Oi! Bem-vindo!
Welcome to Amor Tellúris, my personal website, where I will display information on my projects, especially the Portuguese learning textbook Brazilian Portuguese by the Natural Method. The book is a WIP, but shouldn’t take long to be released. I will be posting regular updates as I progress with the book.
What is the book?
It is a book that aims to teach Brazilian Portuguese. It is tailored to the needs of self-learners. The idea is that, going through the book you’ll go from 0 knowledge of Portuguese to a B1 level, which means you can talk about everyday things in Portuguese. The book also aims to have an interesting narrative to it, not just a bland story to display the content.
What is the story of the book?
A Brazilian girl is going through her teenage years and, as it is common, is very frustrated with her life. She is smart, but very undisciplined, and believes she doesn’t need school. Having to study things with no apparent justification and living a sheltered life, she gets frustrated day by day for not knowing what she is being shielded from. She is firm in her decision to leave school and flee her home. That’s when she starts having dreams with a familiar, yet frightening figure that leads her to know more about her and the world. Trying to figure out who that spirit is, and what it wants, will lead her to take a turn in her life and find out mysteries about her own family.
Want to know how this ends? You’ll have to learn Portuguese!
Can I try the book out?
Yes, for free. I will release the initial chapters for free a bit before the book is launched, for you to see if the method works for you. Feel free to spread it around. 😊
When will the book be launched?
Likely sometime in the first semester of 2023 as a 1st version, exclusively as an e-book. After that, my plan is to release a revised 2nd edition digitally and physically sometime later, probably in late 2023. Of course, all that buy the first version will receive the second one as well.
Do I need any previous knowledge of Portuguese?
No, the book is made for absolute beginners. What is heavily recommended is a solid knowledge of English. You don’t need to be fluent in English, being at least intermediate should be enough, but the more advanced, the better.
Will I learn to Speak and Listen too, or just Read and Write?
The book is written in spoken language, that is, the book is designed to teach you how to speak Portuguese. The grammar is the grammar of the spoken language of educated Brazilians. There will also be recordings of all the texts, and listening to them is highly recommended. Therefore, you will learn to speak and listen.
Is this like other natural method books, like Lingua Latina per se Illustrata?
It’s very similar, but it has an important difference: most natural method books either don’t make grammar explicit or do it after the grammar has been already used in the text. I have used these to teach Italian and English and have found it very nice for people who have experience with learning new grammar, but very frustrating and inefficient with those learning their first foreign language. So, I have decided to have very brief grammar explanations before the actual text, where most of the learning happens. Here is an example from Chapter 2:
How much will it cost?
The price, conditions and platforms of the launch are not yet decided. But I have already decided the e-book will be in an affordable price.
Do you plan to write versions for speakers of ‘x’ language instead of English as well?
If the book has a good reception, I might do it for Spanish. It is very unlikely I’ll do it with any other language.
Can I use this book to learn European or African Portuguese?
The varieties are significantly different. Brazilian and European Portuguese are more or less as different as American and Scottish English (and African Portuguese varieties are based on European Portuguese). So you cannot just change the pronunciation, as there are important grammatical aspects of European Portuguese that the book will not cover. However, just as American English is widely understood by all English speakers, Brazilian Portuguese is also widely understood by all Portuguese speakers, mostly due to the country being the home of more than 92% of Portuguese speakers. Therefore, if you learn Portuguese with this book, you’ll be understood everywhere, but you’ll likely have a hard time understanding other varieties. However, if you learn Portuguese with this material, it will be much easier to learn European Portuguese, as they are still the same language.
That’s it! Leave a comment to give your feedback and suggestions and ask questions.