Olá!
I've been trying to learn Portuguese for a while now. I'm using some learning apps and computer software where mostly the Portuguese taught is Brazilian Portuguese.
In addition to the software I've been practicing Portuguese with my Angolan colleagues.
But however, I've noticed something strange. I have one Portuguese coworker ( he is from Portugal) and when he speaks, even the very easy and common phrases that I already know, I find it difficult to understand him.
One angolan coworker told me that even they can't sometimes understand what the Portuguese people say.
Is this true? Is the difference between the accents between Portugal and Angola this big?
I'll have to disagree a little bit with Roney. I wouldn't say that portuguese accents are "harsh" and that we Brazilians find it "difficult" to understand them, but simply because we're not exposed to them.
Brazil does not embrace any media from Portugal which is a shame, a total shame. Therefore most Brazilians probably never heard a portuguese person speaking in their lives and of course that they would find it weird, hard, unworldly after they hear it for the first time but once you get used to it, then it becomes more natural and completely understandable.
Nowadays with the globalization, youtubers and etc more people (younger generation from Brazil) is having more contact with Portugueses so it is changing but still in our official media, almost zero portuguese stuff is shown.
As to Angolan and other portuguese accents from African countries, I found them extremely easy to understand, they speak so freshly in my opinion and I would even consider their variant to be the most "suitable" for learners of the language.
Thanks for your replies. I am interested in learning the Portuguese language to be able to communicate with people after all.
In my opinion the angolan pronunciation is a bit easier than the Portuguese. Maybe I'll try to master the angolan accent now, and later focus on understanding the other accents.
Hey Makhdi!
Yeah, there are some differences between those accents. Depending on where you came from in Brazil it can be kinda similar because of some historical linguistic influences, but generally, we have to make a true effort to understand people from Angola or Portugal. Specially if they are talking fast.
However, the grammar rules as well as the constructions are under an international agreement of the Portuguese speaking countries, so once you learn Portuguese - even with some little aspects here and there - you can write and read naturally. Your understanding skills will really depend on how you've focused your learning accent-wise.
At last but not least, the different accents we have in Brazil are already enough to cause some misunderstandings sometimes hahaha. I personally think this is all about communication so, on the big picture, it's very exciting!
