Pimsleur Portuguese (Brazilian) Conversational Course - Level 1 Lessons 1-16 CD: Learn to Speak and Understand Brazilian Portuguese with Pimsleur Language Programs (1) (English and Portuguese Edition)

When the Sao Paulo receptionists asked how long I've known Portuguese because I spoke very well, I knew this purchase was a winner (after a few months of hard work). This is a must-buy for Brazilian Portuguese (but you also need more):1. You need to hear the language - I would have been hopeless without hearing the spoken words in real phrases (when you know the exact phrase that means "I would like to buy two beers please" then you're much more likely to say it correctly and clearly. Every Brazilian seemed to understand the (few) words I spoke... though understanding their reply was not always easy.)2. This course is excellent in slowly giving you many new words in context - I learned as much as I could handle (though far from fluent), but... (a) use the pause button (they give little time for response), and (b) the audio downloads are much cheaper than the expensive CDs (still not cheap, but worth it).3. Absolutely buy another 1-2 books to SEE the words and learn more words (especially nouns, verbs). I would love this with a full transcript, but the Pimsleur method is speaking/hearing only. I learn better when I "see" the word while speaking, plus the written and spoken words can be surprisingly different. I think you really need both.I am absolutely not anywhere near fluent (ask me 5 years from now), but this quickly gave me a working knowledge of basic Portuguese for travel in Brazil.

I am planning a trip to Brazil next summer to see friends so I thought I would brush up on my Portuguese to surprise them. I spent some time there as a foreign exchange student in high school a million years ago and already spoke a little (very little after so many years) so this course was a bit of a review for me. I found it very helpful and easy to follow. The lessons did hold my interest and covered a good bit of ground with a lot of emphasis on proper pronunciation. I agree with other reviewers that for some just learning Portuguese it would be helpful to see the words in their written form since Portuguese doesn't always sound like it looks. A vocabulary list would be nice. I plan to continue with the series although I think it is a bit expensive.

For the most part, this is a great system. The method used to teach language is very effective. Just when you're ready to throw in the towel because you feel like you'll never remember how to say, "I want to go to the restaurant," you get to revisit the teachings in the next lesson. Before you know it, you realize you have quite the Portuguese vocabulary. You quickly learn how to pronounce words like a native, which helps immeasurably. I was complimented several times in Brazil on my speaking ability. Additionally, with a male and female speaker, you are able to hear pronunciations of words by two different people. Since, Portuguese has some language rules dependent on gender, it's important to be able to hear how different words are pronounced depending on the gender of the speaker e.g., obrigado vs. obrigada.What this system was missing were more conversations specifically related to travel in a foreign country. It's great to be able to say "I want to eat" in Portuguese, but that's not useful at a restaurant. The waiter already knows you want to eat, the question is WHAT do you want to eat and HOW do you order it? Likewise, it's great to be able to say "Where is hotel ___?" But, once you get to the hotel, how do you say, "I'd like to check-in?", or "I'd like to find the business center to use the internet." I ran into the same problem at the train station - I had no idea how to say, "I'd like to buy a one-way ticket." Similarly, it would have been helpful to know how to say, "I'd like change please," or "Should we tip?" Since Portuguese is pronounced so differently from the French and Spanish I'm used to, the translation book I had with me didn't help at all. People understood me best when I spoke using words I'd learned thanks to Pimsleur. Perhaps more travel-related language is available on the larger set? But, I survived, between my Pimsleur learning and some sign language, we Americanas got along just fine.Overall, I really enjoyed the Pimsleur system and will pick it up when I need to learn a new language for my next trip.

I really enjoyed this set - they use English and Portuguese - this is good because I spend a lot of time in the car, he asks questions and you respond. Most of the other programs I tried begin immediately with spoken Portuguese only and you need to determine what they are saying. They mention that you should use the "companion" book, but it is not necessary. I learned a lot by just listening and repeating while driving around. I highly recommend it and hope they have an advanced beginner set as well.

I have been listening to the cds in my car now. They are helping me to learn Portuguese as I drive around each day. Definitely worth the money I paid to get them. I will continue to use as I try to learn more before my next trip to Brazil.

I am fluent in both Spanish and English. And since I have decided to go to the World Cup in 2014, I thought to start learning Portuguese.This audiobook is too basic for spanish speakers, Portuguese is very similar to Spanish hence I BELIEVE that it is too basic. I am in CD 6 (out of 8) and I got here in 2 days. 99.9% of the times I already know what to answer when the narrator asks "how do you say:"Also, i agree that repetition is the way to master anything, but these guys repeat waaay too much. Right now on CD 6, we've learned up to number 11 in Portuguese and almost the same phrases over and over and over and over just different positions of the words in the phrase. Like they teach you a very veeeery limited vocabulary and they make phrases out of those words.Anyway, I'm buying another one. Not going to return it because I used it and definitely learned but I don't recommend it for Spanish speakers. English speaking people, I think can learn much more .