madeira4u - Resources & Information - The Portuguese Language - As Spoken On Madeira
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Healthcare on Madeira - A guide to how the sytem works, and how to make it work for you
A guide to the political structure of Madeira, at national, regional, and local levels
Miscellaneous informations useful for living on or visiting Madeira
Newspapers and other resources for information for residents and visitors to Madeira
A selection of scenic and other photographs of Madeira
The Portuguese language is spoken on Madeira - some hints and resources to get you started
Trade Directors & Classified Advertisers on Madeira
A guide to buying, selling, and renting property on Madeira, with costing information
Madeira & Portuguese Public Holidays
Residency status abd applying for a residents permit to live on Madeira
Shops & Shopping - a quick guide to shopping on Madeira
Don't ask, just look - some amusing distractions to give you a break
A guide to taxation and tax liability for residents and visitors to Madeira
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Travel Guide - Flights, Ferry, Buses, Taxis, & Car Hire / Rental
A guide to english language television and radio on Madeira
A guide to the utilities on Madeira - Electricity, Water, Gas, Internet, and fixed and mobile telephones
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Resources & Information - Learning & Speaking Portuguese on Madeira
The Portuguese Language

Portuguese ranks at around number 8 in the world's most spoken languages, with getting on towards 180
million speakers, mostly in Brazil, where there are some important differences from the european
portuguese spoken on Madeira. It is a latin based language, like spanish, but with some considerable
differences. Many people consider spanish and portuguese as pretty much interchangeable, but they are
wrong in many aspects of that belief.

Like any country, foreign visitors to Portugal and Madeira generally know to point a finger, say the 'please'
and 'thank you' words, and maybe learn a few more words by the time they leave, and that's as far as it
goes. Fortunately for them, a great number of madeirans speak excellent english, especially in the
tourism industry, so if you live in Funchal (the main tourist portal for Madeira)  it may be that you don't
need to learn too much portuguese to get by.

Outside of Funchal and the recognised tourism areas, its a different story. The people see tourists pass
through on a daily basis, but have very little interaction with them. In Funchal, you also see shops with
english sounding names, and you see a lot of publicity and brand names in english or with english slogans.

If you don't like city life for your holiday or lifestyle, then your need to communicate with the locals is
clearly much greater, and because of the pronunciation differences a phrase book or dictionary may not
always do the trick. Unfortunately in this situation you might find yourself somewhat out of pocket from
the experience as your requirements are misunderstood, or you are taken advantage of, although it would
be very unfair to say this would be normal practise, or to single out Madeira from other countries.

The english language on television is common place on Madeira programming. Aside from the
advertising, most series and films shown are imported, the vast majority in english, showing portuguese
subtitles. That may help, you think, to learn the language, even if not to speak it. True, it will help with
reading, but beware that the translators (who write the subtitles) have a great deal of artistic freedom,
and a responsibility to make the programme interesting and understandable to the portuguese public.

Learning any foreign language will be difficult for most people, but portuguese ranks amongst the hardest
european languages to master. With its grammatical structure, seemingly endless types of verb forms,
masculine and feminine nouns and adjectives, its tough enough. Add to that the written accents and nasal
sounding vowels and consonants, and then add to that colloquial usage of the language, its enough to
deter the toughest of students. And then consider the various dialects that exist on Madeira.

However, help is at hand. If you decide to learn to speak portuguese there are resources to help you.

1. Teachers. There are plenty that speak english on the island willing to teach foreigners to speak and
write the portuguese language. The rates vary, but expect to pay between €5 and €10 per hour. You may
find some advertising in the Education & Teaching section of this website.

2. Books, CDs & DVDs. Readily available anywhere in shops and through the internet. However most
material doesn't specify whether it uses brazilian or portuguese, so its best to buy the material from
portugal if you are unsure. To start from scratch, you will need a very good dictionary, a book to explain
the grammatical structure of portuguese and if not already included a book of verbs. CDs & DVDs will help
you with the pronunciation and colloquial usage of the language, and when buying your next DVD film, look
to see if it has portuguese subtitles. There may be some bookshops advertising on this website.

3. Internet. A great resource for everything you need. Whether to buy material, auto-translate that email
from your bank, through to on-line speaking courses and dictionaries. In time, this section will show you
where to look for the best on-line resources to help you learn the Portuguese Language.

4. People. Decide the things you need to say, learn them, and go out and use them. The local madeirans
are the only people who will tell you whether what you are saying is understandable and makes sense.

5. Media. TV, radio, and newspapers are a great and cheap resource to listen to and read portuguese in
use in real life and in context of the situation being covered through the film or pictures, or perhaps
listening to a Portuguese football match on the radio.
USEFUL LINKS & RESOURCES

1. Free translation gives you a rough idea of what some portuguese language text means, or you can cut and paste other languages
to get the portuguese version. The auto-translator cannot interpret context or judge words with more than one meaning, so use it
only as a guide. FREE TRANSLATOR

2. Free online basic portuguese language lessons, with word pronunciation in sound FREE PORTUGUESE LESSONS

3. Free online basic portuguese language lessons, with sound and pictures BBC LANGUAGES

4. Free portuguese language grammar resource from Wikipedia, including verb conjunctions WIKIPEDIA

5. A useful portuguese verb conjunction tool from Verbix, with some further reading references VERBIX

6. An online user compiled dictionary from Dicts.info translates both ways between the english and portuguese languages Dicts.info
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