Improve your Portuguese Listening Skills

How to improve your listening skills

Have you ever felt frustrated because you were listening to a native speaker and you couldn't understand a word?

Of course, you have, but that has happened to every Portuguese learner at the starting point of the learning process. So, don't worry! It's normal and you can change that!

And this is fundamental because you really need to change your mindset and start talking to yourself: I can do it! I can learn Portuguese too!

So how can you improve this situation?

Well, starting to work on your listening skills will at the end of the day also enhance your speaking skills as they go hand in hand!

Benefits of Portuguese listening practice

A) Benefits of Portuguese Listening Practice

And what are the benefits of Portuguese listening practice, you may ask?

There are surely a lot of benefits but I'd set my mind on these two:

1) It makes you more confident and in the long term more capable and flexible as a Portuguese learner allowing you to be risky, to want to engage more in conversations, to break your shyness, and mostly to show others you're stepping up in this language learning.

2) It brings authenticity to your conversations and interactions in Portuguese. You'll start using idiomatic expressions like a native speaker does, and you'll recognize which words are used in the real-life world and start using them more consistently. And of course, this provides you with a sense of accomplishment as a Portuguese Language Learner.

So, now you'd ask: What's the key to get there?

Well, I'd say the key is to expose yourself to the Portuguese language as much as possible by listening every day to native speakers, with different accents and ways of communication as a means to progress and become fluent in this Romanic language.

How can I practice my Portuguese listening skills

B) How can I practice my listening skills?

There are many available resources out there for you to improve your listening skills and prepare your ears to become more Portuguese-friendly.

Here I'll recommend you some of them, though there are much more if you do research of your own too.

1) Listening to Portuguese Music

Listening to music is in fact a very powerful tool as it provides you with a more relaxing background that allows you to be fragile without even noticing it. In other words, Listening to music in Portuguese is a great opportunity to learn new words and sentence structure and it will motivate you to do shadowing which is a handy method of learning a new language (that is you repeat while it's being said).

A good example is certainly to use Spotify and as an example, I leave you with these links of mine:

Another amazing app to practice listening to music is https://lyricstraining.com/pt. Here you can find an app where you can use Portuguese songs to enhance your pronunciation, vocabulary, and overall your listening skills.

2) Listening to Podcasts or Tedx videos

Podcasts are a growing industry nowadays and there are numerous Portuguese Podcasts that are useful to grow your listening skills.

Another thing about this platform is that it can be heard almost everywhere so it gives you the freedom to choose the place where to listen to them: on your sofa, in bed, at the beach, etc.

Tedx videos are also an interesting way to learn new things while you're training your ear. Here is a good example:

https://www.ted.com/talks/david_marcal_o_que_e_natural_nao_e_necessariamente_bom_natural_isn_t_necessarily_good/transcript

I'll propose to you my Podcasts:

Português Simplificado

Palavras à solta

Or from other content creators like these ones:

Say it in Portuguese: https://sayitinportuguese.pt/podcast-SiiP

Storyglot: https://storyglot.com/s2-ep7/

Portuguese with Carla: https://portuguesewithcarla.com/

3) Listening to Portuguese movies/ soap operas/ documentaries/ shows, etc on Netflix or RTP Play.

I'll propose these ones:

https://www.rtp.pt/play/p10551/e633968/por-do-sol

https://www.rtp.pt/play/p7759/conta-me-como-foi

https://www.rtp.pt/play/p8013/e507537/cronica-dos-bons-malandros

4) Listening to Portuguese Poetry.

The Portuguese language has extraordinary poets like Fernando Pessoa, Luís de Camões, and Florbela Espanca, among others.

Listening to Portuguese poetry is definitely an inspiring way to learn the language and its nuances, figures of speech, grammatical structures, and much more.

I'd suggest these videos as a start for you:

Florbela Espanca, "Amar": https://youtube.com/shorts/RK-DodEbH4w?feature=share

5) Listening to reading News

This activity is in fact very useful as it exposes the learner to a more challenging type of text in which he/she can learn not only new words but also sentence structure, and figures of speech, but also learn important information about the surrounding world.

As an example, I propose you listen to this video:

6) Listening tests

Listening tests can be great tools to help you improve your listening skills as you've to carefully listen to a spoken text in order to get the answers to the guided questions. It requires you to train your ear and be exposed to different accents which sometimes is a bit challenging. Nevertheless, you should do it on a daily basis, because practice makes perfect and as time goes by you'll notice your growth in your listening and speaking skills as a whole.

Examples - click on the links below:

https://youtube.com/shorts/NYDpbyEUCdM?feature=share

https://youtu.be/XIz7MS-E6eU

https://youtube.com/shorts/tCBZjFWVTSs?feature=share

7) Listening to reading Portuguese books aloud

This is really a great way to practice your listening skills as stories are one of the most complete ways to learn a language due to its complexity in terms of language use.

When you're listening to stories your ear is also being taught to recognize words, sentences, verbs, figures of speech, and all an imaginary plot that is being built around the story.

It'll unconsciously make you predict things which is also an amazing tool to understand a language and it'll immerse you in a world of dreams.

