[personlurking]

Having been in the same boat as user 'computador', I second what was said. As an American who has lived in Brazil and Portugal, though, even getting the spoken component down does not always mean full comprehension (as I found out in Portugal). I find myself, sadly, glazing over when Continental Portuguese is spoken because it seems like one long, run-on sentence, spoken inward (if that makes sense, as opposed to Brazilian Portuguese which is spoken outward). It's rather frustrating to be fluent in Brazil (in all ways that matter) but handicapped in Portugal.

[nandemo]

If it makes you feel better, spoken Continental Portuguese can be somewhat hard to understand even for us Brazilians. Roughly speaking, it's like the difference between a Southern US accent and a (non-RP) British or Scottish accent.

Although, to be fair, Brazilian dialects too vary a lot in terms of pronunciation.

[ollysb]

I wouldn't sweat it, take a trip to Newcastle(north England) and you'll find that you have no idea what they're saying.