One of the best ways to speed up your progress with Portuguese is to take your existing habits and do them in Portuguese.
There are countless opportunities for you to get more exposure to Portuguese and to build your muscles if you start looking for them.
Think about all of the media that you consume. Instead of watching TV, listening to music, and reading everything in English, what if you did it in Portuguese?
This could mean changing your computer settings to Portuguese, loading up your Spotify with Brazilian playlist, and watching novelas or Semántica instead of TV.
One medium that you may not have thought of using to improve your Portuguese is Instagram. If you already use Instagram on a regular basis you might as well use Instagram to improve your brasilidade.
Instagram not only allows you to keep current with culturally relevant material, but it also provides the opportunity to authentically connect with Brazilians. It is one of my favorite ways to keep up-to-date on my Portuguese slang and current events, and it never feels laborious.
Furthermore, Brazilians are among the most digitally active people on the planet and the co-founder of Instagram is a Brazilian. Taking part in activities that are so common to Brazilians will help you feel more included in Brazilian society.
To get you started here are some of my top recommendations for Brazilian related Instagram feeds to follow:
1) @InstagramBrasil
Discovering and sharing the unique moments of Brazil and Brazilians.
The perfect Instagram to become more of a Carioca. Tons of tips and tricks on what to do and where to go.
3) @essediafoifoda (Today was awesome!)
At times irreverent, but always entertaining, this Esse dia foi foda provides everything from viral videos, Brazilians doing crazy things, and cute dog videos. It has over a million followers and tons of great commentary in Portuguese.
4) @Neymarjr
If you’re into futêbol, you probably should keep up with what Neymar is doing. He has the most popular feed of any soccer player in the world right now.
If you are into fashion, models, attractive girls and beautiful landscapes of Brazil, Brazilian Model Gabriella Lenzi probably has something for you.
6) @napraiario
Great resource who want to see and know more about all of the amazing outdoor activities in Rio.
7) @umcartao
A postcard style series of great quotes in Portuguese. A lot of them are poetic and will require a little bit of stretching to understand their sentiment. A wonderful way to keep up your Portuguese on the daily.
8) @pdfoficial
The official Instagram of Porta dos Fundos. If you are not watching Porta dos Fundos yet, stop what you are doing and go learn some Portuguese with their hysterical videos.
9) @021Rio
A contest-based feed where photographers submit their best photos of Rio de Janeiro. The result is a beautiful collection of the cidade maravilhosa.
10) @fosterhodge
As the newest addition to the Brazilian Gringo team it is my job to show you what the life of a gringo carioca looks like. Follow my Instagram adventures where I post cool pictures that I take around Rio. I also share some of my adventures, like being interviewed by Fabio Porchat on Porta Afora.
https://instagram.com/p/9bskeJqFkF/?taken-by=fosterhodge
