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- Comprehensive
- High quality dialogues
- Video role plays on every dialogue
- Lifetime access with a 60 day refund grace period
- Free mobile app access included
- Downloadable audio (app-only)
- Inbuilt gamification and leaderboard
- Slightly pricey
- Only one level available
- Slow forum replies
- Spammy affiliates
Rocket Portuguese is one of the better Portuguese courses, is comprehensive in its content, covering all skills, and uses high quality, natural dialogues.
NOTE: If you
Today I’m going to review the Rocket Portuguese course and offer you my honest feedback on its value and effectiveness.
I’m sure you’ve already heard of the course.
Rocket Portuguese calls itself a ‘recognized leader in online language learning’ .
It’s one of the many editions of the popular Rocket Languages series and has been around since 2004 (over two decades now) making it one of the oldest online courses on the market.
The program implements a chunking approach which means that instead of focusing on heavy grammar instruction and getting you to memorize rules, they focus on the practical side of the language and how to use it.
Rocket Portuguese teaches Brazilian Portuguese (not European), which is important to note if you’re headed for Lisbon rather than Rio.
Unlike most of the other editions (e.g. Spanish and French), Rocket Portuguese contains Level 1 only which is also important to note (Russian got its extra levels a while back but Portuguese hasn’t yet). It also doesn’t get the Play the Part add-on that some of the other editions do.
This means that it’s probably not going to be overly useful for Intermediate or Advanced-level learners.
If you’re a beginner however, then you’ll find Rocket Portuguese offers a substantial amount of material despite only offering Level 1.
What Portuguese has picked up since I first reviewed it is video role plays in every audio lesson, which I’ll cover below.
Read on and I’ll dive right into it for you.
Firstly, here’s a quick video demo that I put together showing some of the other language editions (this is from an earlier version interface which has significantly improved in the latest edition):
Make sure to comment below if you’ve used it and share your own thoughts.
What alternatives to Rocket Portuguese are available online?
Portuguese unfortunately suffers from a lack of resources compared to languages like French and Spanish (where there’s an over-abundance).
Rocket Portuguese is without doubt a unique, one-of-a-kind resource.
I just want to highlight a few other excellent (and in my opinion, indispensable) resources for learning Portuguese that would make good supplements to Rocket:
- PortuguesePod101
- Glossika Portuguese
- italki
PortuguesePod101 uses video and audio podcasts to teach the language.
It’s a lot more disorganized than the structured Rocket course is but there is some great content on there and it occasionally gets updated with new material.
Glossika is one of my all-time favorite resources, it’s very unique and highly suitable for all levels (including Int - Adv level). It’s a spaced repetition learning system that I found exceptionally good when learning other languages.
And of course italki is a site that connects you with conversation partners and teachers worldwide (including loads of Portuguese speakers).
It’s extremely cheap too (some teachers are just a couple of bucks per hour).
These few resources here are my go-to resources and would be adequate for most Portuguese learners.
Two things that Rocket Portuguese gets right: audio quality and comprehensiveness
One of the most important things I always say about Rocket Languages is that the audio quality is outstanding.
Rocket Portuguese is no exception.
The dialogue quality in both scope and quality are very good and you’ll find that the Portuguese material is presented in a way that’s true to the way native Portuguese speakers talk in real life scenarios.
Ranging from brand new beginner right up to higher levels, Rocket Portuguese covers a range of useful and interesting topics.
Areas include:
Sport, literature, culturally-specific topics related to Brazil, relationships and more.
And all accompanied by high quality, natural audio.
Rocket Portuguese is comprised of 4 main sections:
- ‘Audio Lessons’
- ‘Language and Culture’
- ‘Survival Kit’
- ‘Tools’
In the Audio Lessons you’ll find the dialogues, podcast-style lessons and conversations (an English-speaking host plus native Brazilian speakers).
The Language and Culture section is for the grammar and detailed information about Brazilian culture (very scenario-specific language).
The Survival Kit is (in my opinion) the best starting point of the course as it goes over the essential survival terms and expressions in Portuguese - very useful if you’re traveling to Brazil or Portugal.
Tools contains the forum, search, favorites, custom flashcards, the leaderboard and certification tests (see below).
All up it’s 74 lessons across 7 modules (plus an intro module and the Survival Kit), with a Benchmark Test at the end to gauge where you’re at.
Every audio lesson follows the same shape: the dialogue, then a role play where you take one side of it (see the video section below), the lesson vocab, an ‘expert tip’ from the host, and finally five practice activities: flashcards (spaced repetition style, where you rate how well you knew each card), listening (hear the phrase, then record it), writing (hear the phrase, then type it), speaking (record the phrase) and a short multiple-choice quiz.
Rocket Portuguese doesn’t follow a ‘cookie cutter approach’.
