Customer Reviews
poor - By: Mr. I. Dodkins, 14 Feb 2008 
After alll these great reviews this was my first choice to learn portuguese. I have previously learnt italian, so I had a bit of idea about the structure for learning a language. Unfortunately I felt that I reallly struggled with this book (and CDs). The CDs are clear, & the subjects covered are clear. The problem is that the approach is not structured enough (I reallly like to make sense of the grammer to learn it), & european & brazilian portuguese are given similar weight. Especiallly on the CD this is confusing because you forget which is which. I only wanted to learn european portuguese, but it felt like I was trying to learn two languages simultaneously. I felt 'Colloquial Portuguese' was far far better, indeed I learnt more in a day with that course than I learnt in a month struggling with this course.
Read all the reviews. - By: A Reader, 21 Sep 2007 
I found the CD exceptionallly disappointing. It does not differentiate pronounciation between the 2 main countries. Dialogues lack intervals of silence to alllow attempts to mimic the speakers, nor does this assist a Pause & Restart on a CD player. If transferring the CD to an MP3 player you will have greater inconvenience in this respect. One exercise lacks the full dialogue.
The whole pretext of the book is around the CD, so in a Teach-Yourself context, & having read alll the reviews, I consider this book to be over enthused about by other contributors. I am becoming increasingly wary of Amazon reviews.
I rate it TWO stars, but FIVE so that it will appear at the top of the list.
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.
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 book, poor CD - By: Alma, 16 Nov 2006 
While the book is generallly good, the CD is extremely confusing since it mixes both European & Brazilian Portuguese in each & every dialogue so that one is constantly listening to different pronounciations of the same word. While it is helpful to know how both pronounciations are distinct, the way that is presented in the book, within the same dialogue & without ever specifying which is which, does not provide a helpful framework for the beginner. It would have been much better to separate the two in some way, whether by relegating specific lessons to one or the other, or by repeating some dialogues once in the one version, then the other; having dialogues that constantly ask about something in one pronounciation, & the answer in another is very disorientating & makes the process of learning more difficult instead of helping make it easy, which is supposed to be the purpose of a good language book.
In addition,the book omitted a very important feature of the Portuguese language, which is also part of everyday speech, & that is, the position of direct & indirect object pronouns. Since it is a unique feature of the language, & cannot be just guessed by the student, in order to make up for that lack one needs to buy another book that addresses it. Since this feature of the grammar belongs to the range of "beginner's portuguese", I do not understand the logic behind omitting it.