Here is a great example of my own:

8) Listening to words, phrases, stories, etc while you sleep

This is a different and interesting way to practice your listening skills in a more relaxed background.

Certainly, you'll agree with me that listening to a video either a Podcast or a Youtube video with simple basic words/sentences is a great opportunity to practice your Portuguese while you're in your bed or sofa. Why not give it a try?

I hope my tips were useful to you and do continue practicing your listening skills in order to become a stronger Portuguese language learner. Keep on! You can do it! :)

Improve your Portuguese Listening Skills

Have you ever felt frustrated because you were listening to a native speaker and you couldn't understand a word?

Of course, you have, but that has happened to every Portuguese learner at the starting point of the learning process. So, don't worry! It's normal and you can change that!

And this is fundamental because you really need to change your mindset and start talking to yourself: I can do it! I can learn Portuguese too!

So how can you improve this situation?

Well, starting to work on your listening skills will at the end of the day also enhance your speaking skills as they go hand in hand!

A) Benefits of Portuguese Listening Practice

And what are the benefits of Portuguese listening practice, you may ask?

There are surely a lot of benefits but I'd set my mind on these two:

1) It makes you more confident and in the long term more capable and flexible as a Portuguese learner allowing you to be risky, to want to engage more in conversations, to break your shyness, and mostly to show others you're stepping up in this language learning.

So, now you'd ask: What's the key to get there?

Well, I'd say the key is to expose yourself to the Portuguese language as much as possible by listening every day to native speakers, with different accents and ways of communication as a means to progress and become fluent in this Romanic language.

﻿B) How can I practice my listening skills?

There are many available resources out there for you to improve your listening skills and prepare your ears to become more Portuguese-friendly.

Here I'll recommend you some of them, though there are much more if you do research of your own too.

1) Listening to Portuguese Music

A good example is certainly to use Spotify and as an example, I leave you with these links of mine:

Another amazing app to practice listening to music is https://lyricstraining.com/pt. Here you can find an app where you can use Portuguese songs to enhance your pronunciation, vocabulary, and overall your listening skills.

2) Listening to Podcasts or Tedx videos

Podcasts are a growing industry nowadays and there are numerous Portuguese Podcasts that are useful to grow your listening skills.

Another thing about this platform is that it can be heard almost everywhere so it gives you the freedom to choose the place where to listen to them: on your sofa, in bed, at the beach, etc.

Tedx videos are also an interesting way to learn new things while you're training your ear. Here is a good example:

https://www.ted.com/talks/david_marcal_o_que_e_natural_nao_e_necessariamente_bom_natural_isn_t_necessarily_good/transcript

I'll propose to you my Podcasts:

Português Simplificado

Palavras à solta

Or from other content creators like these ones:

Say it in Portuguese: https://sayitinportuguese.pt/podcast-SiiP

Storyglot: https://storyglot.com/s2-ep7/

Portuguese with Carla: https://portuguesewithcarla.com/

3) Listening to Portuguese movies/ soap operas/ documentaries/ shows, etc on Netflix or RTP Play.

I'll propose these ones:

https://www.rtp.pt/play/p10551/e633968/por-do-sol

https://www.rtp.pt/play/p7759/conta-me-como-foi

https://www.rtp.pt/play/p8013/e507537/cronica-dos-bons-malandros

4) Listening to Portuguese Poetry.

The Portuguese language has extraordinary poets like Fernando Pessoa, Luís de Camões, and Florbela Espanca, among others.

Listening to Portuguese poetry is definitely an inspiring way to learn the language and its nuances, figures of speech, grammatical structures, and much more.

I'd suggest these videos as a start for you:

Florbela Espanca, "Amar": https://youtube.com/shorts/RK-DodEbH4w?feature=share

5) Listening to reading News

This activity is in fact very useful as it exposes the learner to a more challenging type of text in which he/she can learn not only new words but also sentence structure, and figures of speech, but also learn important information about the surrounding world.

As an example, I propose you listen to this video:

6) Listening tests

Examples - click on the links below:

https://youtube.com/shorts/NYDpbyEUCdM?feature=share

https://youtu.be/XIz7MS-E6eU

https://youtube.com/shorts/tCBZjFWVTSs?feature=share

7) Listening to reading Portuguese books aloud

This is really a great way to practice your listening skills as stories are one of the most complete ways to learn a language due to its complexity in terms of language use.

When you're listening to stories your ear is also being taught to recognize words, sentences, verbs, figures of speech, and all an imaginary plot that is being built around the story.

It'll unconsciously make you predict things which is also an amazing tool to understand a language and it'll immerse you in a world of dreams.

Here is a great example of my own:

8) Listening to words, phrases, stories, etc while you sleep

This is a different and interesting way to practice your listening skills in a more relaxed background.

Certainly, you'll agree with me that listening to a video either a Podcast or a Youtube video with simple basic words/sentences is a great opportunity to practice your Portuguese while you're in your bed or sofa. Why not give it a try?

I hope my tips were useful to you and do continue practicing your listening skills in order to become a stronger Portuguese language learner. Keep on! You can do it! :)

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B) How can I practice my listening skills?