Hi, all. I´ve been taking a break from PL and LWL for the past few months, but recently have checked in here to see Corv´s posts about his excellent adventure in Argentina. Someone posted a question about studying Portuguese and I have a few comments about that.
I second the suggestion of getting Pimsleur tapes, but skip the 4-tape introductory course, as it is just the first four tapes of the Series 1, and you really should get the whole 30 lessons. They are available on Amazon for around $200, you can buy them used on eBay, or look for them at the local library. Pimsleur is probably the best place to start, other than formal classes, because it gets the pronunciation on your tongue from the first lesson, and by the thirtieth lesson you will have a good start on the grammar as well.
Next, you should get the book Essential Portuguese Grammar, by Alexander R. da Prista, ISBN 0486216500. It´s about 100 pages long, is written in English, and it will give you the basics. Although I haven´t read it myself, An Introductory Portuguese Grammar by Edwin Bucher Williams , ISBN 0486232786, looks pretty good, and Amazon has a two-fer special on these.
For a good dictionary, I recommend the Random House Eng- Port, Port-Eng dictionary, ISBN 0679400605. It´s a tiny pocket dictionary, but is surprisingly complete and accurate, though it does not contain any etymology or pronunciation.
Something that helped me considerably when I arrived in Brazil was a set of five or six fairy tales (Snow White, etc.), written and illustrated for children, and narrated by Xuxa (“Shu-sha”), who is a Brazilian singer and children´s entertainer. It costs about 30 reals ($8 or so), and I could scare up a copy and send it to those interested for cost plus postage. Since you probably remember each story from childhood, it is a great way to get more basics of the language, along with pronunciation, though you probably wouldn´t listen to it with your buddies around ;-). Also, you can read news websites such as CNN and O Globo online in Portuguese.
If you want a decent bilingual dictionary on CD-ROM, there is a Webster´s / Antonio Houaiss dictionary which is not half bad: in addition to audio pronunciation of each word, it has verb conjugations and a handy and precise metric convertor. Cost is 79 or 89 Reals or thereabouts. I might be able to buy and send this as well, but can´t promise it, as sending software gets complicated. I´d be willing to try, for those interested.
The above suggestions are for people getting started. Now let me make some suggestions for those who already have been studying.
One line of dictionaries you want to avoid like a dead rat crawling with maggots is anything by Michaelis. Simply atrocious; loaded with errors and wacky definitions, Michaelis is a joke and always has been.
Another popular line of dictionaries, but really to be avoided as well, is Aurélio. I comment on these two brands based upon personal experience, plus the recommendations of professional Brazilian translators. Professor Luis Antonio Sacconi (http://www.editorasaraiva.com.br/) has written some very good books on grammar and on common mistakes in Brazilian Portuguese-- which mistakes are legion in popular speech and writing: Não Erre Mais!; Não Confunda!; Nossa Gramática – Teoria e Prática; Gramática Essencial Ilustrada (all great for intermediate learners); and Minidicionário Sacconi da Lingua Portuguesa. In Não Erre Mais!, a great number of the dumb-dumb mistakes he rips on are taken straight from Aurélio, the revised 21st Century edition! How pathetic is that? Sacconi comments, “Unfortunately, when it comes to good dictionaries, we are orphans.”
Well, almost orphans. The Antonio Houaiss dictionaries seem to be pretty good. In addition to the bilingual dictionary above, there is a comprehensive monolingual dictionary, which came out recently on CD-ROM, but I´d only recommend it for more advanced students, who will have a chance to buy it in Brazil.
Another good monolingual dictionary is the recently published Diconário de Usos do Português do Brasil, by Fransisco S. Borba, Editora Atica. It is a collection of 62,000 words and 145,000 definitions, tecnical terms, neologisms, foreign terms, latin expressions and abbreviations. It´s like the Spanish Manuel Seco dictionary: it is a snapshot of late 20th century Brazilian Portuguese in actual usage, based upon examples from credible publications. Not available on CD-ROM yet, and not for beginners, but it´s one to look for when you´re here.
Finally, you may eventually get to the point of reading books that have been translated into Portuguese, and that´s a good idea, but keep in mind that many translated books are full of wacky errors. Steven King books keep me interested the best, but even in reading translated books by the British historian Paul Johnson in Spanish, I find all kinds of mistakes. This is not a terrible obstacle for a language student, but keep it in mind, and I recommend you read Prof. Sacconi´s books, above, to help you weed out errors in advance.
Hope this helps. Anyone who wants help finding resources can contact me via my profile.
