StoryLearning’s Brazilian Uncovered course promises to boost your fluency to a CEFR A2 level, giving you a basic comprehension of Portuguese. This engaging course uses a narrative structure to teach grammar, vocabulary, and other key language components. 

StoryLearning courses are based on the idea that since people primarily communicate via stories, stories make the best medium for learning a language.

Brazilian Portuguese Uncovered Course Overview

The Brazilian Uncovered course includes ten chapters, with each chapter broken down into six lessons. The lessons focus on cognates, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, culture, and speaking activities. It takes about an hour to complete each chapter, but only 15 to 20 minutes for each lesson.

Will you feel confident communicating in basic Brazilian Portuguese after completing this program? Check out this review of StoryLearning’s Brazilian Uncovered to find out!

Pros of Brazilian Uncovered:

• Immersive narrative structure
• Professional tutors
• Access to online student community

Cons of Brazilian Uncovered:

• No option for European Portuguese content
• No direct speaking software

Things to Consider Before Buying Brazilian Portuguese Uncovered

You may find Portuguese a challenging language due to its complex grammar and rapid-fire pronunciation. On top of this, people around the world speak multiple different dialects of Portuguese, and each dialect comes with its own set of distinct accents, grammar, and vocabulary as well!

The two most widely spoken dialects of Portuguese are Brazilian and European. Story Learning’s course focuses on Brazilian Portuguese, which is considered slightly easier to master. 

While you can communicate with people who speak another dialect of Portuguese using Brazilian Portuguese, the dialects do have significant differences in vocabulary and grammar.

This means that if you plan to travel to Portugal, you should focus on European Portuguese instead of Brazilian Portuguese. StoryLearning does not currently offer a course focused on European Portuguese.

Portuguese famously has complex grammar with intricate verb conjugations and many, many different word endings to choose from. Because of this, you also want to pick a course that offers lots of grammar explanations.

Finally, Portuguese pronunciation also presents a challenge for many English speakers because it has a unique alphabet with sounds not found in English. Nasal vowels in words like pão (bread) take a lot of practice to pronounce correctly.

Learning how to shape these sounds takes training, but learning to hear them in conversation is tough, too! Portuguese speakers tend to speak at a rate of over six syllables per second, making it one of the fastest-spoken languages in the world. 

The bottom line here is that a good Portuguese course should focus on grammar, but also on listening comprehension and pronunciation.

Brazilian Portuguese Uncovered Features and Benefits

Dive into the details of the features and benefits of StoryLearning’s Brazilian Uncovered course to find out if it is the right program for you.

Dialect and Accent

Brazilian Uncovered focuses on the Brazilian Portuguese dialect. This should not surprise you, as it is quite literally in the name of the course! In fact, the intro to the course even tells you that the audio and video components will feature a Carioca accent, found most prominently around Rio de Janeiro. 

The course does address the issue of different dialects and provides access to additional reading via the online community. But unlike some language programs, you do not have the options to choose either European or Brazilian Portuguese.

Private Online Community

One of the great features of Brazilian Uncovered is that it provides optional access to a lively, free online community of fellow language learners. The online community also gives you additional resources and a way to communicate questions with program instructors.

One of the biggest advantages of the online community is that you can choose to use it to find a conversation partner if you don’t mind reaching out!

Qualified Tutors

Another great element of Brazilian Uncovered is that you can trust the expertise of the course tutors. Portuguese tutor Sylvia has 15 years of experience teaching Portuguese in Brazil, and speaks four different languages!

Ongoing Narrative

Of course, one of the big advantages of Brazilian Uncovered is its unique focus on an immersive narrative. Every chapter begins with an audio version of the next section of a story in Portuguese, immersing you in the sounds of the language. The story features university students following clues in a library book as they explore Brazil.

Next, you get to examine the written version of the story in Portuguese, to learn about cognates–words that look, sound, and mean similar things in both Portuguese and English. The following lessons in the chapter also focus on language elements introduced in the story.

Speaking Activities

The final lesson in each chapter of Brazilian Portuguese Uncovered offers speaking activities. These consist of downloadable conversation practices best used with a partner. Basically, you read the spoken drills out loud to practice your pronunciation.

You will find tips on how to pronounce Portuguese words in the pronunciation videos also included in each chapter. However, this course does not feature direct speaking software, meaning that you cannot speak into a microphone and receive feedback from the program.

Focus on Culture

Every chapter in the course features a lesson on a cultural aspect of Brazil. This helps you learn about famous foods, museums, people, and events in Brazil! This ties in well with the ongoing narrative, as the university students explore the cultural side of Brazil during their travels.

Games and Challenges

One of the fun elements of the Brazilian Portuguese Uncovered course is that it includes interactive games and challenges in the grammar and vocabulary lessons. These include timed matching challenges like this one. You will also find quizzes to check your comprehension at the end of each chapter.

StoryLearning Brazilian Portuguese Uncovered Cost and Payment

To access Storylearning’s Brazilian Portuguese Uncovered course, you make a one-time payment of $297.

This may seem steep, but the course does come with a money-back guarantee if you did not learn the language after a year!

You can also check out a free 7-day trial of Brazilian Portuguese Uncovered here.

Alternatives to the Storyearning Brazilian Portuguese Uncovered Course

Brazilian Portuguese Uncovered has many great features, but you may want to check out these alternatives as well.

PortuguesePod101

Do you love listening to educational podcasts? If so, you may want to try learning Portuguese through a series of podcast-style lessons focused on everything from PortuguesePod101 for emergencies to basic grammar.

• Cost varies from free to $47/month
• Wealth of content
• No direct speaking software

Want to check out PortuguesePod101? Try a free trial here!

Pimsleur Portuguese App

If you prefer a more traditional, comprehensive language course, check out Pimsleur’s app-based Portuguese course. The program focuses on listening comprehension and uses spaced repetition to help you permanently learn concepts.

• Costs $20.95/month
• Features both European and Brazilian Portuguese courses
• Uses direct speaking software for pronunciation

Select your preferred Pimsleur course here!

Conclusion

Brazilian Portuguese Uncovered offers a solid introduction to the grammar, vocabulary, and culture of Brazilian Portuguese. It uses a fun narrative structure to engage you as you learn. 

The only flaw in this program is that it does not feature direct speaking software to help you learn pronunciation.

If you like the idea of learning through a story, check out a free trial of Brazilian Portuguese Uncovered here!

We have lots of ideas for your perfect language learning journey. Check out our “Best Way To Learn Portuguese“, “22 Online Portuguese Courses Ranked From Best To Worst“, and “30 Best Apps To Learn Portuguese“