Tired of boring and slow language courses?

Incredible discovery by language scientists: 
how NOT to learn Portuguese

Let me ask you a question: What do you think is most important for learning a new language: 
   learning facts about the language?
      or begin using the language?

One of the most revolutionizing and surprising discoveries by language scientists is that these two are not the same, not even close.

Learning facts about a language - like reading about grammar rules - enables you mostly to talk about ... grammar rules! It really does not help you much to speak the language.

When you hear someone speak Portuguese and want to understand it, it doesn't matter how many tables of verb endings you have memorized. There is no time to check the verb endings and "look them up" in your mental verb charts - in real time. At a speed of perhaps 100 words per minute this analytical part of your brain is much too slow.

When you use a language actively, like listening, reading, or speaking Portuguese, you are not using your slow analytical brain-sector but your language intuition - a superfast language processor in your brain. This part of your mind can interpret a language at lightning speed, so that you can understand and speak a language live in real-time.

Just think about a language that you already know, like English. When you use this language (like reading this webpage), do you have to think consciously word for word about verb forms, word order, noun endings, and other grammar rules? 

No you don't.

You might happen to know about the rule that plural nouns in English end with an -s, that adverbs end with -ly, and that most past tense verbs receive an -ed ending (like in "received"). But you don't think consciously about those rules when you read and speak English, because it is a very different part of your brain that can use a language in real time ('the language intuition') than the part that understands grammar rules (the 'analytical' part of the brain).

This is where so many language teachers and courses go wrong. They overemphasize grammar rules and training the analytical brain sector.

So how do I learn to actually understand
and speak Portuguese in real-time?

The secret solution according to the research: by reading and listening to large amounts of understandable Portuguese.

This is how you learned your mother-tongue as a kid, and this is how you must learn Portuguese if you want to actually understand and speak it. Read large amounts of text in Portuguese, listen to spoken Portuguese, watch Portuguese movie clips, and so on.

Our Portuguese software uses this breakthrough discovery. Read on...

How Transparent Portuguese 
takes advantage of this discovery

Transparent Portuguese lets you listen to lots of spoken Portuguese, while reading the Portuguese text and have a parallel translation to English so you can understand everything in Portuguese. If you do want to learn more about some grammar rules, there are grammatical comments about every word, plus an electronic grammar book where you can read more. But most of the time you will use Portuguese rather than just reading facts about Portuguese.

After you have listened to and read some of the text, there are fun games and exercises where you must use the language actively, you are 'forced' to think in Portuguese.

When you are not sitting in front a computer, you can increase your vocabulary by listening to new words on your iPod/MP3-player.

For years, Transparent has been one of the best selling software systems in the world for language learning, and according to the millions of users, it is by far the best one. We, at Language Infusion, have sold the Transparent software in Europe since 1996, and the program has improved further over the years.

Transparent Portuguese Premium, the main software, is released in version 11 for both Windows and Mac and is better than ever:

• Four extensive modules:
  - Beginner Lessons Brazilian Portuguese
  - Portuguese Fundamentals
  - Brazil & the Samba
  - Rio de Janeiro
• Full pronunciation and explanation of all Portuguese words and sentences
• SlowSound to hear the words pronounced more slowly
• Video clips
• Interactive games to review the material and absorb the language into your mind
• Record and compare your own pronunciation
• Dialogues
• Measure your progress from week to week
• Online language quizzes
• Requirements Windows: Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Vista or Windows 7. Requirements Macintosh: Mac OS X 10.4.11 or higher.

Transparent "Before you know it" ("BYKI") is the vocabulary-software that infuses a large inventory of Portuguese words into your mind.

• BYKI Version 4 Deluxe has a massive vocabulary of 2000 Portuguese words - everything you need for practical daily fluency
• Intelligent flashcard algorithms that feed you the words in the optimal tempo and frequency, according to your performance and memory
• Trains your brain in both directions (Portuguese to English, English to Portuguese)
• Several fun games to help you absorb and remember the words
• Unique refresh function so older words stay in your memory instead of going stale and slipping your mind
• Comes with MP3 audio files of all the 2000 words for your iPod or other MP3-player so you can 'double' your efforts by learning on the go

Screenshots from the main program:
reading-mode, video, crosswords and dialogue:

Screenshots from the vocabulary-program:

Included: Our unique "Daily Drip" and
"Infusion Intensive" group-coaching

Even the most powerful language software is no good if you don't use it. That is why we have created our proprietary group-coaching program to teach you how to learn Portuguese effectively with the software, and keep you going with specific step-by-step learning activities for every day.

During our "Daily Drip" sessions, you work between 30 and 60 minutes on the language every day (both computer-time and mp3-listening counts). This faithful and fun daily work builds a solid foundation. After just a couple of months you will be surprised by how much Portuguese you have managed to absorb.

Then during five "Infusion Intensive" sessions during the year, each lasting two weeks, you step up the effort to a few hours daily.

During these Intensive session you will learn to master a specific topic in Portuguese like Clothes and Shopping, Hotel and Taxi, Food and Restaurant, the Numbers, and Family and Social topics.

The problem with all other home-study courses is that the moment you have spent your money and received the language material you are left on your own. Soon discouragement and frustration will set in, and the language learning stops. Very few are able to keep it up all by themselves. With our coaching groups, however, you receive regular emails and instructions to keep you going day by day. We do all the thinking and planning for you. All you have to do is follow our instructions, and soon you will have learned more Portuguese than you ever thought you could in a short time.