Portuguese Culture and Language Course
Cultural Part:
Portugal for me is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever visited. I traveled a lot here and I found out why this country is so special. It was an amazing journey
through the beautiful landscapes and cities.
But why are the different cities of Portugal are so impressive to all
the visitors? Most of the cities are very old but although all the monuments
and “old parts” of the city are very well preserved. Additionally Portugal has
so many different kind of landscape and also ever single city of Portugal is so
unique. When you are visiting Portugal for vacation you can have the beach and
next to them also the beautiful cities. Additionally Portugal has a lot of surfing spots and surfers from all over the world are meeting here to catch the waves together. For me it was also a great experiance to try surfing and I really liked it a lot. Also the economy of Portugal is
increasing at the moment and the economic situation of the country is getting better
and better.
The capital city of Portugal is Lisbon. In Lisbon there are a lot of interesting places to visit and you can also do a lot of sightseeing which should include trying the delicious “pasteis de nata” in Belem. The best places to visit in Lisbon are of course the “torre de Belém”, the “Castelo de São Jorge”, the “Praça do Comércio“, the “Oceanário de Lisboa”, the “Ponte 25 de Abril“, the “Convento do Carmo“and of course a lot more places. I totally fell in love with this beautiful city and I could stay there forever.
Another
famous city in Portugal is Porto. Porto is a really interesting and fascinating
city and it is one of the most favourite places to visit for west European
tourists. It has a lot of historical places to visit and the region of porto is
best known for its production of the famous “Portwine”. In the Ribeira area you
can see the oldest parts of this gorgeous city and there you can visit the best
restaurants. The river in Porto is called “Douro” and you can cross it with the
“Dom Luis 1” bridge.
Probably the most famous and best known area
in Portugal is Algarve. I think nearly everybody knows the endless beautiful
beaches and high cliffs. Algarve have also 3 of the most famous cities in
Portugal called Lagos, Faro and Sagres. All of these cities are very beautiful
and you can feel the typical Portuguese live and that is also one of the
reasons why Portugal is getting more interesting and famous for visitors from
outside. I visited Albufeira for three days and I really enjoyed my time there. The high cliffsnd beautiful beaches are the most impressing thing I have ever seen.
Also
Setúbal is getting more and more famous for tourist because of its beautiful
cities and all the stunning beaches next to it. Setúbal is located at the peninsula
“peninsula de Setúbal” and hast approximately 120.000 citizens. The nature park
“Serra de Arrábida” is next to Setúbal and it is best known because of its big
amount of white beaches and its untouched nature. My personal favourite beach
in Arrábida is the “Praia do Galapos” but all of them are unbelievable
beautiful.
Portugal also is really famous because of the delicious food and I totally agree
with this statement. I never ate so many times in a row so delicious food than
here. It doesn’t matters if you want to eat fish, meat or vegetables, every
single dish you order here is very tasty. Especially for making the different
dishes with fish the Portuguese people are professionals und if you like fish
as much as I like it Portugal is the perfect place to visit. All of the
restaurants I have been until now were really friendly und comfortable and like
it is also shown in the videos the atmosphere is totally cool. Additionally
Portugal is known for its big amount of delicious sweets and deserts. When you
are entering a coffee you can´t order something without taking some of the
delicate sweets. They are most of the time presented behind the bar on a place
where you can see them. It is really
hard to resist them because it feels like they are smiling at you during the
ordering.
For
me Portugal is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited and I would
totally recommend my friends to come here and explore this country. It is the
perfect place to make new experiences you will never forget.
When
I came to Portugal for the first time (it was two years ago) I totally fall in
love with this special country and I knew that I want to come back for Erasmus.
When I arrived here I felt like I was at home from the first minute and I
really felt comfortable. The people in Portugal are so nice and particularly
helpful. I never saw so many happy and relaxed people before. Even though a lot
of the people in Portugal are not able to speak English they are trying to help
you in every situation and find a way to communicate with you. Another thing
that was so impressive for me is that a lot of people in the streets you didn´t
know are asking you in the morning how you are and everyone is smiling to you.
This was one of the most wonderful things for me here because I didn´t know
that kindness of people from Austria before.
Photos:
Linguistic Part:
Austrian & Portuguese
One of the reasons I decided to make
my Erasmus Semester in Portugal was because I really wanted to learn a new
language and I totally fell in love with the sound of the Portuguese language.
