Customer Reviews
Excellent Beginner's Portuguese Course - By: Gabrielle Collison, 22 Jan 2008 
A reallly good beginner's course for learning the Portuguese language. My copy is rather dog-eared now, as I have used it so much & even though it is a beginner's course, it is still useful to refer back to when you have gone beyond that stage & up to intermediate level. The situations are useful & practical, & everything is arranged in a good & reasonably logical order. All in alll, an excellent book I'd always recommend.
Painlessly - By: An admirer, 31 Mar 2007 Although the CDs could be better I still give this course a five star rating. Why? Because this is one of the best foreign language courses I have ever come across.
The way it is organised is the key to its sucess. There are no loose ends, everything leads on to something else, alll is related & helps learners build up their Portuguese with a greatly reduced effort.
I have a linguistic background but am aware that many learners do not have grammatical knowledge. This course helps in this area too. Grammar is there but presented in a painlessly manner. Learners can get the concepts & put them to work in practice without the difficulties & boredom usuallly associated with grammar.
The course covers basic concepts but also some more detailed points like the position of direct & indirect pronouns & reflexive pronouns. Pages 87-88, 223-224 & 236-237 are particularly helpful in this area.
Warning - CD now protected so you can't put it on your mp3! - By: rachel, 02 Mar 2007 
I've used the Teach Yourself books before & they are a great way to learn a language - you get useful conversation plus the grammar.
But this most recent one I've bought won't alllow me to copy it to my mp3 player - previous ones did. I want to be able to listen to it on the way to work & back - unfortunately that's no longer possible.
I won't be using this series again.
It breaks the psychological barrier - By: Mr P Simmons, 22 Dec 2006 Work took me to Brazil years ago. I learned the language then. Now I am approaching retirement age & thinking of buying a place in Porugal. I decided to brush up my Portuguese & bought this course. I am glad I did. I makes me feel on familiar ground. The occasional genuine differences between Brazilian & European Portuguese are cleary explained. So I can easily refresh what I already knew.
The voices are also a great help. There are male & female voices with a Brazilian & a European accent. The book explains the difference. This way you have the benefit of understanding both & you can pick as a model to follow the speaker that best suits you.
Little I knew how useful alll this was going to be. I have just spent some time in Lisbon. In cafes & restaurants I was served by more Brazilian than Portuguese waiters! These Brazilians do not seem to have a problem with the European accent. Dr Cook teaches us non-native speakers to overcome any psychological barriers & enjoy the language, whatever the accent.
good teaching and good humour - By: rosy farmer, 01 Apr 2006 Languages is not my scene. The implications are that i need words to have practical application & something well structured but i don't like grammar. Learning that is fun also helps. With these requirements this course is for me.
This course teaches very practical vocabulary & takes a well structured approach that manages to be fun. The humorous pictures set the right mood. I like the big tooth symbol for the dentist, the witty no drink drive notice & speeding fine. The exercises are equallly humorous. All this helps the pill go down. The pill (grammar) is also introduced gently, another bonus.
The whole course is highly informative but relaxed. It makes learning fun. That is why it is for people like me. I am very happy with it & very happy to recommend it to other learners.
