en 
"All those who want to learn to communicate and interact in European Portuguese in basic everyday situations, such as introducing themselves and someone, obtaining and giving information, buying a ticket, going to the cafe or the restaurant, shopping, making a reservation or spending your free time,” are invited to take the course.
A source from the University of Porto explained to Lusa that this course is offered by the Faculty of Arts (FLUP) and the Educational Innovation Unit (IE) of the University of Porto to everyone who wants to learn the language, particularly students preparing for come as part of Erasmus, as long as they sign up, also free of charge, on the course page on the edX education platform.
"It is not necessary to have prior knowledge of Portuguese", as this is an introductory language course.
With an estimated dedication and study time of 32 hours, the course's learning itinerary is based on a fictional series consisting of eight weekly episodes/modules, starring professional actors, in typical spaces in the city of Porto.
In addition to learning Portuguese, participants also have the opportunity to get to know the way of life of the people of Porto, with the support of a team of teachers "with extensive experience" in teaching Portuguese as a Foreign Language.
In this course, "we propose a trip to Porto, one of the most beautiful and characteristic cities in Portugal, so that you can get to know the Portuguese language and part of this cultural wealth, with a team of very committed teachers with great experience in teaching Portuguese", led by university professors Fátima Silva and Ana Isabel Fernandes.
The objective is that at the end of this training course students are able to introduce themselves and others, ask questions and give answers about personal information (nationality, place where they live, languages spoken, profession), establish social contacts using appropriate forms of greeting, introduction, and farewell and communicating in a simple way to satisfy basic communicative needs in everyday life, namely going to the cafe and restaurant, buying tickets, shopping, asking for information or getting around the city.
To this end, they will be taught to pronounce, in isolation, most of the sounds of the Portuguese language, and, in context, say words, phrases, and short texts, using a basic repertoire.
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If this article refers to lessons from the Brazilian Variant of Portuguese, and not from the Portuguese Language, the Language of Portugal, it would be best not to mislead people by calling it Portuguese.
It will not be right to do so.
Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you. Going to learn a language and leading a pig in a poke is falling into a trap, inappropriate for serious people.
If this is not the case, I apologize for the mistake.
By Isabel A. Ferreira from Porto on 26 Apr 2024, 15:23
I want to add one more piece of information to my previous comment: European Portuguese does NOT exist. What exists is the Portuguese Language, the Language of Portugal, free from the 1990 spelling agreement, which imposed the Brazilian spelling on the Portuguese people, and I fear that it will be this Brazilian spelling that will be taught in the aforementioned Portuguese lessons.
My intention is to alert you to a possible mistake.
By Isabel A. Ferreira from Porto on 26 Apr 2024, 16:53
The previous comments are disturbing in their ignorance and insistence on the "correct" way of speaking. This stinks of elitism. This attitude is, in fact, a barrier to language learning and to confident, authentic communication. So much for the united Lusaphone world...
By Ella from Other on 29 Apr 2024, 13:29
Dear Ella, please notice that the messages you are referring to are about ortography, not about ortophony nor pronunciation.
About the spoken language, you can find substantial differences depending on the population that is speaking the language, even inside the same country, it's a cultural, natural and inevitable, phenomenon. I believe it is the cultural right of a population to spontaneously develop their own way of speaking "their" language. Trying to force a so-called "correct" way of speaking upon a population that speaks differently would indeed be elitism. Speaking differences are perfectly normal acceptable and will enrich a culture, nobody being authorized to determine how or when that happens.
The written form exists to record the spoken language, and the first ortographic reform for Portuguese dates from 1911. Brazil was already an independent country since 1822 (or 1825), it was not consulted regarding this reform, and it didn't adopt it. You can read on the Wikipedia page on "Reforms of Portuguese Ortography" about how it went on from here. Do bear in mind that many of the issues between Portugal and Brazil regarding ortography are contentious and it's in this context, I believe, that Isabel's comments should be interpreted.
By Pedro Lima from Lisbon on 02 May 2024, 12:36
(continued)
The spoken language of Brazil (and of other former portuguese colonies) has a significantly different pronunciation to the spoken language of Portugal. Some characteristics of the written language, like some accents or silent letters, were dropped in Brazil as they are not necessary to their correct pronunciation there, but by this very same reason, Portugal kept them, as they are necessary, otherwise in too many cases only language practice would be able to determine how to pronounce certain words.
This is however what happens with the 1990's ortography (so called) agreement. In Portugal, the net result of this situation, imposed by decree (and possibly illegitimately), not respecting the culture where the language stems from, is that only some "enlightened" few will now know how to write "correctly" and that it's now even harder than ever for people, national or foreign, to enjoy the culture of Portugal. How's that for elitism?
Or is it that, suddenly, portuguese people became ignorant stupid brutes that can not even follow such a "simplified" set of rules? No, the main issue is that those rules *don't make sense* in Portugal. Portugal still maintains its pronunciation, it still keeps its culture, and the proposed ortography on the 1990s agreement can not adequately depict the spoken language. That's not how a written language should work. A united "lusaphone" (as you put it) world by ortography (and what about the differences in pronunciation, vocabulary or syntax?) is a fool's mirage, an ideological illusion, the culture has already gone way beyond it and even the attempt stinks (to use your term) of colonialism, either way it goes.
By Pedro Lima from Lisbon on 02 May 2024, 12:39