If you enjoy learning intuitively by reading and listening to stories, you are in the right place! Not only can you immerse yourself in captivating content, but you will also improve your knowledge of the language in a natural way.

What language are the stories in, you ask? The stories are in European Portuguese!

By immersing yourself in a story that appeals to you, you will naturally:

Grow your vocabulary. When you can understand the gist of what’s happening in a story, you will intuitively deduce the meaning of new words that come your way. And by learning the new words in context, it will be easier for you to remember what they mean and how to use them.

Refine your grammar skills. Seeing sentences and grammar structures used repeatedly in a text will help you consolidate the patterns in your mind without even trying. You will get a feel for the language and understand what sounds natural and what doesn’t.

Improve your overall understanding of the language (reading and listening). Combining the text with the audio will help you connect the sounds with the written words, improving your listening comprehension and pronunciation.

Choose a story or a topic that you are interested in.

Read.

→ Don’t stop to translate every unknown word. You will interrupt the process and turn it into a chore. Get in the zone and relax as if you were reading a book in your native language. The magic of reading is that an unknown word will make sense to you the more you read it. Instead of having a translation in your head, with the meaning in your native language, you will understand what the word means in Portuguese.

→ If you encounter an unknown word, try to extract the meaning from the context. If you can’t make sense of it, but it doesn’t hinder your understanding of what’s going on, keep moving forward. If you wish, make a note to check that word later.

→ If an unknown word keeps popping up, confusing you and keeping you from understanding the story, go ahead and check the meaning.

→ If you find so many new words that you can’t understand the story, you are reading at a level that is too difficult for you.

→ Remember, you don’t need to know what every word means. Just keep going and embrace the ambiguity. If you give it time and continue to read frequently, the language will reveal itself to you.

Listen.

→ Listen to the audio first, then listen to the audio again and read the text simultaneously. Finally, listen to the audio again without help.

Review.

→ Practice makes perfect, and in the case of reading, the more you read the same text, the more you’ll learn. Don’t read one story and forget about it. Come back to it from time to time and reread it.

Practice more.

→ Write down a list of words and expressions that you wish to learn. Write sentences and create flashcards (with Quizlet or Anki) with the new terms and expressions.

→ Do a dictation (listen to the audio and write down what you hear).

→ Make a copy.

→ Re-write the story from a different point-of-view (using a different personal pronoun).

→ Re-write the story in the present or the past.

→ Write a summary of the story.

→ Write an alternate ending to the story.

→ Write a sequel.

→ Prepare an oral presentation about the story.

By the way, when I say write down, I mean using pen and paper!