How long does it take to learn Portuguese?


How can I learn Portuguese as fast as I can?
(from “CV7NeverBackDown” on Yahoo Answers)
I’m Canadian, more or less fluent in both English and French.
My question is how long would it take for me to learn Portuguese fluently?
Does it help having the knowledge of the French language? I’m pretty good
at learning new languages,I lived in the Philippines for 2 years and became
fluent in both the major languages there.
So how long would it normally take? Thanks!

Praia Vermelha Beach in Rio de Janeiro
Praia Vermelha Beach in Rio de Janeiro

Elena Como’s response: It depends on how devoted you are,
and how much you can immerse yourself in the study of Portuguese.

Your French should come in very handy, since Portuguese is also a
Romance language. I don’t speak French, but my high school
Spanish was extremely helpful to my study of Portuguese.

After one and a half years of studying Portuguese in college,
I went to Brazil as an exchange student. I did just fine, and my
Portuguese improved dramatically from the start of the year to
the end. But there as a big difference between studying Portuguese
in the USA and being and exchange student in Brazil. Here,
I was able to get 3 and a half hours of Portuguese in the
classroom per week, plus some office hours and Portuguese
conversation group on campus. And of course I also spent time thinking in Portuguese when I did homework or studied for tests.
Even still, most of my life was spent in English. When I was in Brazil, my entire life was in Portuguese, and I learned extremely
quickly because of necessity. I’m sure you experienced the same in the Philippines learning Tagalog.

So, in 2 years studying Portuguese in the USA (or any other place where Portuguese isn’t the native language) you can
certainly become highly proficient, but if you are able to study in a Portuguese-speaking country, you will become fluent much


Nowadays (for the past 6 years) I import, publish, and distribute books in Portuguese in the
Northern Hemisphere:


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