Customer Reviews

Portuguese Easy Learning Audio Course: Learn to Speak Portuguese the Easy Way with Collins (Unabridged)

I found this course very accessible; that is, should be easy to follow for most people. It has a strong emphasis on touristic situations and I suppose most potential customers/students will be using this for their holidays.

I feel that a bigger accompanying book would give me more confidence (there's just a booklet).

Also, some situations assume particular responses from Portuguese speakers. I'm sure this could be tricky in reality.. ask a Brit "How are you?" and they will very likely say "Fine, thanks". Ask someone in Portugal and they'll likely give you their life story(!)

All in all, I thought it was good practice for holiday-style Portuguese conversations but I would not consider it a complete course in itself, rather a good compliment to a book or on-line course.

This is a nice simple introduction to Portuguese.

It comprises 3 CDs and a small 48 page booklet

As the guy says on the CDs the Easy learning package is "backed up with regular revision" to help it to sink in. Sessions (as he says) should only be used in 8-10 minute bursts if it is brand new material to you and you should take break between each section before continuing.

I must admit I am a complete beginner and had a few problems getting the accent right at the start but did really enjoy it and (I believe!) came to have an acceptable accent after a few hours.

Getting all of the phrases that native speakers might say back to you is particularly helpful. Being a beginner I can't really think of anything that has been missed out here - maybe advanced speakers would think so - but then I can't really see them listening to this.

I must say that had more trouble with the guy's English accent than the Portuguese. Sorry, it might sound harsh but I did find his English a little hard to follow at times. His Portuguese accent (as all the others on the CDs) is excellent though (as you'd expect from a native!)

If you want a short introduction to the language just to help you through a holiday or two then this is a really good introduction and really good value for money at less than �10 (at the time of writing) from Amazon.

Travel anywhere abroad and it is well known that if you make an attempt as speaking the language you will gain respect from the locals and have a much enhanced time while you are there!
This is certainly true of our Greek travels , and since we are planning a Lisbon trip later this year, the opportunity to try out this 3 CD set was too good to resist.
Having learned Greek and tried the Greek CD set - finding it to be good revision for Greek travel language, I had high hopes of this set which were not dissapointed.

The set is made up of 3 CDs and an accompanying booklet with cutural and language tips . It was easy to transfer to mp3 player and so will be very portable on holiday and useful revision when there! The phrases are all pertinent to travel and the test will of course be once we are there and how we get on!
But I will say that the course is certainly inspiring more confidence than just using a phrase book!

If you really wanted to learn Portuguese then you could be misled into buying this. Easy learning Portuguese doesn't mean you will start speaking Portuguese easily, it means it's for complete beginners (or, rather, holiday-makers) and you will pick up some basics and phrases easily. And that's all.

Anyway, it's usually fun learning a new language from scratch and fortunately this is one of those occasions.

The cds are broken up into four basic types of lesson: listening practice, speaking practice, dialogue, key phrases. The narrator is a native speaker, he has a clear and pleasant voice, as do the additional male and female voices.

Usually the hardest part of learning a new language for me is when I am presented with a conversation in an utterly strange language, after being given just a few words, so that the sounds all run into each other. However, I could easily distinguish between words, even those I did not know.

It is also hard to pronounce words correctly working on your own, and if you don't record and listen to yourself. This course does a decent job of trying to help with pronunciation, getting you to place stress correctly, etc.

Leaving aside consideration of the limited range, the method is not as good or effective as Michel Thomas' language courses, but then he never tried to teach us Portuguese and the attempt made by someone else with his method after his death is a lot more expensive than this and has had mixed reviews.

I have had this product for almost a year now and studied the course before travel and then played the CDs in the car travelling through Portugal. Portuguese has the reputation of being a far more difficult language than Spanish or Italian so the very simple and straightforward approach of the course certainly helps the learner to get started, but a problem arises by the end of the course in that you still do not have enough vocabulary and grammar for some everyday situations. If you want an intensive course that will equip you for integration into Portuguese society then you will want more than is available here but this may get you started and ready for that intensive course that would otherwise intimidate you away from what is a beautiful language. The CDs, in conjunction with lyrics in CD inserts, have also helped me to understand the singing of the great contemporary Fado singer, Mariza, so that cannot be bad. Just do not expect to breeze into a cafe and be able to discuss the fragile and intimate meanderings of the human soul with a Portuguese speaker after completing this course.

This set won't have you speaking Portuguese like a native or give you the ability to have complex conversations in the language, but it will give you enough basic Portuguese skills for a holiday or short visit without sounding too much like a tourist. It's very much of the old 'ecoutez et repetez' format, although it does offer background and explanations on phrases and words so it's not simply learning by rote. It also helpfully includes possible answers to questions you're likely to ask abroad - after all, what's the point of being able to ask a question if you can't understand the answer? - as well tips on body language and tone of voice to help you convey more than just the phrases themselves.

It's not meant to be a lightning course - it's best to give yourself a week or two at least before your trip to get the most out of the course - and it doesn't offer any new learning techniques if you've had problems with the 'ecoutez et repetez' format in the past - it's still basically a reinforced memory technique. But as a useful introduction to help you get by in Portugal (or any of the many countries where Portuguese is spoken), the three CDs and booklet cover the basics effectively enough.

This really is the complete package - as long as your aim is not to learn written Portuguese, this is probably going to be ideal for you. The CD's are presented clearly and slowly. They sound professional and cover the basics. Sometimes the repetition is slightly annoying because the user can decide if they wish to press rew/ffd. There is a helpful but not comprehensive booklet accompanying the CD's. This is fine considering that the idea is to listen and not read a book.
There is very little to criticize, except to add a little warning: Just because you can speak basic Portuguese, does not mean that you will be able to understand what people are saying in Portuguese. This will take time - something that cannot easily be learned from a book or CD. However, this well presented tutorial on 3 CD's is the way to begin. Put it on your MP3 player and take it on holiday to Portugal with you.
The only slight issue I have is that the spoken Portuguese (short sentences and common expressions) are not done slowly enough. At times it is hard to copy and work on getting the accent right when the spoken Portuguese is at normal speed rather than slightly slower.

If you have never, ever tried learning any foreign language, this might be useful. If you have some knowledge of another language - especially Spanish - you may find this extremely slow and tedious! I certainly wish I'd chosen a different resource.

I own quite a few of these Easy Learning audio courses - a sign perhaps of how good I think they are.
This Portuguese course follows the same Collins format as the others that I have in my collection. The `Collins way' is easy to follow and introduces key words and phrases at a pace which a beginner will not find too frightening or off-putting.

This is a perfect buy if you are heading to Portugal and don't want to insult the Portuguese by assuming that your holiday Spanish will do for the job of communication - Portuguese is a completely different language and sounds like a mix of Italian and Spanish.
Download the CDs to your mp3 player for use on the go or play them in the car, on the hifi or on the PC.

Recommended!

I wanted to get a basic understanding of Portugese so I looked around for some relevant products. What caught my eye about this product was that on the cover it said it was perfect for holidays and business trips. This to me meant it would cover the basics.

In the package you get 3 audio CDs and a small booklet. I must admit that before I have tried to learn languages by reading, so the fact that there was more audio material was a bonus. I found that I used the CDs in the car, and also at home and that they were easy to use.

I felt that I certainly learnt some basic words and phrases, which meant that the product did its job. My slight criticism would be that at times it is too basic, but you can always go on and take a further more advanced course.