Total Portuguese Course: Learn Portuguese with the Michel Thomas Method: Beginner Portuguese Audio Course Audio CD – Unabridged, 18 July 2014

Over the coming years I expect to be spending quite a lot of time in Portugal and I decided to learn the language. First I tried an audio course aimed at tourism but this was disappointing because it was very little help with verbs, grammar and language structure, and all I learned was a set of phrases. This course is different and covers all of this in a very good way that leads you through it all by effectively making you a student alongside a female and a male beginner, with a native Portuguese speaker on hand for correct pronunciation and accent. You get to start with saying simple sentences and this is built on with more vocabulary and longer and more complex sentences. Verbs, pronunciation, and where the stresses fall in words are explained very well and you very soon get confidence in speaking the language. The course leader tells you not to make a conscious effort to remember but to relax and allow the course to simply sink into your mind and memory, I was a little sceptical at first but trusted it, and it really does work. To start with you may confuse what the male student says with what the male native Portuguese speaker says but this very soon sorts itself out. I hope to move onto the more advanced courses soon.

This is the fourth Michel Thomas set we have bought and I have to say its not the best. This one has been produced using Michel's methods, but it has a new teacher, who I just don't like. I am rating the method and not the teacher. You simply sit back listen and repeat. It took me a few rewinds to get many phrases, as Portuguese is not as easy for me as German. The method does work and it will give you the basics of the language, very quickly. I am happy to Recommend this course.

This is a very good product which works on the basis of a simple but very good method, though you get out what you put in - I do the course in the mornings on the train to work and my fellow passengers are bemused when I repeat the sentences under my breath. The other reviews are correct and it is useful going through the course with the two (occasionally stumbling) students and Paulo, the native Portuguese speaker with a very nice sonorous Portuguese voice. I am on disk 2 and it is slow going for me but I am already gaining confidence and am able to predict how to say what the teacher asks for. I would recommend this course. I would suggest that lessons (which are about 5-8 minutes in length) are repeated 3-4 times.

It's okay but it's not a patch on the original Michel Thomas (which I have previously used for French and Italian). One of the problems here is that the tutor isn't the one providing the corrected version of the phrases. So it becomes very frustrating hearing people getting in wrong before the correct answer comes from a voice that is not that distinct from the other pupils. In the original Michel Thomas, Michel would interrupt and correct and you would get used to his voice and rely on him being there to correct immediately. The tutor is good but not as good as Michel - although that is setting a very high benchmark.

I personally find learning how to pronounce words and structure meaningful sentences in another language is the hardest part but this course definitely makes it easier than when I've tried learning languages in the past. I like the fact you are asked to be relaxed when learning and there is no homework, because the course doesn't feel over structured and you are learning to put sentences together from the start it doesn't feel like an overwhelming task to learn to speak the language. There is also plenty of opportunities to practice what is said, it is really clearly repeated and the language rules about how to say letters and sounds are stressed which I've found really useful.

This is a great product. I was a little concerned from one or two of the previous reviews that this might be an inferior product to the actual Michel Thomas Spanish tapes I had bought in previous years, but actually I prefer the fact that the lady teaching is English and has obviously worked closely with Michel Thomas. The young man on the tape may have made mistakes but it helped with the learning to hear the mistakes. My only disgruntlement is that I did not need to buy the starter tape as the starter CD is in the first CD of this Total Portugese collection. I wish that had been made clearer somewhere.

I hadn't realised that it is not Michel Thomas teaching which was disappointing but the teaching method is brilliant.

I am really enjoying using this updated version of the Michel Thomas method for Portuguese. The teacher is very clear and moves the "class" along at a nice pace. There is also a native Portuguese speaker assisting her, which is excellent for proper pronunciation.The revision cd -rom is brilliant - a great revision aid and I am amazed at how much I have learnt, both in speaking and reading, in just a couple of weeks ( and only on the 4th cd!).