Years ago, I signed up for a one-year subscription to an online guitar platform to improve my playing. One of the features was a video exchange program, and what a fantastic idea it was.

I nervously submitted my first video and, a few days later, received a response from my instructor. He spent nearly twenty minutes going through my playing, pointing out things I was doing well and, more importantly, things I wasn’t. Timing issues, unnecessary movements, poor technique – he found them all.

It was incredibly helpful.

You can do exactly the same thing with Portuguese.

Discuss it with your tutor, choose something appropriate to read, record yourself on your phone, and send it to them for feedback. You might be surprised by what happens.

First, you’ll probably experience what musicians call “red-light fever” – that strange nervousness that appears the moment you know you’re being recorded. It affects almost everyone. Even today, when I’m recording something that nobody but me will ever hear, I still feel a little of it. Strange how that works.

But once you get past the discomfort, something valuable happens.

You begin to hear yourself objectively.

Your tutor might point out that you’re still pronouncing words like se, te, and me as if they were Spanish, saying “say”, “tay”, and “may” instead of using the reduced vowel sounds common in European Portuguese.

Or perhaps your vowels are fine, but your rhythm isn’t. That is often the case for me.

Personally, I’ve noticed that when I concentrate too hard on not over-pronouncing every syllable, I sometimes end up sounding robotic and monotone. I become so focused on individual sounds that I forget about the natural rhythm and melody of the language.

Without recording myself, I probably wouldn’t notice it.

The beauty of this exercise is that it works even if you don’t have a tutor. Record yourself reading the same passage once a week. Listen to older recordings. Compare them with newer ones. You’ll quickly discover patterns in your speech, recurring mistakes, and areas that need attention.

Most learners spend their time listening to native speakers. That’s important. But there’s also tremendous value in listening to yourself.

After all, the goal isn’t to only become a better listener. The goal is to become a better speaker.

And one of the fastest ways to improve is to hear what everyone else hears.

Photo by Anastasiya Badun on Unsplash