My Portuguese lessons

I started a Distance Learning course for Portuguese a few weeks ago!  I am really enjoying it!  I skype with my Brazilian "mentor" who lives here in Virginia also.  She has about 20 students that she oversees.  We're supposed to put in about 6-8 hours a week of studying, using the FSI online learning program and then we skype with our mentor to review and practice speaking what we've learned. Luckily I have Briant, with whom I can practice throughout the week also.  Side note:  During my first session with my mentor, I found out that she lived in Angola from 2009-2012.  She tried to to sound optimistic and tell me things that she liked about Angola but I could hear that it was somewhat forced.  When we decided to move on to discussing the Portuguese course, she summed Angola up by saying, "Micky...(long pause)...there is nothing easy about Angola.  But you sound optimistic so you'll be fine."  I will try and remember what Friedrich Nietzche said:  "That which does not kill us makes us stronger."  Right?

Along with the online program, I've been using other online resources such as singing LDS primary songs.  The language is coming...slowly though, with everything else I have had to do the last few weeks to prepare for our pack-out.  But it's coming.  The hardest part about learning the Portuguese is trying to keep my Spanish at bay.  The languages are so similar, so the Spanish is actually very helpful, but yet it keeps my brain from translating English words straight to Portuguese.  My brain goes through an extra portal.  So English to Spanish and then to Portuguese.  I know the Spanish will get cancelled out eventually the more I speak, so I just keep trying to speak.  

The other difficult part of Portuguese, is that there are two main variations of accents:  "Brazilian" and "Continental."  I am more drawn to the Brazilian because I'm more familiar with it with my dad and Bri speaking it, and I really do think it's prettier.  However, in Angola, they speak Continental.  So I'm trying to familiarize myself with both, however it gets hard to keep them straight.  Both Briant and my mentor are very encouraging.  They say that I have a good accent, which I appreciate, whether it's true or not.  :)  

My mentor, Solange.  :)