Customer Reviews

Basic Portuguese (Brazilian) Complete Course: Cassette/Book Package (LL(R) Complete Basic Courses) (Portuguese and English Edition)

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Portuguese is one of the most spoken languages in the world. It's unfortunate that such a beautiful language is ignored, because people who actually want to learn it have a hard time finding a company that offers Portuguese courses. Living Language is the only company that offers cassettes in both Brasilian and Continental Portuguese. So when I decided to learn Portuguese, I bought both courses.

Unlike the dozen cassette Foreign Service Institute's Portuguese Course (which is actually in Brasilian Portuguese), the Living Language course gives the learner the basics in two cassettes. The forty lessons on the two cassettes are designed in steps. The first four lessons are about pronounciation. There is a noticable difference in the pronounciation and syntax of Brasilian and Continental Portuguese, and Living Language does a very good job in structuring both courses so that the learner is not confused.

I also like the Living Language courses because if you follow the directions, they ensure that you will learn the basics of Portuguese. Living Language offers the best variety of basic courses, and it's the only company that offers an inexpensive Portuguese course. If you want to learn Brasilian or Continental Portuguese, this is the company to pick. And remember that after you learn the basics, the best thing to do is to take a trip either to Brasil or Portugal and practice. Immersion will keep the language fresh in your head. I hope you enjoy learning Portuguese as much as I did.

Yes, it is a basic intro to Portuguese, Brazilian style. However, if you are learning a language for the first time, it's usually good to warm up with the phoenetics first. This book doesn't, and as such is a poor first start.

This book/ cassette combo starts off with the usual simple phrases and such, but neglects a solid tutorial in pronouncing dipthongs. For those of you who know or are learning Portuguese, you can relate: it isn't easy mastering the pronunciation of 'não', for example. Having a native speaker pronounce the alphabet and some sample dipthongs would've helped (forget the alphabet, they don't pronounce it at all).

So, what happens is that you start off with "Good Morning" (Bom dia) and a handful of pages later, are expected to pronounce "O senhor, pode dizer-me, onde fica ha um bom restaurante?" with the rapidity and skill of a native. Nevermind that it doesn't slow down or break it into phrases.

If you bought it and thought, "I must be stupid or something", you're not alone and you are definitely not stupid. I handed this to a native speaker with Brazilian fluency, and she agreed that the pacing was bizarre and unfair.

This book/ cassette combination would probably be helpful to someone learning the language already, who might want to get a crash course in before going on a trip.

A much better buy is the Foreign Service tapes, which take you from a pure beginner and drill you constantly on pronunciation and grammar. After only two tapes, my pronunciation was considered very good by native speakers, and my functional vocabulary skyrocketed.

I was an exchange student in Brazil. This course was such a vital tool to my success there and to my success at a now fluent speaker of portuguese. The course comes with a dictionary that has the most valid and up-to-date essential vocab words that I've ever seen, and I've seen plenty. If you only buy it for the dictionary it'd be worth, yet the course with the audio help is priceless when really trying to pick up a language.

My fantasy: I would prepare for my trip to Portugal by listening to tapes while driving to work, learning the language naturally, supplementing by skimming the textbook included and using the dictionary/ phrasebook when I got there. The tapes would be natural conversations where it would be easy to pick up phrases and pronunciation by context ("what's your name?" "My name is Mary", etc.) Without a huge effort, in a couple months I'd be able to get by.

The reality: The tapes contain only a vocabulary list of the words used in the textbook. Therefore it's impossible to get anything from the tape without reading the book at the same time- can't be used in the car. The words are all out of context, just a list read aloud. So much for "learning naturally".

The book is written for Brazilian Portuguese even though the tape (and package) is continental. The deviations are noted in footnotes-- but detailed descriptions on how to pronounce everything in Brazilian are hard to get through if it happens to have a different pronunciation on the tape. Even the chapter on different dialects misses a wonderful opportunity to make up for this shortcoming by not saying the same word with the different accents, as the book suggests it will-- the tape contains only the continental pronunciation and gives no reference point. For a bestseller, I expected a whole lot more. All the same, I have learned some phrases. The first five lessons are the hardest to get through, and I probably will get through most of it in a couple months if I don't give up in disgust.

This book is ideal for someone who needs to learn some phrases really quickly. Within a couple of months, you can learn many phrases that are very useful. If you are planning a trip to Rio for a vacation, and want to go to places without totally disoriented, this is a good book for you. However, for those who really want to learn the language, it will leave you confused. The book is not designed to give you detailed explanations as to the phonetical system, nor the phonetical variations and exceptions that you hear on the tape. This book does a greate job of giving a traveler tools to communicate the necessities. If you want more, look elsewhere.

This course cannot be beat for the money. I have a Brazilian friend with whom I wanted to go to Rio for a vacation. I spent an hour a day on my lunch break for 1 month, listening to the tapes and following the coursebook, and I can understand quite a bit when spoken to, and I can speak enough to be understood (not so much to hold a casual conversation, but definitely enough for a trip). There are some "slang" differences between the book and the native tounge (so my friend told me), but that's to be expected in any language. For ... a little time over lunch breaks, you can't beat it.

I'm glad I have this set, since I do use the dictionary extensively. I even took it with me to Brazil. The learning book (and two cassettes) is not the best structure for beginners, in my opinion. I do find alot of value in the 120+ page appendix, which includes verb conjugations, etc. But if you're just starting out, I'd recommend the Foreign Service tapes. And if you're interested in contemporary Brazilian music, check out Marisa Monte. Que gostosa!

This book helps you learn the language in less time because you'll only hear portugues. The book may have a few errors in translation and it doesn't teach you about the Portugues culture (but you can always use the net and other books to learn about the culture). Over all, it's a good book to help you learn the language w/Living Language.

I think the Living Language course is pretty good for Continental Portuguese considering most books are focused on Brazil and rarely on Portugal. It does have more than a few errors in spelling which can be misleading and which are especially bad to those learning a new language. Overall I recommend it, I learned more from it than a 200 level course in Portuguese at the university.

If you are in a rush and want to learn how to say "Where can I find a good restaurant?" this is fine. It is, however, riddled with errors that will throw the beginner off track. A serious student will not get a solid foundation with this course. If you have the time and are dedicated to really learning Portuguese, get the real thing - Mastering Portuguese.