Ultimate Portuguese

Rating:
Summary: Very good content
Review: This is by far the best Portuguese program I've ever used--and I've used a few. My husband is from Lisbon and I've tried to learn the language 3 times. I carried it with me EVERYWHERE in Portugal. The dialogues are very realistic and flowed well and the culture sections are interesting and fun. It's the only program that I've ever used that includes various African countries as Portuguese-speaking. My instructor uses it in class and he detected accents from Portugal, Brazil, and Angola in the tapes. They even identify the country and city the speakers are from. Unfortunately, I had to buy-and throw out-two other programs before I bought this one.

Rating:
Summary: Ultimate Portuguese
Review: This set is by far the best product available for the intermediate student of Portuguese on the market. It combines a complete review of grammer with extensive vocabulary and idiomatic expressions presented as an introduction to numerous cultural notes. The cassettes are indispensable to the course since Portuguese pronunciation is certainly somewhat trickier than that of other Romance languages for native speakers of English. The accents on the tapes focus on the Brazilian variety and are very easy to understand with sufficient time to repeat for the non-beginner. The set also devotes sufficient time to the culture and accent of Portugal. It even discusses the use of Portuguese in Africa. The book starts with the basics and proceeds to an advanced lever; however, the recorded material may be spoken far too fast without sufficient pause to respond for the absolute beginner. Nevertheless, the course as a whole is fantastic. I especially was impressed with the way that it builds upon materials presented and laps back to repeat certain lessons without becoming boring. I would recommend this set as the best available grammatical review and practice of the spoken language for any student beyond the beginning level.