Which tones are hardest, why, and where to start.
For European Portuguese speakers: T2 and T4 are easiest, T3 is not very difficult, and T1 (high level) is both the least attended to and the hardest to perceive; perception is harder than production, attributed to acoustic similarity between Portuguese intonation and Mandarin tones. Note: this is European Portuguese, not Brazilian — no Brazilian-Portuguese study was found.
Source: He, Weifeng (2024), A aquisição dos tons do chinês por falantes não nativos: o exemplo dos falantes nativos do português, Mestrado, Universidade do Porto. https://repositorio-aberto.up.pt/bitstream/10216/164734/2/703603.pdf
Group averages tell you where to look, not what you actually do. Two speakers of the same first language can differ a lot. The only way to know is to record yourself and compare.
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