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.
In the lessons and pronunciation guide, the author does a good job of distinguishing the Brazilian and European dialect. Discerning learners can remember one and disregard the other, but it could get overwhelming or confusing. The real problem is in the pronunciation (dialogs that begin chapters and the “prova de compreensão” readings that end them) – the tapes/CDs don’t let you know if it’s someone from Brazil or Portugal speaking, so you’re thrown into a mix of both.
I agree that this dialect juggling act poses a potential problem, but I disagree that it has to be a deal-breaker. I still maintain that there’s enough here to warrant careful consideration, despite some definite flaws. Thanks for clearly pointing out one of the biggest.
I am a big fan of teach yourself language courses and have used the spanish, french, dutch,italian, german and greek ones previously. However I cannot recommend this one on the basis that it tries to cover Brasilian and European Portuguese simulataneously. This is extremely confusing. The learner has to grapple with two very different pronounciations (as different as UK English and American English) and somehow work it out as if he/she didn’t have enough to contend with. What were you thinking about Manuela Cook? I have consigned this course to the dustbin and I would recommend you do the same.