To learn Portuguese there is one key point you need to decide - Portuguese or Brazilian Portuguese? The two main dialects are slightly different. Because of the size and influence of Brazil and its' culture, I would lean toward Brazilian, unless you have a specific need or desire to learn the dialect of Portugal itself.
Portuguese is closely related to Spanish and Italian, and just like them is relatively easy to pronounce and read for a native English speaker. There are some interesting nasalized vowels (like its other cousin language French) but they aren't too difficult once you get a handle on them. If you already have some experience with one of those languages, Portuguese is a breeze! Here are a few of the best resources available to learn Portuguese.
Internet/Free.Learn Portuguese Grammar
This is an excellent site for getting the basics of Portuguese grammar. A site on learning Portuguese from Finland? It's a small world!
Internet/FreeBeginner Portuguese Lessons
This site is complete with lessons for beginners with sound files. A good complement to the grammar site. Put these two sites together to begin learning Portuguese for free!
Internet/FreeLearn Portuguese Now
This site has lots of material to begin learning Brazilian Portuguese. Common words and phrases, learning tips, culture and more.
Internet/Free Transparent Language offers a free vocabulary trainer to get started learning Portuguese - Free Before You Know It™ download
Internet/Free Truly one of the best possible resources to learn Portuguese is
FSI-Language-Courses.com
You can download (for free!) a massive 2 volume set of the comprehensive FSI language method with audio and the course text in pdf format. There is also a cool Spanish to Portuguese course for those who know Spanish and would like to use that knowledge to gain Portuguese with minimal effort!
Book/Audio Combo The Living Language series, published by Random House, brings to life a well thought-out program in a compact package, by using a 'building block' approach to learn Portuguese. The Basic Complete set includes a 40 lesson coursebook, which doubles as a phrasebook because it has lots of variations of the most common or useful phrases, a dictionary with plenty of idioms and expressions, and 2 90-minute cassettes or cd's.
Book/Audio Combo Living Language Ultimate - This is a notch up from the Basic Complete set, it includes a 400+ page coursebook, 4 cd's that are coordinated with the book and an additional 4 cd's to work with away from the book. This is a great combination of the old school approach with the big coursebook for the serious student, but the extra cd's are a great addition. An ideal choice to learn Portuguese.
Audio only Pimsleur Comprehensive Portuguese (Brazilian)
Pimsleur's Comprehensive courses come with 16 cd's per level, 15 audio and 1 reading lesson cd with a booklet. Pimsleur is the king of all-audio programs. You will begin speaking Portuguese immediately, and learning conversation with native speakers. Almost all the grammar is learned by doing. That's the beauty of Pimsleur, it's painless and fun. The only drawback to Pimsleur is that there is only a little bit of reading practice, I think some kind of supplemental reading material is needed. Since Portuguese is relatively easy to read, this is a very minor problem. I'd still choose Pimsleur Comprehensive over all other methods, it's the best. Read my
Review of Pimsleur
or listen to the first lesson of Pimsleur Portuguese free below!
Rosetta Stone's immersion style method is one of the very best to learn Portuguese. Their approach is one of full media - images, audio, written words etc., and intructs you expertly in every aspect of language - listening, speaking, reading and writing, and makes it interesting in the process.
They offer a cd-software based personal edition or a unique alternative. For a subscription fee, you can have complete online access to their Portuguese software. If you can take advantage of their 500+ hours of instruction in a few months, you can get one of the best language learning products at a bargain price! Otherwise, the personal edition software will give you complete access all the time, for the full price, of course.
Rosetta Stone is an excellent choice for learning Portuguese. Read my
review of Rosetta Stone, or see for yourself how Rosetta Stone works for you and try out the free demo -
For more online resources for learning Portuguese go to the
Portuguese Language Resources Page
, where you will find a short list of internet sites to help you learn Portuguese and learn more about Brazilian and Portuguese culture.
"If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world."
