Portugues XXI - 1 - Nova Edicao: Livro do Aluno + audio download: Livro do Aluno + audio download (A1)

Good: This book is great and is the up to date version (older version exist, which I know are in use by some language schools. even though Portuguese has officially updated such that Brazil and Portugal are 'writing the same language').Bad: You will probably need someone with Portuguese language to help you through the book as all the headings and instructions are in Portuguese. At the very least, a couple of lessons should help get you to a level at which this book will become extremely helpful, insightful and a fantastic learning tool.Good: there is a dictionary at the back that compares words in five languages - so whether your mother tongue is german, english, spanish or french - this IS the book for you.Bottom line - even if you dont have a helpful Portuguese speaker at your side, I still think this is a great learning tool and would recommend purchasing it.

Item received promptly. Great book to learn portuguese Esp as there is an audio CD to listen to native speakers. Lots of exercises and a very good vocabulary section at the back with various translations.

Great study tool !

Love the fact that I can use as part of my course and helps with me learning the European Portuguese rather than Brazilian

Great product.

Been taking Portuguese lessons for a year now, this book summarises the need-to-know things very well but tutor needed to help getting around it

Um dois...:-)

I've already studied Portuguese before but I'm extremely rusty so wanted to brush up on it. As a result I haven't found the book too difficult but if you are a complete beginner I would advise against buying it, even though it advertises itself as for A1 students. All the instructions from the get go are in Portuguese which is fine if you have a basic understanding of the language but daunting if you've never seen it before. The grammatical rules aren't explained explicitly and you are expected to just 'get' them through exposure to the language - again, fine if you have a background in romance languages but not if this is your first foray into learning them. Finally, the audio conversations are far too fast for beginners, not giving you enough time to listen and practice pronunciation.If you are interested in starting Portuguese from scratch I would recommend the excellent BBC Talk series, although unfortunately that is for Brazilian Portuguese. The benefit with Portugues XXI is that it's the European version of the language.