A couple of posts ago I mentioned that ted.com have videos with subtitles, sometimes in Portuguese. This week I discovered a website that goes one better – yappr.com. It is built for the language learning community and has a selection of videos from many genres and topics that you can watch with two streams of subtitles – English and another language. The subtitles are generated within the community of users on the site and then peer checked and approved. There seems to be a large Brazilian Portuguese presence on the site and I’ve already watched a few videos this way with a Brazilian Portuguese stream of subtitles. Fantastic language resource, check it out here: www.yappr.com.
Some of you may know about the excellent website TED.com already – experts from various fields around the world talk for a short time about their “idea”. A great way to learn something new, fast.
I was happy to discover that TED.com’s own internal video streaming set up now has optional subtitles included, mostly in English. And several videos have subtitles in Brazilian Portuguese. If you read this blog and don’t live in Brazil, and so don’t have access to DVDs with Portuguese subtitles etc. then this site would probably help you a lot. For a real challenge, watch the video with no sound, using only the mute images and subtitles to help you out. If you have time, watch the video again – repetition reinforces new vocabulary.
Here is one such video with Portuguese subtitles about the nature of happiness – very thorught-provoking.
I stumbled across this the other day – a YouTube channel which puts up home made animations and videos that are 1 minute long. Usually, they offer comment or perspective on life in Brazil. See, for example, the one above.
A friend sent this to me recently. It’s a good listening activity if you’re learning Portuguese. People from different international backgrounds describe their experiences learning Brazilian Portuguese. A script is provided for each short sound clip. Listening to this is a good idea because a) listening to people speak Portuguese with another accent can sometimes be easier b) these guys may have some tips and ideas on learning Brazilian Portuguese.
Click here and scroll down. There are 45 dialogues for you to hear.
This website has practice activities for people learning Brazilian Portuguese at Intermediate level or higher. Please browse around or click on ABOUT to find out more about how to get the most out of the site.
