Score:
1 2 3 4 5 6 (7) 8 9 10
“Seven outta ten!”
Pros:
price; exercises throughout; good coverage of grammar, pronunciation & conversation topics
Cons:
a bit formulaic; learning requires repeating along with dialogs and vocabulary; heavy reliance on English
This course contains ten units that teach both European and Brazilian Portuguese, with a bit of an emphasis on the European variety. Notes about Brazilian differences are given throughout.
Each unit starts off with a dialogue, followed by a vocabulary list, then a commentary introducing finer points of the language. A grammatical section presents grammar traditionally, but also uses practical situations and lots of interlaced exercises to illustrate points. Each unit ends in a reading selection (called “comprehension test” in Portuguese) with comprehension questions in English.
The pronunciation guide at the beginning is extremely thorough and leaves nothing up to inference, using IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet) to highlight the various ways each letter is pronounced in context. This reliance on linguistic knowledge of phonetics leaves some beginners out in the cold.
Sections at the end of the book include answers to the exercises, a chart of regular verb endings (very handy for learning Portuguese, with its rich verb system), notes about verbs that change spelling or pronunciation in various forms, and a detailed list of all common irregular verbs. This is followed by a short Portuguese-to-English vocabulary list and two very short indexes – one about grammar, one for conversation topics.
The cassettes or CDS are helpful, since they include voice enactments of dialogues and of the reading comprehension sections, as well as a read-through of all of the examples in the pronunciation guide.
Teach Yourself Portuguese isn’t exceptional in most respects, but it is thorough. The topics presented are comprehensive enough to warrant a glance. It’s also one of the cheapest courses of its kind.