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Michel Thomas Beginner Portuguese: Lesson 1
Summary
What is the Michel Thomas Method? The Michel Thomas Method teaches everyday conversational languages that will allow you to communicate in a wide variety of situations, empowered by the ability to create your own sentences and use the language instinctively, having absorbed the vocabulary and grammatical structures. These all-audio courses were perfected over 25 years by gifted linguist and teacher, Michel Thomas. The recordings provide an accelerated method for language learning that is truly revolutionary.
Lessons 1-8, the Beginner course: This course makes no assumption of knowledge of any language other than English, and gives the beginner practical and functional use of the spoken language. It is also appropriate for anyone who has studied Portuguese before, but has forgotten much of it or does not have confidence in speaking. The Beginner course is designed to take you from complete beginner to intermediate level.
Lessons 9-12, the Intermediate course: This course is for those with an intermediate-level foundation in Portuguese, or those who have completed lessons 1-8 and want to take their learning to an advanced level and speak Portuguese proficiently and easily.
How does it work?
Unlike most language courses that focus around topics or grammar forms, the Michel Thomas Method works by breaking a language down into its component parts, enabling you to reconstruct the language yourself - to form your own sentences, to say what you want, when you want. Within the first 10 minutes of the course, you will be generating complete sentences on your own. It is important that you complete the lessons in order. The Method is successful because it builds on the language you learn in each lesson and 'recycles' language taught in earlier lessons, allowing you to build ever-more complicated sentences. Because the Method is based on understanding, not memorisation, there is no set limit to the length of time that you should study each lesson.
Once you feel you have a good grasp of the language taught in one lesson, you can move on to the next. In the first lesson of the Portuguese Beginner course, you'll be able to state what you want and ask questions with the following:
- similarities between Portuguese and English; words ending in ível ( ible) and ável ( able); ante ( ant) and ente ( ent)
- é (it is) and para (for): para mim (for me), para o senhor/a senhora (for you)
- the negative; sim (yes) and não (no); questions and questions words porque é que (why), o que (what)
- lamento (I am sorry), é muito bom (it is very good), etc.
- verbs: quero-o (I want it), etc.; saber (to know), posso (I can), pode (you can); fazer (to do/make), comer (to eat); saying tenho fome (I am hungry).
What members say
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Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- moggster
- 28-06-17
Decent but irritating!
The overall method of teaching is good and I found it effective. However, I had two problems with this lesson. The first is that I had previously downloaded the half-hour free trial, which is essentially the first half of the lesson; this was not made clear anywhere when I made the purchase, so it felt like a rip-off. Secondly, I understand the point of having two students is to encourage the listener, but the female student was so slow to pick up the phrases, it became extremely frustrating - so repetitive! If you have an aptitude for languages, you might find a more advanced course a better fit.
3 people found this helpful
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- Zoë Leigh Woodroffe
- 28-03-15
Fabulous
Very good, I've only listening a few times but I am able to pick up on words when my other half & his family are talking Portuguese. Shame it ends so abruptly.
3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 15-09-19
Good for beginners
Very helpful book. The pace and explanations of how to construct sentences was perfect for me as a first time learner
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- Kindle Customer
- 01-06-19
helpful
I found this very useful when combined with Apps which teach vocab. Not so good in isolation
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-02-19
Great series
Great series. I've Michel Thomas material before and it's so easy to follow. Definitely worth it.
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- Amazon Customer
- 20-03-18
Struggled with narration
I didn’t like listening to the interaction between the teacher and the two other students, plus the Portuguese man. It felt a bit confusing, especially when the other students were making their own mistakes. The teacher also seemed a bit short with them sometimes. I preferred the Paul Noble audible series.
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-09-16
Well paced narration
If you could sum up Michel Thomas Beginner Portuguese: Lesson 1 in three words, what would they be?
Pleasant understandable informative
What did you like best about this story?
Narrator's teaching method
What does Virginia Catmur bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
European Portuguese pronunciation and focus on local accent
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The accurate version by paulo at the end of each section
Any additional comments?
Listen several times for increased results
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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- Andrew
- 17-02-14
Great course, but buy CDs instead
What disappointed you about Michel Thomas Beginner Portuguese: Lesson 1?
I am a great fan of Michel Thomas language courses, so the problem is not the content. However, since language courses are all available on CD it is far better value to buy the CD's load into itunes and then resell the CDs on ebay.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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- eduardo gonzalez
- 27-05-17
TERRIBLE DONT BUY IT
Way too short and useless
Poorly edited!!
Confusing because they make a lot of mistakes
3 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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- pablo
- 24-07-15
Pablo Cancinos
disappointed because it was the same material as the introductory therefore I just lost my money...
2 people found this helpful
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- Marissa Blaszko
- 07-05-19
Best verb and language product on the market
If you've had trouble with verbs or languages in the past I would seriously recommend trying out Michel Thomas. I'm studying Portuguese and Catalan as my 5th and 6th languages and I've never found anything like MTM. One of the students in this particular set really drags the class down, but MTM is the best verb help I've ever found for any one of my languages.