Category Archives: Reviews

You are the product: A critical look at Duolingo

Another day, another person trying to solve (and monetize) the online language learning conundrum. This time it’s Luis von Ahn, MacArthur Grant winner and ReCAPTCHA founder, who has been all over the Internet talking about his latest project Duolingo. Luis, … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | 95 Comments

WordReference: when you need expert advice

WordReference is a site that I’ve taken for granted so much that I never even thought to write about it until now. Whenever I have a question about Portuguese that no one else seems able to answer, I go here. … Continue reading

Posted in Learning Pedagogy, Reviews | 2 Comments

Review: 50 Ways to Improve Your Portuguese

50 Ways to Improve your Portuguese – I got this slim little book off of Amazon, and read it before my trip to Brazil in December. My hope for this book was that it would deepen my knowledge in areas … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Semántica hints of a new video series in the works

One of the best resources on the web for learning Portuguese is Semántica, a Rio-based group of producers who have put together two wonderful video series that I’ve reviewed extensively on this site. I didn’t notice this until now, but … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | 2 Comments

Conjuga-me, an online verb conjugator

There are a few online conjugators out there, but Conjuga-me, with its nice-looking interface, is the one I have bookmarked. Can it replace 501 Portuguese Verbs? Well, it doesn’t give the compound tenses (e.g., eu tinha chegado; se ela tivesse chegado, eu … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | 3 Comments