Product Description This course in Portuguese is designed for anyone who wants to progress quickly from the basics to understanding, speaking and writing Portuguese with confidence. Although it is aimed at those with no previous knowledge, this course is equally suitable for anyone wishing to brush up existing skills for a holiday or business trip.
Key structures and vocabulary are introduced in thematic units, progressing from introducing yourself to writing your CV, from booking a hotel room and buying food to looking for a job and a house to rent or buy.
This course is not exclusively for European Portuguese or Brazilian Portuguese. It is based on structures and vocabulary equally used on both sides of the Atlantic. Relevant differences are explained in the units and sign-posted Eur. and Br. respectively. The dialogues and other sections have been recorded by different native speakers of Portuguese to familiarize learners with different accents.
The course includes:
easy-to-follow and effective format up-to-date, lively, realistic dialogues practical vocabulary for real-life situations step-by-step guide to pronunciation grammar explanations and verb charts tips and handy hints to help the learner cultural information and highlights exercises depicting everyday situations puzzles, quizzes and other word games answers to all the exercises email and letter writing, social and business revision units to consolidate and check progress websites for further sources of authentic Portuguese grammar glossary and cross-reference index Portuguese-English/English-Portuguese vocabulary lists cross-reference index listing more than 130 topics
Teach yourself PortugueseOctober 16, 2008 The package contains one book plus 2 CDs. The quality of the sound in the CDs is not as good as Plimseur Brazilian Portuguese. The good thing is that you have the book and can see how the words are written in Portuguese.
Best Portuguese language courseSeptember 25, 2008 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I began my Portuguese study with another course that was horrible; this one is a vast improvement. It is very straightforward and easy to follow. Also, it teaches both Brazilian and European Portuguese. While it is true that this course does not always signal whether the dialogue being spoken is Brazilian or European Portuguese, it is easy to determine this on your own after awhile. All in all, great value, highly recommended.
Not for the novice or casual travelerMay 26, 2008 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In the past, when I would travel to a country where I could not speak the language, I would pick up some Berlitz tapes and listen to them in the car while driving around. I found that this was a good way to quickly and easily pick up some useful phrases, work on my pronunciation and get a very basic understanding of the language. If this is what you are looking to do, do not buy this product because you are not the target audience.
What I found was that the CDs were pretty much useless without the book. The people speak rather rapidly and you do not always get the English followed by the Portuguese, or vice versa; so sometimes without knowing some Portuguese it is not at all clear what is being said. Also, for a novice, until you figure out the structure of the book, even that can seem a bit confusing.
Once you do understand the structure of the book there are some features that make it a very good reference. First, all the conversations are broken down phrase by phrase in the book. This helps you to understand what each of the Portuguese words correspond to in English. When reading the book, I found this to be the most useful feature. There is also a very nice English-Portuguese & Portuguese-English dictionary in the back.
Bottom line, not right for a casual traveler trying to pick up some basic phrases, may work well for other audiences. Bom dia.
Very HelpfulMarch 31, 2008 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I bought this book for a trip to Brazil. It's a great resource for learning the language, but plan to invest some serious time and effort as Portuguese is a difficult language to pick up for English speakers, even if you already know Spanish. The book and the audio portions go hand in hand, and the book incorporates written and listening exercises which speed your learning.
Lessons are laid out in a straight forward manner and are organized in the book as you are likely to need them (i.e., orienting yourself, purchasing tickets, making hotel reservations, shopping, greetings, etc.).
The book does not make a very good travel companion since it's organized for the learning of the language and not as a quick reference. I would recommend a pocket guide, like those made by Lonely Planet, for travel reference.
move cd files to your ipod and learn on the goJuly 12, 2007 11 out of 11 found this review helpful
what i like the most about this product is that the language lessons are on cd. i just moved them over to itunes and then put them on my ipod. then i was able to practice them wherever i was going. i read the book but not that much ...just enough to figure things out when i had a question. being a fluent spanish speaker i didnt really need to study the grammar that much anyway because it's kind of the same. i (or anyone) just need to listen to the words and phrases over and over again so that I can say things with the right accent/pronunciation and to understand what's being said (at a BASIC level). so ...after studying and listening to the lessons from the course for about a month or so ...i just went to Brazil (Rio of course) and had a great time and was able to communicate fairly well with people who spoke neither english or spanish. it helps SO much to know the basic vocabulary when visiting a country ...thanks to manuela cook.
