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October 2009

Oct
7
2009

Berlitz Portuguese Phrase Book & Audio CD by Emily Bemath

Score:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (8) 9 10
“Eight outta ten!”
Pros:
covers Brazilian and European usage; lots of phrases; well organized; color-coded and easily searchable; audio CD reads some examples to you
Cons:
Portugal-focused, leaving out info about Brazil and some Brazilian usage; no reference page numbers in the vocabulary/dictionary (needs quick search by word or phrase); [...]

Oct
7
2009

Say It Right in Brazilian Portuguese: The Fastest Way to Correct Pronunciation by EPLS

Score:
1 2 3 4 (5) 6 7 8 9 10
“Five outta ten!”
Pros:
short, small travel phrasebook; decent organization; index and table of contents; a couple basic cultural and travel bullet points at each section; English-Portuguese vocabulary list; helpful, if not gimmicky, pronunciation key alongside all words for those readers that “get it”
Cons:
if you don’t get the [...]

Oct
1
2009

Harrap’s Pocket Portuguese Grammar

Score:
1 2 3 4 5 6 (7) 8 9 10
“Seven outta ten!”
Pros:
covers European and Brazilian Portuguese; solid organization by major grammar topics; color and formatting design clearly sets relevant topics apart for easy look-up
Cons:
too compact to cover some of the more difficult aspects of many topics; explanations focus on formation over real-life usage; index not [...]

Oct
1
2009

Cortina Conversational Brazilian Portuguese: The Easy Method by Williams & Pessoa

Score:
1 2 3 4 (5) 6 7 8 9 10
“Five outta ten!”
Pros:
price, especially if you send away for the free CD/cassette; plenty of conversational back and forth; difficulty increases progressively; each example is highlighted by slightly different variations to practice
Cons:
exercises require repeating and assimilating but without much guidance from the course; some topics are useless [...]