This means that unlike a lot of other big name courses which basically create the same course and then translate it into different languages, Rocket Portuguese is uniquely designed for Brazilian Portuguese.
The audio lessons are present in a fun and interactive way.
I don’t feel that the presenters are paid translators but rather passionate Portuguese teachers.
Every audio lesson now has video role plays (and Rocket Record for your pronunciation)
When I first reviewed Rocket Portuguese it was audio and text only, which was my one consistent gripe with the whole Rocket series.
That’s changed.
Inside the Role Playing part of every audio lesson, the two speakers from the dialogue are now filmed (vertical, phone-style clips) and you watch them deliver the conversation one line at a time. You can Watch the Full Conversation to see it play through, or Talk To one of the characters, which means you take one side of the dialogue and record yourself while the other speaker responds on video.
This isn’t a video course in the sense of a teacher standing in front of a camera giving you a 20 minute lesson. The podcast-style audio is still the core of every lesson. But it makes the dialogues feel a lot less like a listening drill and a lot more like an actual exchange with a person.
It’s on the audio lessons. The Language and Culture lessons and the Survival Kit don’t have it. There’s an Audio only mode toggle if you’d rather skip the video, and you can set how much text you see under it: the full Portuguese, every second word, or just the English.
In addition to all this, you can scroll down and listen to the individual sentences and additional vocabulary, or use the record feature to test your pronunciation. Rocket calls this Rocket Record: under the hood it uses your browser’s built-in speech recognition by default (the Google Web Speech API) with a second engine (Deepgram) as a fallback, and Brazilian Portuguese is one of the languages the fallback supports. I’ve never seen a lot of value in having software grade your pronunciation, but it’s there and it works.
The Rocket Portuguese forum is still alive, but don’t expect a quick reply
Which could be a big deal for some learners.
Members get a Portuguese learners forum as well as a general forum for everyone (you’ll find it under Tools).
When I first reviewed the course I criticized the almost dead community, and it was pretty quiet at the time. Portuguese is still one of the quieter Rocket forums, but the forums are moderated by Rocket’s own tutors who do reply, on a lag of months rather than days, so treat it as a reference library more than a live help desk.
It would be far better, in my opinion, to have an AI expert built in to this, so that instead of waiting months for a reply, you get an instant answer - especially if it’s a simple grammar question.
One handy thing: the main search tool in the app searches the forum posts too, so you’ll often find your question already answered without needing to post.
If you look at the thriving and active communities on sites like italki for example, you see constant interaction with teachers and students alike helping and supporting each other.
This is vitally important for many learners.
But I also should acknowledge that for a lot of people, they don’t care about this element.
Some people genuinely just want to study Portuguese on their own at their pace and I get that.
This may be especially true for the Rocket Portuguese forum.
The Rocket Portuguese mobile apps (iOS and Android) are outstanding (and free)
The entire platform is available both on the web and as an app.
If you use a mobile or tablet device often (who doesn’t) then I highly recommend downloading the free app for Rocket Portuguese.
Even though the desktop interface has improved a lot recently, I’m even more impressed by the simplicity and value in the mobile app.
You get all the same Portuguese lesson content and all the features work the same (the audio lessons, video role plays, Rocket Record, practice activities, flashcards, favorites and the leaderboard) - but all on a sleek, minimalist app that you can take anywhere.
I actually think it runs faster too.
There are only two real differences between the app and the website that you need to know about:
- Audio downloads are app-only. If you want the lessons offline for a commute or a flight, this is where you download them (see below).
- Certification tests are web-only. You’ll need to sit those on a computer.
It’s a free download from the App Store and Google Play.
I highly recommend it for anyone who commutes or if you prefer to lay in bed or on the couch while studying Portuguese.
Tools that don’t disappoint in Rocket Portuguese: Search, Favorites and the leaderboard
So the forum was one tool that I found a bit slow.
But a few other tools are worth mentioning: Search and Favorites (what used to be called ‘My Vocab’), Custom Flashcards and the leaderboard.
The leaderboard, along with daily points and study streaks, is focused on helping to keep you motivated to study. You get points for every lesson and activity you complete (and for posting in the forum), with a daily goal of 400 points that you can hide if it annoys you. Hitting your goal each day keeps your streak going, and the points move you up a leaderboard where you can compare yourself against other Portuguese learners or across all of Rocket’s languages, over the last day, week, month or year.
It’s a gamified motivator to keep you coming back for more Portuguese. You may have seen it already in other programs like Duolingo - it has a competitive aspect.
The Search tool is my favorite.
It’s basically just a contextual dictionary that allows you to search for any word or phrase within the entire course (and it searches the forum posts too).
If you search for “house” for example, it’ll give you the meaning + a list of contextual examples of the word house being used in sentences.
Including the audio that you can listen to and check your pronunciation against.
