Look at baby. See baby speak!
What seems like a miracle, is actually just a very (very) young person struggling to learn the language, taking a very (very) long time to do so. By x most babies will have a few words in their vocabulary. But it's not until they're about x that they can begin to put sentences together. By this age their vocabulary is about x words, and their pronunciation is pretty good. They'll continue to say ranned instead of ran, eated instead of ate for another 2 years. Still, it's magical. And it looked to us adults as if almost effortless. Surely it was a completely natural process. That it was!
But as an adult, you have super powers and unfair tools that should easily have you beating baby by a mile.
~Some wise person.
Of course, total immersion in a foreign country can succeed in teaching you it's language, but only under specific circumstances:
- You've got a tutor or personal guide
- Grammar reference materials
- $$$
These are all things that an adult gives the baby, right? My 3 kids are constantly asking me about the world and it's language. I'm their personal guide and it's 24/7. Do not expect to just plant yourself on a foreign land and organically soak up the syntax.
Babies don't do it that way and neither can you.
In fact, many of our students are in Brazil! Even people doing total immersion, living in Brazil use our videos because you can't (yet) pause people mid-sentence and replay part of their conversation. Sure, it's convenient having Brazilians around to practice with, but these days with a decent video connection you can call up an online conversation almost any time you like. That's why the best way to learn Portuguese is with a video story-telling program like ours, or immersion + plenty of personal guidance.