Take Off In Portuguese Language Study Kit

Take Off in Portuguese is a language learning kit designed to help the traveler or student to learn basic Portuguese before visiting Portugal. It does so though visual and audio learning aids, which should be used together for the best results. Does Take Off in Portuguese succeed? We've asked Martha Bakerjian, a teacher of of over 30 years of experience and guide to Italy Travel on About.com, to take a look.

When I first looked at the Take Off in Portuguese book, the instructions seemed complicated, but it's actually very easy to follow along and it's clear when to use the book and when to listen. I was actually dismayed at the extensive explanations in English, which I found cumbersome and unnecessary.

The lessons require the learner's full attention and there is frequent switching between the book and the audio. This ensures learning through both the visual and auditory channels, a good teaching method.

One feature I liked was being prompted to listen for particular words in the dialogs, even if I didn't understand everything the first time. Dialogs are repeated several times and correspond to various listening, reading, and writing exercises, helping enforce both pronunciation and vocabulary building.

When the learner is asked to repeat a phrase, there's plenty of time to respond. However, the phrase is usually not repeated again after the pause so there's no way to check that the response was correct.

Each of the 14 units covers vocabulary, basic grammar, verb conjugations, and interesting cultural information. Each unit ends with a review lesson and review test. The lessons are self-paced and each lesson builds on the previous one, incorporating previously learned vocabulary and grammar. At the end of the book is a good vocabulary review, a Portuguese - English vocabulary list (but no English-Portuguese list), and exercise answers.

The lack of an English to Portuguese dictionary makes some of the exercises frustrating. When the speaker on the CD asks you to ask the waiter for a cup of tea, and the word "tea" hasn't been introduced in the lesson, there isn't a way to learn it before going on with the exercise.

Take Off in Portuguese has a few flaws, but for the price its a good introduction to learning a language for your trip.