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Product Description
Review
"A great way to learn; it's fast and it lasts". (The Daily Telegraph )
"Five minutes into the first CD, you already feel like you're winning." (Time Out )
"Michel Thomas is a precious find indeed." (The Guardian )
"Thomas makes it simple" (Sunday Times )
"Michel's methods will teach you effectively and easily" (Daily Star )
"Hugely inspiring" (Red )
"Ideal for any business traveller who needs to be able to get around confidently." (Sunday Business )
"Five minutes into the first CD, you already feel like you're winning." (Time Out )
"Michel Thomas is a precious find indeed." (The Guardian )
"Thomas makes it simple" (Sunday Times )
"Michel's methods will teach you effectively and easily" (Daily Star )
"Hugely inspiring" (Red )
"Ideal for any business traveller who needs to be able to get around confidently." (Sunday Business )
"Moving along at a relaxed, slow pace, punctuated by amusing anecdotes and jokes from the teacher, the new words, phrases and language rules are gently introduced and reinforced through subtle repetition without ever being tedious. In fact, despite a distinct emphasis on non-work, the course proves very effective and enjoyable, and its format is ideal for learning anywhere you like. So, if you only want to learn to speak the language, this course is highly recommended."
(Top Real Travel Product, Real Travel )"Excellent for learning ... This entirely audio course is easy to use and quickly results in some useful ability in the new language. Great for the car."
(Adventure Travel )Product Description
Learn another language the way you learnt your own
You learnt your own language naturally and enjoyably: now you can learn Portuguese in the same way.
You'll stick with it because you'll love it
Use the unique method perfected over fifty years by the celebrated psychologist and linguist Michel Thomas.
This method works with your brain, helping you to build up your Portuguese in manageable, enjoyable steps by thinking out the answers for yourself.
You learn through listening and speaking without the pressure of writing or memorising.
You pick up the language naturally and unforgettably.
The NEW Portuguese Foundation Course
An eight-hour, 100% audio method for learning Portuguese. Join Michel Thomas's editor Virginia Catmur, native speaker Paulo Santos and two students in a live lesson and within the first hour you will be able to construct simple phrases. You will learn the language with the students, hearing both their successes and their mistakes to keep you motivated and involved throughout the course. By the end, you will have the confidence to understand and speak Portuguese. On the final track, the teachers are joined by native Brazilian Portuguese speaker Gui Tavares to give you an insight into Brazilian pronunciation and usage.
Join the millions of people worldwide who have learnt a new language with the Michel Thomas Method
Contents: 8 CDs plus booklet with Portuguese phrases in English translation
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Michel Thomas, the language genius who pioneered this learning style, sadly died a few years ago, and this is a course in his style, rather than by him. Sadly, this isn't as good as his Spanish course Michel Thomas Foundation Course: Spanish (Michel Thomas Series), for example, but it's an innovative way to grasp a new language.
Learning from your knowledge of English you construct phrases in Portuguese rather than learn words. For example, all 'cion' words like 'information' in English all end 'ção' in Portuguese - so 'informação'. You're encouraged to see the patterns and think it through yourself rather than parrot back.
The course fails slightly on a few things - mainly that pronouncing Portuguese is very hard, and more attention is needed especially with the vowel sounds. It's not too helpful. Also, the section on Brazilian Portuguese is literally 5mins at the very end - disappointing and odd, especially as Brazilian is much easier to pronounce than European (in my opinion at least). Finally, the voice and attitude of the main speaker is grating, especially after eight hours - she's a bit too patronising and nasal to listen too comfortably.
All in all, good, but not a patch on Michel's original courses.
Learning from your knowledge of English you construct phrases in Portuguese rather than learn words. For example, all 'cion' words like 'information' in English all end 'ção' in Portuguese - so 'informação'. You're encouraged to see the patterns and think it through yourself rather than parrot back.
The course fails slightly on a few things - mainly that pronouncing Portuguese is very hard, and more attention is needed especially with the vowel sounds. It's not too helpful. Also, the section on Brazilian Portuguese is literally 5mins at the very end - disappointing and odd, especially as Brazilian is much easier to pronounce than European (in my opinion at least). Finally, the voice and attitude of the main speaker is grating, especially after eight hours - she's a bit too patronising and nasal to listen too comfortably.
