Customer Reviews

Talking Brazilian: A Brazilian Portuguese Pronunciation Workbook

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an excellent resource for someone who is learning Brazilian Portuguese. By concentrating specifically on pronunciation, one of the more difficult areas of learning Portuguese is made more accessible. Pronunciation is a killer and is very difficult, especially for the many students who already know some Spanish. I have noticed a great improvement in the student to whom I am teaching an independent study in Porguguese since she began using this system to practice.

I agree with the reviewer who was annoyed by the music and the woman's voice, but that's part of audio language learning, it seems. I simply ripped the CD's to the harddrive of my computer and skip these sections fairly easily.

It is important to note that this is not a course for learning Portuguese. This is a way to work on Brazilian pronunciation for those who are studying Portuguese and do not get to speak with native speakers often. It is especially useful if you are using a traditional grammar approach to learning.

One drawback is, indeed, the price. Forty-five dollars does seem awfully steep but it's a case of supply and demand. There is simply no other product out there that fills this need in Portuguese language instruction.

There is one problem with this book: the price. I don't own it, but I used it last summer while studying Brazil. One of my teacher's had a copy and it is excellent. It's very clear and my Portuguese pronunciation is so much better thanks to this book. You could not ask for a better guide, a cheaper one, yes, but a better one, no. If it comes down in price, I will surely be purchasing a copy.

The CDs that come with the book are horrible. Each lesson starts with up to 40 seconds of guitar music. Each time you want to review the lesson (which is the whole point of having the CDs), you have to listen to the stupid guitar music. Again and again and again.

Next, each track starts with an annoying woman commanding you to "Listen!" That gets real old real fast. What else would you do BUT listen? Between the idiot music and the annoying woman, you want to toss the CDs into the trash. And yet without the CDs the book is almost worthless.

The only way to fix this problem is to spend yet another $30 on audio editing software, and remove the useless and annoying junk from every track, and burn new actually useful CDs.

Why the author thought that we are all MTV-generation morons, who needed to be "entertained," instead of educated, is a mystery. Thus, instead of a $45 book, you really have to pay $75, if you want a useful product.

There have been many attempts at describing Brazilian pronunciation, but most of them have not been as accurate as this Mário Alberto Perini's work. The pronunciation explained here is that of Belo Horizonte city and it is very close to what we consider ''accentless Brazilian Portuguese''. The most marvelous feature is the real description of the pronunciation of NH. In Brazilian Portuguese NH is read as a nasal glide (Y~, that is, as Y in English ''yes'', with a nasalized y, that is, y pronounced through the nose). Brazilian NH is definitely not read like Spanish Ñ or the English sequence N+Y (as in ''canyon''). It is wonderful Brazilian linguists have finally recognized this unique characteristic of Brazilian Portuguese. (For more information on this Brazilian sound try ''Fonética e fonologia do Português'' by Thaïs Cristófaro Silva). Don't miss this pronunciation workbook! It is great! And I just love the dialogs! They are very amusing!

What's wrong with you people? I can't believe that a fault as peripheral as too much introductory music makes you condemn the whole course. I agree with that complaint - hence the 4 stars, the music is an irritating delay, not to mention wasting valuable disk space that could be filled with more speech.

However, the *content* of this course is above reproach, explaining in I think the clearest way possible how to form the sounds and focusing practise where it's needed. Things like cê/sé, a very subtle distinction for English ears to pick up were drilled sufficiently for me to feel happy after doing the lesson once (admittedly, having replayed the samples several times over).

The explanations were admittedly brief but I thought they were quite sufficient, and I think additional material would make it difficult to finish the course - you need considerable stamina to drag yourself through 5 hours (once you take into account replays) of pronunciation drills anyway.

I regard this as an invaluable resource for someone who wants to acquire a good approximation of a Brazilian accent, and apart from the removal of the annoying music I can't see any way to improve it. Those of you who write it off because of some minor fault are being ridiculous, and when you say something embarrassing because you can't distinguish the sounds you will deserve the cries of "gringo".

The CDs are quite helpful with the nuances and proper pronunciations of Brazilian Portuguese. It is even better when you have a Portuguese teacher guiding you through it. I highly recommend this textbook for those who are serious about learning this beautiful language.

This is a Brazilian pronunciation guide made by native speakers (Brazilians) for foreigners. Dialogs are clear, interesting and never artificial-sounding. Every chapter has a nice linguistic intro to get you familiar with the topic. Buy it if you don't have it. Marvelous work!

I love this portuguese book, specially the CDs included that I play on my car.

This work grorifies poor Portuguese. It is not good saying 'tenho muitas saldades' when you mean 'tenho muitas saudades' for I miss you very much. It is even worse when people spell the word wrong simply because they cannot pronounce it. It becomes a vicious circle. Instead of pretending this is acceptable, a better job would be done teaching these Brazilian people how to speak and write the language correctly. Otherwise you are not helping the Brazilian people or their language.