• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Street Smart Brazil

We teach smart Portuguese

  • Contact
  • My Account
  • Cart
  • Policies
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Disclaimer
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Speak Portuguese With Ease
  • Home
  • About
  • Shop for Lessons
  • Starter Kit
  • Testimonials
  • Resources
  • Blog

Is It Difficult to Learn Portuguese? An Interview with Seth Kugel

posted on April 1, 2010

Oi galera,

I found this video on YouTube… American journalist Seth Kugel is interviewed by  vejapontocom (Veja is a Brazilian magazine and Vejapontocom is its YouTube channel) . Seth graduated in Political Science in Yale and has a master’s degree in Public Politics from Harvard. He has been writing for the New York Times since 1998, and also works as Brazil’s correspondent for the Global Post Agency.

The interview is divided in 3 videos:

Part 1: ”Como se fala Copacabana (1/3)” – Seth talks about his experience learning Portuguese. By the time of the interview, he had been living in Brazil for 1 year. It’s a very interesting point of view, especially when he describes his difficulties learning the language, and how he interprets Brazil.

Part 2 : “Foz do Iguaçu está na lista (2/3)” – In this part he talks about the violence in Brazil , and his experience writing about travel destinations in Brazil. His writings cover not only the renowned Brazilian touristic destinations, but also and specially the not so obvious destinations in Brazil, the places that are not so known by the North American travellers.

Part 3: “Política brasileira é muito interessante (3/3)” – In this last part Seth talks about Brazilian politics, corruption, and impunity in Brazil. He also expresses his opinion about President Lula, and the relationship between Brazil and the USA before and after Obama.

The interview is in Portuguese… so it’s a great challenge for you who are learning the language yourself…but it’s also a great motivation, because he speaks very clear and easy to understand Portuguese!

Let me know what you think, how you relate to his experiences, and in which points your own experience is similar to, or completely different from, his.

Divirtam-se!

[video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd5-SFo4T58] [video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNB5ygC07KM] [video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o892VbKbXV8]

—————-

Schedule your Portuguese Demo Lesson.

Street Smart Brazil offers one-on-one and group classes online via webcam. We have a fantastic team of tutors, exclusive class materials, and complete programs from absolute beginner to fluent.  See what our customers are saying.

Related Posts:

  • 4 language learning hacks for your Portuguese
  • Brazilian New Year’s Traditions and Superstitions
  • Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: Words beginning in PS

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. kabita

    May 10, 2011 at 1:27 am




    Learning and speaking different languages has become most of the youth interest now. This might probably because most of the youths are moving abroad for further studies and knowing other countries language would surely help those students in everything. As we always get to hear that, English is an international language and French language is worlds most reckon language and difficult to learn as well. I have collected some books on Japanese, Russian and French language book. But while reading those books I cannot understand a single thing there. My language teacher told me about http://www.pimsleurapproach.com that guarantees students, learn any language in 10 days. Are there any other sites that I could reference on for learning Brazilian Portuguese language?

     

    Reply
  2. Luciana Lage

    April 1, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    Students often say that some "sounds" in Portuguese are difficult to pronounce . Well, the English language also offers difficulties for us Brazilians. One of them is the "th". The interviewer introduces Seth and mentions that in Brazil he is often called "Sete". Sometimes he even needs to answer to "Sergio".  Now notice how the interviewer himself introduces Seth in the very first line of video 1. I could not help but have a good laugh. Seth truly is a difficult to pronounce name.

    This is a great interview!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Want to see your pic by your comment? Get a free custom avatar at Gravatar.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • Brazil
  • Brazilian music
  • Brazilian Portuguese
  • Business Culture
  • Culture and History
  • Flashcards
  • Food
  • Grammar
  • Idiomatic Expressions
  • Learning Languages
  • Pronunciation
  • Resources
  • Video lessons
  • Visiting Brazil
  • Vocabulary

Schedule a Trial Session

Testimonials

I highly recommend Street Smart Brazil. They’ll have you speaking Portuguese in surprisingly little time and you’ll learn a lot about Brazil and its people and culture.
Kenneth
If you can’t move to Brazil to learn Portuguese, the next best thing is to join the classes at Street Smart Brazil. Years ago, I started out with Luciana for one hour a week. It seemed a long tim… Read more
Gary
Street Smart Brazil has been incredible. As someone who is focused on international business as a profession and a passion, learning languages has always been critical in helping me bridge cultures an… Read more
Jessica
I started traveling to Brazil 3 years ago for business and used Pimsleur to give me some basic proficiency. My employees in Brazil were always impressed with my willingness to learn their language and… Read more
Richard

Find Resources

Make your learning fun and easy with good resources.
Learn More

Recent Posts

  • Brazilian Portuguese Idiom: Não é a minha praia
  • Brazilian Books You Need on Your Bookshelf
  • How to use ONDE and AONDE in Portuguese
  • Master Question Words in Portuguese: O que, Que, Qual
  • Meio or Meia? How to say KIND OF in Portuguese

Search

Cart

Classes

  • Trial Lesson
  • One-on-One Portuguese Lessons via Video Meetings – Subscription
  • One-on-One Portuguese Lessons via Video Meetings – Packages
  • Celpe-Bras Prep Classes with Street Smart Brazil

Footer Subscribe

Footer Full CTA

Book a Trial Lesson today to get started.

Get Started Now

Footer CTA

Street Smart Brazil

  • About
  • Shop For a Portuguese Class
  • Testimonials
  • Blog

Portuguese Classes

  • Trial Lesson
  • One-on-One Portuguese Lessons via Video Meetings – Subscription
  • One-on-One Portuguese Lessons via Video Meetings – Packages
  • Celpe-Bras Prep Classes with Street Smart Brazil


Street Smart Brazil, LLC

phone 415.573.8180
email info@streetsmartbrazil.com
Oakland, California

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Disclaimer
  • Sitemap

© 2014–2023 Street Smart Brazil, All Rights Reserved.