I tried to learn some basics before the Erasmus started but sadly I had too
much to do in my University at home so I couldn´t found the time for that. When
I arrived here in Portugal in February I was really motivated to learn this
language but as a realistic person I found out really fast that this would not
be the case. For me it was hard to communicate with the native Portuguese
people in the beginning because I wasn´t able to speak any Portuguese and most
of the people here are not able to speak English. I was also really surprised
that the spoken Portuguese language is so different to the written language and
that is the reason why this language is so hard to learn for me. Additionally
it is very difficult for native German speaking people to pronounce the
different words write because the sound of the language is so different to
ours. For example we don´t have the nasal pronunciation in Austria and because
of that I am not able to do it. Also the different sounds of the “s” or “sch”
is hard to remember for me and I always have to think about this before I start
talking. The letters “á” and “a” are also not included in the German alphabet
and if I am honest I can´t hear the difference between the letters “a”, “á” and
“a” but I am really looking forward to learn these things. Now I am totally
motivated to learn this language and I hope that I am able to communicate (with
the basics) after this Erasmus experience. In the first “Portuguese Language
& Culture course” I realised for the first time that these two languages
have nothing in common and that it will be really hard to learn Portuguese. The
next part “the
comparison about the two languages” I worked together with Alina because we
have the same mother language and we put our ideas together. It was really
interesting for us to work together on this part of the portfolio because we
found out that the German german and the Austrian german are actually really
different to each other.
Here are some examples to show how different this two languages really are:
PORTUGUESE
|
GERMAN
|
(a)
Praia
|
(der)
Strandà masculino
|
(a)
Mesa
|
(der)
Tischà m.
|
(o)
Peixe
|
(der)
Fischà m.
|
(a)
Casa
|
(das)
Hausà neutro
|
(o)
carro
|
(das)
Auto à n.
|
(o)
auto
|
(die)
Akteà feminino
|
Bom
dia!
|
Guten
Morgen!
|
Boa
tarde!
|
Guten
Tag!
|
Boa
noite!
|
Gute
Nacht!
|
Tudo
bem?
|
Alles
klar?
|
Explanation of the differences:
The first and for me the biggest
difference, like you can see in the table on the top, is that the words are
totally different in the other language. There are no similarities and that
makes it hard for German speaking people to remind. There are also words like
for example “auto” which have a different meaning in the other language and
that is really confusing.
Second in the German language we
have three different articles--> he, she and it (masculine, feminine and
neutron) and in the Portuguese language there are just two--> he and she (masculine and
feminine). In the Portuguese language the article “it” (neutron) is not used.
Some words which are feminine in the Portuguese are, like you can see in the
table on the top, masculine in the German language. Additionally in the German
language there are NO RULES for using the articles, so you have to learn the
words with the right articles by heart. In the p. language it is much easier to
choose the right one because the feminine words (a) are usually ending with the
latter “a” and the masculine words (o) are usually ending with the letter (o).
Of course there are some exceptional cases.
Here are some examples for similar spelled words but with totally different meanings:
PORTUGUESE
|
GERMAN
|
(o)
auto
|
(das)
Auto à (the) car
|
(a)
mesa
|
(das)
Messerà (the) knife
|
(o)
mel
|
(das)
Mehl à (the) flour
|
(o/a)
verde
|
(die)
Erdeà (the) earth
|
comer
|
Kommenà to come
|
grosso
|
großà tall
|
In this table you can see that there
are also some similar spelled words in German and Portuguese language but with
the totally different meanings. In the left side you can find the Portuguese word
and in the right side, there is not the translation of the word, there is the similar
spelled German word but with the different meaning. This similarities are a
little bit confusing in the process.
Portuguese- YES or NO?
For me it was a great experience to learn
some basics from this language and I will continue studying it in Austria. Although
it was hard and confusing sometimes I am glad that I was able to make this
special and beautiful experience. I really enjoyed the “Portuguese Culture and
Language course” and my favourite part of this course was getting explained the
culture of Portugal by a native Portuguese person. I learned a lot of new
things in this course but I think I would need a little bit more time to get
more comfortable with this language. I am really sad that this great journey is
almost ending but I am glad that I learned so much here and I totally enjoyed
this time. Furthermore I will come back for sure to visit this beautiful
country.
Pictures:
https://www.google.pt/search?q=herz&client=firefox-b-ab&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjShbjbi4LUAhXL6xQKHcB_CEAQ_AUICigB&biw=1502&bih=745#tbm=isch&q=portugal&imgrc=x1UUOP-exlrrqM:
https://www.google.pt/search?q=herz&client=firefox-b-ab&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjShbjbi4LUAhXL6xQKHcB_CEAQ_AUICigB&biw=1502&bih=745#tbm=isch&q=portugal&imgrc=5LPYdq-izQJfZM:
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