini DuoLingo Review
Once I found out that DuoLingo was chosen as iPhone App of the Year by Apple, I was like WOAH OMG I GOTTA CHECK THIS OUT. You can access it on the web (I'll link it at the end) and as an app on iOS and Android devices. I've only been using it for 2-3 weeks, and so far so good. It uses gamification (check it out to see what I mean) and is more for giving you words, phrases and sentences to use. In each thing (for lack of better word to use), you either read, write, listen and possibly speak about 10-15 words, phrases, or sentences. It really is quite fun to use, On the web version, there discussion and immersion tabs, which I find really good. The immersion tab lets you translate thousands of different sources; wikipedia pages; news/magazine articles etc, and trust me, it isn't as bad as it sounds.

Those are the two educational platforms I use to learn, but I do a lot more to help me achieve close fluency, which I will explain in my next post, so watch out for that one!

Sarah x

LINKS 

babbel.com

duolingo.com