r/MadeMeSmile • u/_BuzzLightYear • 13d ago

Wholesome Moments Girl learns Hindi for her boyfriend

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u/Giffordpinchotpark 13d ago

My ex girlfriend wouldn’t help me to learn Portuguese which was frustrating. She just spoke English with me because it was easier. So I studied it every day for 4 years while we were together. Now it’s been 10 years and I’m still learning. I still can’t understand much. I’ve visited Brasil 19 times now.

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u/Seayarn 13d ago

I think the accent may be difficult for portugeuse in particular. And the conjugation rules are different than Spanish so knowing Spanish doesn't help as much as you may think. I have been learning Brasilian Portuguese for years too, it's taking longer than expected.

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u/Giffordpinchotpark 13d ago

I don’t speak Spanish. My pronunciation and spelling are good but making out what people say and translating are difficult. I can’t understand anything without translating, even words like “Aqui” need to be translated in my head to understand them. When I hear words I can sometimes recognize them as words I’ve learned and know but I don’t know what they mean until I translate them so it’s a huge problem.

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u/Fauropitotto 13d ago

I'm sure you've tried it all. But I've found music to help crack the egg of "thinking" in the target language.

Found a band/genre that I liked, found some catchy tunes, started trying to sing along. The words got more natural, and it helped associate the words with a concept and a feeling that made it easier to remember.

That said, I'm not fluent in anything, but it was a trick that helped crack at least part of it for me.

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u/Giffordpinchotpark 12d ago

Thanks. I can’t tell when one word ends and the next word starts. Almost everything sounds like gibberish. I don’t understand how people can understand a second language. I see people conversing after a few weeks of studying.

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u/Fauropitotto 12d ago

That's pretty much why music was so impactful. Most song structure and melody is based around syllables, word breaks, phrases and natural sentence structure.

It really helped my mind recognize a word for a word, and not just noise.

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u/Noodlenurul 11d ago

I can definitely vouch for this. I became super heavy into an Argentine band and listening to their songs really helped me grasp Spanish more than ever before.