English must be a nightmare language to learn and anyone looking to English as she is Spoke would just find it evern more difficult. It was published in 1883 as a guide for well educated young Portuguese gentlemen but the slight flaw is that author Pedro Carolino seems to have a less than minimal graps of the language himself.
To include a section called "For to speak French" might seem a bit optimistic for people who can't speak English yet, especially it contains phrases such as "It must to study for to learn it. How long there is it what you learn it?" Indeed.
Every situation the educated young man may encounter is dealt with in questionably useful terms, from hiring a yacht crew ("Never have you not done wreck?") to "the gaming" ("At what pack will you that we does play?"). It also has a mystifyingly surreal collection of after dinner anecdotes and such wonderful English proverbs as "Nothing some money, nothing of Swiss" and "The stone as roll not heat up foam."
This book is highly recommended for anyone who has ever struggled to learn - or teach - a language, or anyone who just enjoys bizarre eccentricity. Mind you, I'm sure most of our attempts to write a Portuguese phrase book would get an equally big laugh in Lisbon!
