Living in Portugal is pretty easy, even if you don’t speak the language. The Portuguese know that their language is difficult to speak. They pride themselves on the fact that it is hard. They don’t expect you to speak it and are always pleasantly surprised if you try at all.
Brazilian Portuguese is not the same language really. It is like British English and American English. Technically the same, but pronounced wildly differently. I wish I knew this before we moved and I practiced religiously on Duolingo. I thought I was getting pretty good, until I came here and realized that the pronunciation is night and day. Some Portuguese people claim they have a hard time understanding Brazilians. For your information, every app to learn Portuguese is in Brazilian. Sucks.
Portugal is a small country with only 11 million people. Brazil is huge with over 200 million people. Any movies or television shows that are dubbed into Portuguese are usually in Brazilian Portuguese and therefore, the people here wouldn’t want to watch it. As a result, every TV show and every movie here is in English with subtitles in Portuguese only. The one exception is cartoons. They are dubbed.
My point is, the Portuguese are used to hearing English all the time. They watch TV in English. They hear English music. They actually often speak with an American accent. They claim that they don’t speak English well and then they can carry on elaborate conversations without any difficulty.
I am deeply impressed with the Portuguese. I would grow tired of paying money to see a movie and then have to read the whole thing. Or to put on a TV show and have to actually pay attention instead of doing ten things at once, because you need to read the words. The Portuguese don’t seem to mind. In fact, I would say that they enjoy watching programs in the original language. They like being multi-lingual. They like helping you if you are struggling in their language.
Portugal was recently rated one of the friendliest countries to live in if you are an ex-pat. I completely agree. We feel at home here and we can’t even really speak this language.