PortugueseFilter

July 23, 2009 9:36 AM

What is the best introductory level Portuguese textbook?

I am learning Portuguese and have some questions for the hivemind.

First, what is the best introductory level Portuguese textbook?

Second, where can I (in the US) buy fantasy novels (dragonlance, etc....) in Portuguese?

Third, what tips, tricks, hacks, techniques, really helped you learn Portuguese?

posted by chrisalbon to writing & language (9 comments total)

For your information: I am learning Portuguese to travel to Angola and Mozambique... not Portugal.
posted by chrisalbon at 9:38 AM on July 23

Well, although this book has more of a South American bent to it, Portugues para Principiantes has long been a favorite started book in the teaching community at the college level. Published through the University of Wisconsin, Madison, which has the largest Luso-Brazilian studies program in the United States, PpP is one of the most comprehensive study guides I have ever come across.
posted by msali at 10:11 AM on July 23

Do you have any experience with Spanish? That makes a difference.

I taught Portuguese to college students for a few years. The various textbooks had different pros and cons.

Brasil, Lingua e Cultura had useful grammar explanations in English, but there were a surprising amount of errors in it. I used the 2nd edition, so I can't say whether the 3rd edition fixed them. There is a lot of cultural information in the book as well that is Brazil-specific, so that might not help you.

From Spanish to Portuguese from the Foreign Service Institute, available through the Educational Resources Information Center, is a great (albeit dry) start, if you have a base in Spanish. On my computer (currently on a campus) I can download the full text of this--hopefully everyone can, but I'm not sure. There are audio examples that accompany it. Here is a website that summarizes much that is in this pdf.

Com Licença and Pois Não are other resources for people who know some Spanish.

My old bosses have developed some incredible free web resources for learning Portuguese that you should check out as well:

Videos of people speaking Portuguese. The first videos are the simplest tasks (numbers, colors, etc.) and the last are much more advanced exercises ('Talk about what life would be like without electricity?'). These videos are extremely helpful.

Tá Falado blog and podcasts regarding Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation.

I've never used Fala Brasil, but my wife took a course that used it and liked it. The course was immersion--I don't think there are explanations in English in the book.

I hope that helps. Feel free to contact me via mefimail if you have any other questions.
posted by umbú at 10:11 AM on July 23 [4 favorites]

The accents on Mozambiquean radio and Angolan television sound to me somewhere in between continental Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese, but closer to continental Portuguese. I think you could learn from materials based on either continental or Brazilian portuguese without major problems.
posted by umbú at 10:33 AM on July 23

I have 9 years of spanish classes under my belt and live in Miami for four years.
posted by chrisalbon at 10:59 AM on July 23

Native speaker here, can't help much with resources but just wanted to say that most educated people in Angola and Mozambique will speak with an accent much closer to continental portuguese. The thicker african portuguese accents will sound a bit brazilian because of the way the vowels are pronounced but the speed of speech and the pronounciantion of consonants will be nonetheless closer to continental portuguese.

The upside of learning to speak in brazilian portuguese is that every other portuguese speaker will most probably understand you. The downside is that it might be harder for you to understand evreybody else.

But either way, as umbú says, you can learn from either one and surely you'll get lots of practice in Africa which is what matters most to learn the language (my spanish speaking husband learned from br-pt courses and then just by hanging out in Portugal he picked up the accent pretty quickly).

As for books you may want to contact this bookshop in Newark (big pt community there).
LIVRARIA LUSO-AMERICANO • 88 Ferry St., Newark, NJ 07105 Tel [phone]).
(I don't recall seeing any fantasy novels in Portugal though. Weird)
posted by lucia__is__dada at 11:10 AM on July 23

Also, Livraria Cultura is a great Brazilian bookstore. I've ordered books on-line and shipped them to the U.S. without any problems. The shipping was quick and relatively inexpensive.
posted by umbú at 11:25 AM on July 23

Met a guy (in Portugal) who claimed to have learned Portuguese just by reading Mafalda (a Brazilian comic) and talking to the Portuguese.
posted by RichardS at 11:55 AM on July 23

Don't tell someone from Argentina that Mafalda's a Brazilian comic!
posted by umbú at 2:26 PM on July 23