Favorites is the other half of it. Every phrase in every lesson has a little heart icon next to it and anything you heart goes into your Favorites list, where it gets its own set of flashcards, listening, writing and speaking drills. So you can build a personal practice deck out of whatever you’re struggling with, without leaving the lesson. There’s also a Custom Flashcards tool if you want to build your own sets from scratch (or use sets other members have made public).
There are also two kinds of proper tests now on top of the per-lesson activities. A Benchmark test sits at the end of the course to give you a rough gauge of where your ability is at, and certification tests live under the Tools menu (web only, not in the app), one for every module, which you unlock once you’ve finished that module. Rocket’s own claim is that completing all of a Level 1 course’s certification tests puts you at roughly CEFR A2. Take that with a grain of salt though: a test set and marked by the same course you’re studying is never the same as a real CEFR exam, but as a way of checking the material actually stuck it’s a useful addition.
With Rocket Portuguese you own what you paid for (mostly)
Imagine actually owning what you paid for! 🙂
Many online language programs and courses are going totally subscription-based these days, but Rocket is still currently a one-time payment product.
You sign up and it’s yours to use and access forever.
The problem with other courses (e.g. Rosetta Stone) is that you either get locked into a contract or you need to continue using their program.
You’re limited in what you can do.
The downloads side has been watered down a bit since I first reviewed the course though. Back then, every bit of audio was downloadable as MP3 files straight from the web dashboard, along with printable PDF lesson notes. The PDFs disappeared a while ago and now the MP3 downloads have gone from the web app too.
That’s unfortunate. Downloading MP3s from the website was one of the things that set Rocket apart from Duolingo and Rosetta Stone and it felt like you actually owned the content you paid for.
The good news is that you can still download the audio lessons through the mobile app (Android and iOS) for offline listening, so commutes and flights are still covered. You just can’t pull the files onto your computer anymore. For the Language and Culture lessons, Print to PDF from your browser works fine if you want them saved locally.
You still own what you pay for, you just have to use their app to take it with you.
Some of the less desirable elements of Rocket Portuguese
There are a few aspects of Rocket Portuguese that I think need addressing, fixing or adding:
- It’s imperative that they add a Level 2 and 3 for higher-level Portuguese learners (they did it for Russian, so it can be done). A Play the Part add-on like the one Spanish and the other big editions get wouldn’t go astray either.
- There must be stronger vetting of sales affiliates. There are just too many scammers and spammers around destroying the reputation of this course writing a disingenuous Rocket Portuguese review - you probably had to sift through several to make it here, and they’ve now been joined by fake YouTube “reviews” from people who have clearly never used the product.
- Better graphics and further minor improvements to the web UI wouldn’t go astray (the new video role plays have taken care of my old wish for more video).
- As I mentioned above, the forum needs faster replies. An AI expert built in for quick grammar answers would be my first suggestion.
- Some kind of live lesson option with a tutor, the same way that italki does it.
Rocket Portuguese pricing and refund policy
Since Rocket Portuguese is a single level with no add-ons, the pricing is simple (one-time payment, lifetime access):
Rocket Portuguese - $149.95
There used to be a monthly subscription option as an alternative to buying outright but that’s gone. The only instalment option Rocket offers now is a 6-month payment plan, and that’s only on the three-level bundles for languages like Spanish, so it doesn’t apply to Portuguese.
The best deal by far is the family discount. If someone in your household already owns a course, Rocket will sell a second copy (with its own login and progress) at 60% off. You have to arrange it through their support team rather than at checkout.
Periodically throughout the year, Rocket Portuguese runs special promotions or sales which are good to look out for but these are unpredictable.
NOTE: You can also sign up to
You can also try the course for free before buying and it doesn’t ask for a credit card.
As for refunds, Rocket Portuguese has a generous 60 day satisfaction guarantee meaning you have two months to request a refund if you’re unhappy. One caveat: that only applies if you buy through the website. If you buy inside the iOS app, you’re under Apple’s refund policy instead, which is roughly two weeks, so buy on the web.
Rocket Portuguese is a comprehensive course with long term value for beginners
Rocket Portuguese retains its value over the long term.
It’s a comprehensive course (despite only having a single level at the time of this writing) and covers a wide range of topics.
Not every Rocket language gets the same number of levels and add-ons, and Portuguese is one of the ones that still has just Level 1 and no Play the Part, so intermediate and advanced learners will outgrow it.
Some of the features I’ve mentioned need improvement (or removal) but the natural audio dialogues are where Rocket Portuguese shines, and the new video role plays are a big step up from what was there before. The slow forum is something I can look past.
Combine it with Glossika and italki and you have all you need to progress to fluent proficiency in Portuguese.
You can try it out by clicking here:
Used Rocket Portuguese before?
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