Language Learning - Day 3

After taking the weekend off from learning, I have just completed Day 3. So far, I have learned to:

 - Ask a man or woman if they understand or speak English 
 - Say that I understand or speak (a little) Portuguese - or that I don't speak or understand
 - Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, goodbye
 - Excuse me, sir or madam
 - Thank you, sir or madam
 - Are you American? Yes I am
 - How are you? I am very good. And you?
 - Where are you from? I am from _____________
 - Brazilian, I am from Brazil (not relevant to visiting Portugal)

This may not seem like a lot of phrases right now, but I feel like I would be able to start a conversation with someone and at least get through the small talk. What is nice about this program is that it not only teaches you these phrases, but basically breaks down an actual conversation piece by piece. I've noticed that when I listen to the conversation between a man and a woman in the beginning of the lesson, I'm starting to really pick up what they are saying.

The hardest things about transitioning from learning the language to actually speaking it in a real life situation are listening, understanding, and formulating a response quickly. While I'm not very quick to respond accurately yet, this program pushes me to respond in a timely manner - just as if I were in a conversation with a Portuguese speaker. For example, when I studied in Italy, my classmates and I had visited the catacombs in Rome. On the way back to our apartment, we got lost and needed to ask someone how to get to the metro station. Naturally, we were away from the tourist area so the person we asked didn't speak any English at all. We asked him how to get to the Metro. All we heard as he spoke was sinistra (left) and destra (right) - then a lot of hand motions to "show" us the way. Needless to say, this wasn't much help because we could only understand 2 words of all that he said. And all that could we say in response? Grazie (thank you).

I'm looking forward to moving forward in the lessons. It's nice that you are constantly reminded of everything that you have learned in prior lessons so you don't forget. I'm actually surprised that even though I can't formulate a response quickly yet, I remember each of the words and phrases that I learned.