Lol yeah nobody would suggest learning 2000 alt codes to type Japanese. They just install a Japanese keyboard.
I guess PortuguĂȘs has the problem that itâs pretty close to English so people donât think of the obvious solution, which is just to go to your OS settings and install a PortuguĂȘs keyboard!
I just installed a PT (BR) keyboard and I typed the ĂȘs above with the combo âshift+6 eâ. Easy as pie.
Yeah, definitely better if you will type quite a bitâŠ
This would be Option + i then e on Mac, no need to activate any additional keyboards, as it works directly with the regular English (US/UK/international) keyboard layout.
Part of it is that Iâm on both windows and Mac computers. Maybe Iâll pick up a keyboard and MacBook next time Iâm in Lisbon
Agree - hence I put the machine in PT mode, and Iâve memorized the chords for the different diacriticâd letters. OSK is just a reminder when I need it.
To be clear, Iâm just talking about a software keyboard here. No need to change your physical keyboard.
There is a US International Keyboard layout which should be available on both mac and windows, that lets you type things like ^+e for ĂȘ, '+c for ç, etc. If you want consistency that seems the simplest. QWERTY - Wikipedia
Dear all,
I now know that Iâve passed the exam; though scores of some sections were a bit of a surprise to me overall things worked out. Let me share my reflections with you as it might help a few.
Speaking: To my surprise I got the highest points in this section even though I could not recall the word for refigerator and half a dozen fruits in an exercise in which I was to describe a refrigerator full of fruits - I actually made up few words of fruits from Spanish and invented a new word for refigerator 
In short never get nervous if you forget few words, just make up a reasonable story that can be linked with whatâs shown in the picture and continue talking about it⊠If you donât know the words for a given situation just keep the momentum, in my case I started to make up a story about a fictional family who lived in the house - even though the whole picture consisted of just the refigerator and the fruits.
Make sure you are able to introduce yourself and be ready to get questions around, with whom you live, where you work and how far is it and your age⊠This is usually a nice warm up exercise for the oral part.
Then you will be shown a photo and are asked to describe the situation. I already explained mine above. My partner received a photo in which a grand family (including 3 gerenations) were shown sitting on a couch. Again donât panic if you forget the word for grandson during the exam, just keep the story goingâŠ
In the last exercise we paired up to discuss what sport we want to play & practice for the weekend. There were five photos from popular sports. (soccer, skiing, basketball, voleyball and running) It will be better if you disagree from time to time with your partner and propose your own suggestion to demonstrate your ability to keep a conversation going. In short they literally assess whether you can express yourself and interact with others.
Reading: This is the section with least amount of surprise, make sure you download the CIPLE practice exams as it is very similar to that⊠The first 5 questions are all about matching a given SMS with the right response. There might be mini tricks, make sure you master the basic address vocabulary including how to describe the floor you live on and the door number⊠In one question you would need to know the word for âfloorâ ⊠Then you get two text for the reading comprehension. This is one of the easiest part of the exam⊠I thought I would get 100 from the reading but I missed 4 question out of 20; so more practice is always helpful⊠Doing practice CAPLE exams is the most effective way for getting ready for the type of questions you will face.
Listening: As indicated by many here, it has become significantly harder. There are basically two parts, in the first part you listen to an audio and try to answer multiple questions. There were two audios for 15 multiple choice questions, at least here you have a chance to get some right as per the nature of multiple choice questions. The second part in which you are to match a short audio (sentence) with one of the 10 given available phrases was as random as it could get⊠Unless you talk and listen to native speakers a lot or watch movies in Portuguese I donât think you can really get prepared for the last section. It doesnât worth the effort.
Writing: I thought I would get close to full score but I got 50 perhaps you might need to master few basics about the structure or perhaps I wrote few sentences in Spanish. I donât really have much lessons learnt here therefore I am a bit clueless about why I received the score I got. One of my friend got 99 and the other got 40 so they should be looking for few basics, if you demonstrate it you can easily get 99.
In short, you can easily get prepared for the oral and reading parts. For writing, practice essays by writing a letter to lost & found office, writing a food recipe, desribing your house (furnitures) and writing about a long weekend vacations⊠These are all topics that were asked in the past. In the end as you need an overall score of 55, it is okay to not to do well in one sectionâŠ
Congratulations!
Congrats!.
Parabéns!
Aprendi que os brasileiros dizem âa geladeiraâ mas os portugueses dizem âo frigorĂficoâ.
When my laptop croaked all I could get was a Portuguese one. Since I know the English keyboard it works perfectly for both languages.
great info and parabéns!
Dear all,
Thanks for all advice/tip/trick on the immigration and learning portuguese.
I have obtained B1 and B2 certificates in Portuguese. It was done by taking the PLA courses B1 B2 and passing the exams. I admit that the listening part was very difficult. I scored about 77-78% for each section (listening/speaking/writing/reading). My certificates are now being well kept in safebox with highest security under my pillowâ:sweat_smile:. For listening part, i thought i did much lower but it turned out OK. For reading part, i expected to get higher score, but some of my answer was given zero 
. But satisfaction was achieved overall.
The certificate indicates clearly name; date of birth; and resident cardâs number as it is going to be used for citizenship applicationâs purpose.
Now I need to wait 4 more years to apply for citizenship. It is really a challenging test of being patient.
Strongly recommend everyone to take PLA course due to its financial advantage (almost free).
Congrats! Curious why you did B2 when A2 is all you need?
Also, does PLA offer any online courses?
Thanks for your question. Technically, I do not need B2 for citizenship application. But I wanted to play hardcore due to some reasons:
Iâve never asked for PLA online course. Maybe you can try and find out yourself. I prefer the physical course because i already took some online courses during covid lockdown.
There is a free online course but it doesnât come with certification. Language training - UNHCR Portugal
PLA courses are all offline
I prompted ChatGPT to give me a sample A2 CIPLE exam. This is what it provided but this seems way too easy⊠As in, I could pass this without even studying.
Part 1: Reading Comprehension (CompreensĂŁo de leitura)
Texto 1:
Marta e Paulo são amigos. Eles gostam de ir ao cinema juntos. Hoje, eles vão ver um filme de comédia.
Marta e Paulo sĂŁo:
a) irmĂŁos
b) amigos
c) colegas de trabalho
O que eles gostam de fazer juntos?
a) ir ao restaurante
b) ir ao cinema
c) ir ao teatro
Que tipo de filme eles vĂŁo ver hoje?
a) drama
b) ação
c) comédia
In fact certain immigrant associations offer online PLA for 4 hours a day - done and dusted in 8 weeks - no crazy exam at the end either.
I know this from speaking to Indian who have the certificate.
The courses are not free unlike the PLA butnthe upside is they are plentiful and with a lot of timings available.
This one is the text that is taught.
These are curricula - what u should know though one is a text.
Drop me a line privately