I’m taking a trip to Brazil soon, and I know almost no Portuguese. To help me get around the country, I picked up the first ten lessons of Pimsleur’s Brazilian Portuguese Level I from Audible (the equivalent of the Conversational Brazilian Portuguese CD set).
So far, two lessons in, I’ve found it to be very useful. The Pimsleur system (which I discovered via a search on Ask Metafilter) strongly emphasizes pronunciation over reading and grammar. First a native speaker says a word or phrase, then you are expected to repeat it, several times. Then the word is used in context, and you follow along.
Over the course of the half-hour session, you learn a handful of words and phrases very, very well, and you learn to pronounce them like a native speaker would. (This is important, because sounding the words out from a phrasebook will sound completely wrong.)
My goal is to learn the most basic, necessary phrases before my trip, things like “Good morning!” and “Do you speak English?” and “Where is the nearest restroom?” This Pimsleur guide has been an excellent resource so far; I only wish I had gotten started earlier!
On that note, this blog will be going on hiatus for a few days. Please enjoy the Archives of Awesomeness while I am away, and I’ll be back a little later, no doubt with something awesome from Brazil.