Score:
1 2 3 4 5 (6) 7 8 9 10
“Six outta ten!”
Pros:
engaging, easy to use phrasebook approach; good pacing; audio complements booklet; attractive, lightweight package
Cons:
hard to search for specific information (words and phrases); for beginners only; makes no attempt to approach to conversation or grammar; Brazilian only (which is only negative if you’re traveling to Portugal)
Speak in a Week Brazilian Portuguese: Week 1 is a small, attractive, fold-out, glossy cardboard case housing an audio CD and a spiral-bound calendar-like phrasebook.
The program offers you eight color-coordinated language lessons spanning 176 short and sweet, colorful calendar pages.
Each lesson outlines basic conversational language foals for you to achieve by the end of the lesson. A sample goal is “to talk about what other people have, want and need.” Each of the fold-up pages gives you a simple Portuguese phrase or a short explanation that aims at that goal, like “você gosta de” with a picture of “livro” and “museio”. The back of the same page gives the English translation: “you like”, “book”, “museum”.
The last fifty or so pages of the calendar-phrasebook have a basic introduction to the alphabet, a pronunciation guide, grammar basics and a vocabulary organized into sections. There are no page numbers to reference, and no detailed index or table of contents, which means you can’t use this course for quick look-ups. Unfortunately, this makes it less useful in a travel situation in Brazil, which disappointed me, considering that tourist learners are one of this course’s best markets.
The audio CD covers nearly the whole course, and even throws in extra “mastery sets” for practice. This makes for a good listen, learn & repeat scenario for beginner auditory learners.
Beginning students, travelers and curious Portuguese learners can get a good phrasebook experience from this light, cartoony package. Speak in a Week Brazilian Portuguese is no substitute for a more dedicated course, but it’s better than most phrasebooks available for purchase.
Despite its flaws, Speak in a Week seems like a smooth lead-in to a more full-fledged Brazilian Portuguese conversation course. If you plan on learning more of the language, buy this reasonably priced package with a heavier-duty course like Pimsleur’s Comprehensive Brazilian Portuguese
