Portuguese Now! 8.0

Portuguese Now! offers five different games to bolster your learning curve; conversation practice that lets you interact with the native Brazilians; video and text compilations that teach the history and culture of Brazil; common words and survival phrases necessary for all beginners; and Listen and Speak segments (our favorites), which let you use an included microphone to match your speech to prompted words--a fun and easy way to develop your voice inflection. The main layout focuses your time on the interesting video and dialog activities, but you may want to bone up first on the alphabet and frequently used words. The helpful Getting Started area describes step-by-step learning suggestions, which are worth reading and will lead you to more productive language lessons.

While it's a little disappointing that this software only covers Brazilian Portuguese, there is no denying the worth of this program. The navigation and layout are technically primitive, but the basics behind the lessons--what really counts--are done well. The variety of options for speaking and listening practice provided in Portuguese Now!--along with graphical comparisons to rate your progress--helps you push your way from stumbling through the language to beginning fluency. --Madeleine Miller

Amazon.com Product Description
With Portuguese Now! you'll learn by immersing yourself in Brazilian Portuguese. You'll participate in real conversations and read interesting articles. You can also watch intriguing videos from Brazil--discover the beauty of Rio and the rhythmic samba!

I was expecting a more tradtional approach of going through various items and learning how to say simple things. Don't waste your time buying this...


You will find yourself exploring this program - indeed!   March 18, 2001
Teresa (Fort Collins, CO United States)
21 out of 21 found this review helpful

When I first downloaded this program onto my computer, I felt overwhelmed. The directions were not clear and there were so many areas to explore, I didn't know where to begin. However, as I began to learn how to work the program I found it to be an extremely useful tool to learn Portuguese. Not only can I practice my pronunciation of Portuguese words, but I can also close my eyes and listen to a native speaker to test my listening comprehension. Also, I can play a game to pratice my language skills as well! If you are serious about learning Portuguese I highly recommend you purchase this program. Yes, it's confusing in the beginning. . . however as time passes you will find it one of your most useful means to learn the language. I enjoy using the program and although I've owned it now for 5 months, I still have many areas to explore on the CD. However, keep in mind if you are a serious student of Portuguese this program is not the only tool you will need to learn the language. I recommend buying a great dictionary and grammar book to understand how the language works (this CD has hints about Portuguese grammar, but does not explain it in detail). If you purchase the books and the program, you will learn portuguese without a tutor or teacher! I'm already testing my language skills by reading articles on Portuguese websites. Thanks to this program, other tools, and my weekly (almost daily) study habits I can understand much of what I read!


Portuguese Now   January 19, 2001
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

Do yourself a favor and save your money. I found this to be the worst learning tool I have ever seen. The CD basically comes with 2 or 3 stories that you can listen to and practice repeating.

The only thing I found useful was going through the correct pronunciation of the alphabet.

All the important items in learning a language are in text only format, so you'd be better off buying a book