Rating: 
Summary: Excellent beginning course
Review: This is an excellent beginners course. It goes well beyond the superficial memorization of phrases and includes detailed practice on pronunciation. Highly recommended. Excellent value.I recently spent 3 months working in Mozambique, and completing this course prior to arrival there provided me with an excellent foundation. For those wanting more practice, I suggest listening to an international news service such as BBC, VOA or Deutsche Welle, available on the internet, for Portuguese news. This is an excellent way to hear either spoken Brazilian or Continental Portuguese, and you can gain valuable and free vocabulary practice reading news bulletins as well.
Rating:
Summary: Instant Brazilian communication
Review: This program is the best one I have found on the market. It is filled with topics used daily by speakers. Its pronunciation has made my Portuguese totally recognizable in Brazil; its cultural inclusion is of great value. Overall, I know of no better way to learn Portuguese here in the United States, short of speaking with native speakers. I only wish there were another program to go beyond this excellent basic training.
Rating:
Summary: Instant Brazilian communication
Review: This program is the best one I have found on the market. It is filled with topics used daily by speakers. Its pronunciation has made my Portuguese totally recognizable in Brazil; its cultural inclusion is of great value. Overall, I know of no better way to learn Portuguese here in the United States, short of speaking with native speakers. I only wish there were another program to go beyond this excellent basic training.
Rating: 
Summary: Good foundation for Portuguese
Review: This program is very effective in grounding you in the fundamentals of the Brazilian Portuguese language, especially if you already have a strong base in another Romance language. If you are a motivated language learner, "Mastering Portuguese" will help you acquire the skills necessary to carry on simple conversations in practical situations....but you will not possess "total fluency", as the program states. There's no way to become totally fluent with simply a book and 12 tapes. Don't get me wrong, I think this is an awesome method of learning Brazilian Portuguese if you are dedicated, but it isn't sufficient to become "totally fluent" in the language....no book/audio program is. But this is the best I've seen yet. My advice: work hard through the program, read news articles in Portuguese and look up the words you don't know, and watch the news in Portuguese (on the internet). And even better, find a native Portuguese speaker and practice, practice, and practice.
Rating:
Summary: Good foundation for Portuguese
Review: This program is very effective in grounding you in the fundamentals of the Brazilian Portuguese language, especially if you already have a strong base in another Romance language. If you are a motivated language learner, "Mastering Portuguese" will help you acquire the skills necessary to carry on simple conversations in practical situations....but you will not possess "total fluency", as the program states. There's no way to become totally fluent with simply a book and 12 tapes. Don't get me wrong, I think this is an awesome method of learning Brazilian Portuguese if you are dedicated, but it isn't sufficient to become "totally fluent" in the language....no book/audio program is. But this is the best I've seen yet. One other thing...one of the biggest complaints of this program from the other reviewers is that it does not cover the true future tense--well if you're going to Portugal that may be a problem, but in Brazil it is NEVER used in speech and this program isn't really for European Portuguese anyway. You can find the second volume of the FSI Portuguese Course on multilingualbooks.com. My advice: work hard through the program, read news articles in Portuguese and look up the words you don't know, and watch the news in Portuguese (on the internet), and listen to BRAZILIAN MUSIC!!! I cannot emphasize enough how much listening and singing along to Brazilian music has contributed to my fluency in the language (Check out "Os Tribalistas", Marisa Monte, Caetano Veloso). But most importantly, find a native Portuguese speaker and practice, practice, and practice.
Rating:
Summary: Good Basics
Review: This program provided me with excellent opportunities to master pronunciation and learn a lot of useful basic vocabulary as well as understand the structure of the language. My one complaint is that in 12 tapes, i was hoping I would get to a more advanced level. They repeat the same vocabulary a lot throughout the course instead of introducing other useful words as the course progresses. I had hoped for something that moved along faster since Portuguese was not my first foreign language. But overall, this was an excellent course.
Rating:
Summary: Eureka! You're REALLY learn Portuguese!
Review: Though this audiobook series is a little expensive, I've found that it's as good if not better than having a private tutor, and it's definitely better than only having a book. The program goes by easily, and I've found it enjoyable - I've gone through the first 4 units in a day and a half! Since I'm a visual-audio learner, the combination of the book and tapes is really great. Apart from living in Brazil or Portugal, this is the best way to learn this beautiful language.
Rating:
Summary: Brazilian Portuguese in your spare time!
Review: While living in Spain, I made some amazing friends who lived in Brazil. When I came home I decided to learn "Brazilian" Portuguese. This set up is excellent, with great choreography between the book and the tapes. The first few chapters are simply vowel sounding, boring yet essential to properly speaking this beautiful language. The following segments build on what you have learned, with little dialogs that first let you repeat after them and then play again so that you can hear how the sentences really sound at real life speeds. It's also a 12 tape set, which really brings you very near fluency, although there is no substitute for immersion. The only fault I can find with this might be overall vocabulary, you might want to buy a supplimental book, although it's by no mean necessary. With a knowledge of Spanish, this is very easy flowing, but it is so well done with it's foundations that non-spanish speakers with have no trouble as well, I was speaking basic Portuguese (barely enough to get by in Brazil) in 2 weeks.
Rating:
Summary: Brazilian Portuguese in your spare time!
Review: While living in Spain, I made some amazing friends who lived in Brazil. When I came home I decided to learn "Brazilian" Portuguese. This set up is excellent, with great choreography between the book and the tapes. The first few chapters are simply vowel sounding, boring yet essential to properly speaking this beautiful language. The following segments build on what you have learned, with little dialogs that first let you repeat after them and then play again so that you can hear how the sentences really sound at real life speeds. It's also a 12 tape set, which really brings you very near fluency, although there is no substitute for immersion. The only fault I can find with this might be overall vocabulary, you might want to buy a supplimental book, although it's by no mean necessary. With a knowledge of Spanish, this is very easy flowing, but it is so well done with it's foundations that non-spanish speakers with have no trouble as well, I was speaking basic Portuguese (barely enough to get by in Brazil) in 2 weeks.
Rating:
Summary: The best way to learn *any* language.
Review: Yes, another overwhelmingly positive review for this course. It's not a plot; it's just true. This is an effective course, a bargain at twice the price. The mere fact that it ships with 12 cassettes should be your first clue that it's different from other courses. Opening the book and seeing that the first five or eight chapters are really just basic drills and little vocabulary should be your next clue. Learning a new language, for some of us, is hard. This course breaks it down into mastering sounds first, then mastering words and flow, then learning vocabulary, then learning (a little) grammar. It teaches your ear to 'hear' Brazilian Portuguese, and that I think is the ultimate arbiter between this and any other course; what good is a language that you can speak but not understand? I've owned shorter courses, different courses, computer-based courses, but nothing beats the comprehensive approach of an FSI course. This is easily the best Brazilian Portuguese course I've experienced; the fact that I'm from Newark and can get praise from Brazilians on my pronounciation and grammar should be proof enough.
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