All in all, good, but not a patch on Michel's original courses.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
I like the fact that this course concentrates on listening and repeating, and building up sentences in a modular format. This enables you to construct sentences quite quickly. It also includes lots of useful verbs. What i didn't like was the way that by CD6, i felt really bogged down by learning lots of verb endings (which are of course, essential) but not much else, and i completely lost interest. The strength of this course is that it will get you used to speaking portuguese, it will get you a pretty good accent and there is a lot of repetition which always helps the memory. What it fails on is access to numbers, colours, telling the time, how to ask for anything complicated in the shop - all of which you can pick up if you find another portuguese language book to use alongside. I will continue to use it, and i would recommend it to others, but not as a stand alone course for learning portuguese.
21 of 25 people found the following review helpful
I am a huge fan of Michel Thomas' original recordings for learning Spanish, French and German. However, I rather suspect that Virginia Catmur, the presenter of both the Foundation course and the equally useless Advanced course feels otherwise, if only because she seems to show almost no understanding of his unquestionably brilliant method. For example, without an all important revision CD at the end of every set of CDs, Catmur ridiculously expects us to revise her work, by playing all the original CDs again and again. Forget it ! her Portuguese CDs are just too boring and charmless to be heard more than once or twice at most, if only because we have to suffer the reality that Catmur doesn't even speak Portuguese with a good enough accent, not to need an extra expert to re-pronounce everything she says once again - making everything twice as long as necessary.
Frankly, this whole project smacks of lazy corporate exploitation of Michel Thomas' estate. I am so glad he died before he had to suffer the indignity of having to listen to this pathetic effort.
No doubt in the future, someone in Michel Thomas's family will realize just what a con this, and make sure the likes of ML Portuguese are done properly. Meanwhile, I would be very suspicious of buying any Michel Thomas recording not actually done by the great master himself.
Avoid at all costs.
Frankly, this whole project smacks of lazy corporate exploitation of Michel Thomas' estate. I am so glad he died before he had to suffer the indignity of having to listen to this pathetic effort.
No doubt in the future, someone in Michel Thomas's family will realize just what a con this, and make sure the likes of ML Portuguese are done properly. Meanwhile, I would be very suspicious of buying any Michel Thomas recording not actually done by the great master himself.
Avoid at all costs.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Portuguese Foundation Course
I listen to this every day, to and from work (15 mins each way)and I really feel like I'm learning the language! Read more
Published 10 months ago by angelbuff
Michelle Thomas Method: Portuguese, a Foundation Course
I have tried three self instruction courses for Portuguese. Rosetta Stone was the worst. Michelle Thomas was the best one for starters. Read more
Published 18 months ago by galen
Good buy
I have used Michel Thomas method before for spanish and although it is not Michel Thomas in the tapes Virginia Catmur follows his blueprint to languages exactly. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Todd Cave
Artificial Portuguese
In fairness to learners it must be known that 'foreign' Portuguese is taught in this course. Portuguese phrases and sentences are a literal translation from what you would have... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Malcolm Howells
Brazilian voice only in the last track of the last CD
The native speaker in every CD is from Portugal. As a token gesture a Brazilian speaker crops up in the last track of the last CD, where differences between accent and usage are... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Chris Jones
Excellent
This is the first time I've done a Michel Thomas course and I was extremely impressed by it. I've studied modern languages at undergraduate level before and now wish I'd done it... Read more
Published 20 months ago by lg123
Portuguese M Thomas Method
Sticks very much to the tried and tested Michel Thomas style. I like the addition of the Portuguese speaker to improve the pronunciation. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Wrinkles
Pretty painless Portuguese
As language 'geek' I am a huge fan of the Michel Thomas technique. His natural dialogue approach is based on two learners repeating and practicing short constructions, grammatical... Read more
Published 22 months ago by C. Young
portuguese stuff
Absolutely fantastic course. Clear and easy to follow.
would recommend it for those who enjoy learning languages.
would recommend it for those who enjoy learning languages.
Published on 9 Feb 2010 by Mrs. K. E. Strawson
Painless And Addictive!
My first experience of the Michel Thomas courses was the Spanish course which was simplicity itself (Spanish being very easy to learn as it is so regular). Read more
Published on 21 Oct 2009 by Bonzo The Great
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