Beginner's Portuguese (Teach Yourself: Beginner's S.)

Rating:
Summary: Is this really a language course for adults?
Review: I bought this course hoping to learn the language, but I was in for some disappointment. Dialogues: you don't quite know what they say, the vocab lists give you only some of the words. Audio: too fast, unclear diction. Grammar: superficial, partial info on some points only. Exercises: more for show than to help you. Pictures: they may appeal to children or the young at heart. Final balance: very frustrating, wasted money. I hope my experience will be of use to other learners.

Rating:
Summary: Not friendly at all
Review: Portuguese is my third foreign language. I have read many foreign language courses, some good, some not so good. This one is not one of the best. The dialogues are reasonable. They resemble the dialogues in other courses like a BBC Get By course my mother bought in Europe early in the 1980s. A problem is that you cannot learn a language just by looking at the dialogues. The tapes are too fast for a beginner and you cannot catch what the speakers say. You are left with looking at the dialogues and trying to make sense of what they say. This is not easy either. The language notes are minimal. You are given very little guidance on the language itself. The little guidance you get in some cases comes under the wrong heading. The 'ir'+ main verb formation (eg eu vou visitar) is given the name of "simple future". The simple future (eu visitarei) is something quite different, not shown in this course. When you move to a more informative course, as I have done, you find out these inaccuracies. They can mislead a beginner who is not used to foreign language learning. If you are a reader turning to this course as a starting point, then you are being started on the wrong foot. The first thing you come across in this book and more than once (on the cover etc) is that this is a friendly introduction to Portuguese. In my view a friendly course is one that looks well after the learner. This one does not!

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the money
Review: This book is too elementary to teach you anything. The dialogues may give you a sample of the kind of things you may need to say, but there is no real help with the language itself. There does not appear to be a plan behind the dialogues. I gave up and bought Elisabeth Smiths Instant Portuguese which is much more helpful. You can tell there is a plan in this one. You feel more confident you are in the hands of a good teaching tool.