Karen Jacobson-Sive (formerly Karen Keller) is a journalist and foreign language instructor. She is the original author of Portuguese for Dummies (2005). She wrote its second edition (2012), as well as the third edition, published in 2022 under the title, "Brazilian Portuguese for Dummies." A California native, Jacobson-Sive holds a master's degree in Journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (2005). She worked for more than a decade as a journalist in Brazil, New Jersey and New York. Jacobson-Sive also created online Spanish courses for one of the first foreign-language dot-coms, Parlo (1999-2001). She currently lives in the Boston area with her husband, two kids and cachorro (dog).