By: Living Language Publisher: Living Language Average Rating: Binding: Audio Cassette Label: Living Language Number of Items: 2 Publication Date: April 16, 2002 Release Date: April 16, 2002
Product Description: SPEAK PORTUGUESE WITH CONFIDENCE IN JUST 6 WEEKS!
The Living Language® Portuguese Complete Course teaches the basics of Brazilian Portuguese language and usage, while indicating significant European Portuguese variations. It uses a highly effective speed-learning method developed by U.S. government experts to teach languages to overseas-bound service personnel and diplomats.
TWO 90-MINUTE CASSETTES WITH 40 LESSONS • Begin with simple words and progress to complex phrases and sentences. • Just listen and repeat after the native speakers on the recordings to learn naturally, the way you learned English.
PORTUGUESE COURSEBOOK • 40 lessons from the recordings with translations, additional vocabulary, detailed explanations, quizzes, and reviews. • Verb charts, a comprehensive grammar summary, and a section on letter writing are also included.
PORTUGESE–ENGLISH / ENGLISH–PORTUGUESE DICTIONARY • More than 20,000 words, idioms, and expressions. • Examples show how words are used in everyday conversation. • 1,000 frequently used words are highlighted for easy reference.
Good when used with other books and CDs In February of this year, I met a new friend who is from Brazil. She has been teaching me her native language for five months now. By supplementing her lessons with this book and CD set, my Portuguese has improved dramatically. This course mostly contains lists of words and phrases, but it is very helpful to listen to the native speakers even if you're still learning the vocabulary. The text is a small paperback book and the package seems cheaply made, but the content is worth its price and then some. It does come with a dictionary, but my gripe on that is the print is too small.
Yes, it does help to have a native speaker to practice with, but by supplementing other tools in addition to this set, anyone can get a good foundation in the Portuguese language. I give it 4 stars instead of 5 due to the cheap quality of the books. I'm trying very hard not to break the spine of these paperbacks for fear that they may fall apart! Definitely a course to be used at home and not behind the wheel.
Not what I was expecting... I was looking for a system that I could use in the car while I am commuting everyday. This is great for repetition and accent, however, without looking at the book, I can only guess at what they are talking about. I do speak Spanish, so the words that are similar to Spanish I can understand, but if I didn't, it would not be usefull at all.
Complete Course is only Brazilian in the audio portion fyi - per living language, "... the Complete Course is only Brazilian in the audio portion and both Brazilian and Continental in the book. In case you decide to continue on into more in-depth Portuguese, our Ultimate Portuguese has about 9 lessons out of 40 that are Continental (while the rest are Brazilian)." Also, Portuguese In-Flight is only Brazilian.
Better With Behind the Wheel Portuguese Portuguese Complete Course by Living Language is a first rate language course which has gotten me good results. The method is sound and effective. The written material is also of high quality and is useful. However, I travel frequently both to Brazil and Portugual and have found this course to be somewhat limited in its scope, lacking idioms, sentence building techniques, tenses, and such. To remedy this, In addition to Portuguese Complete Course, I have purchased and used Behind the Wheel Portuguese by Language Dynamics with great success. Behind the Wheel Portuguese compliments and fills in the gaps, adds sentence building techniques, idiomatic folk expressions and lots of tenses and interesting and immediately useful material that gets you soundiing like a native speaker right away. Portuguese Complete comes with a wonderful text which I also found quite useful. Behind the Wheel Portuguese has no written material and works fantastic in your car or anywhere. Together they spell a winning combination. My outstanding results speak for themselves.
Not very good The reason this gets 2 stars even, is because it seems like a good deal: book + CDs + dictionary, something that would usually cost somewhere around $40-$50.
The "coursebook" is ...crap not very good. It's so small, as to "fit in your pocket," but I don't really want to keep it in my pocket: I have a backpack, or even a table, or a clean spot on the floor. It's too small, and there doesn't seem to be a real structure to the book. The first couple "lessons" are just lists of words, illustrating how different sounds in Portuguese are spelled (words which, I assume, we're supposed to memorize cold, without any way to use them except in "hey, did you know the Portuguese word for ____ is ____ ??")
When the lessons start, (I mean, where they spit words at you without justifying it as examples of Portuguese pronunciation), they're just as pointless. The vocabulary lists are haphazardly thrown together, following a sequence like the words are used in a sentence:
onde - where há - is there (there is) Onde há ... ? Where is there ... ? um - a hotel - hotel Onde há um hotel? - Where is there a hotel?
To call this an over-glorified phrasebook would not be far from the truth.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
