Brazilian Portuguese, taught by a Brazilian
Four out of five Portuguese speakers in the world are Brazilian. It is also the variety that is easiest to hear as a beginner, because the vowels stay open instead of collapsing. I teach it the way it really sounds — in the evening, in small groups, online from wherever you are.
I teach a small number of evening hours each week, so places are limited for real — not as a sales tactic.
Why Brazilian Portuguese
People agonise over this decision far more than it deserves. Portuguese is one language with two written standards, and anyone who speaks one understands the other. But if you are starting from zero, the choice is not a coin flip — there are four practical reasons Brazilian is the better default.
200M+
Brazil has over 200 million Portuguese speakers; Portugal has around 10 million. Roughly four in five Portuguese speakers on earth are Brazilian. Whatever you plan to do with the language, the odds are that the person you speak it with will be too.
European Portuguese reduces unstressed vowels heavily, so syllables shrink and words run together — which is exactly what a beginner's ear cannot yet unpick. Brazilian keeps those vowels open. Same grammar, same words, but you can tell where one ends and the next begins. This is the single biggest reason beginners progress faster.
Music, series, films, podcasts, YouTube, football commentary. Listening to a lot of language you mostly understand is one of the best-evidenced things you can do as a learner, and Brazilian Portuguese gives you an almost unlimited supply of it for free.
Brazilian television and music are part of everyday life in Portugal, so you will be understood there without difficulty. You will meet different words — autocarro rather than ônibus, telemóvel rather than celular — and I teach you those as you go, so the difference is a footnote instead of a wall.
The one real exception, said plainly: if your goal is the CIPLE exam for Portuguese citizenship, that exam tests European Portuguese and Brazilian vocabulary costs you marks in the written section. That is not what I teach, and I would rather tell you now than take your money. Here is what actually differs between the two, so you can decide for yourself.
Who is on the other side of the screen
I am Renata. I am Brazilian, I live in Oeiras just outside Lisbon, and I teach in the evenings because that is when I am genuinely free and when most of my learners are too. You will always have the same teacher — the one who remembers what you struggled with last week.
The fastest way to learn is to be heard by someone who notices exactly what you got wrong, and tells you which of it actually matters.
How lessons work
One hour by video. I record you speaking for a few minutes, ask for a short piece of writing, and send back a one-page plan: what to fix first, in what order, and roughly how long it takes. It costs 45 € and it is yours whether or not you continue.
If my honest answer is that you do not need lessons yet, I write that down.
Explicit pronunciation teaching has one of the strongest evidence bases in language instruction, and it is the thing most courses skip. Nasal vowels, open and closed e and o, the Brazilian de and te. We start there, not in month six.
Sounds you cannot hear are sounds you cannot say, and cannot recognise when they are said to you.
You learn a gente alongside nós, você as it is really used, and where the pronoun really goes in speech. I mark separately what changes in formal writing, so you are never caught out.
You sound like a person having a conversation, not like a textbook exercise.
A little context
Portuguese is my first language. I also learned Mandarin to HSK 4, studied in Hubei, and competed in the Chinese Bridge language competition — which is mostly relevant because it means I know exactly what it feels like to sit on your side of the lesson, hunting for a word.
Quick answers
For most people, Brazilian: it is four fifths of the speakers, it is far easier to hear as a beginner, and the listening material is endless. The exception is the CIPLE citizenship exam, which tests European Portuguese.
Yes. It is one language, and Brazilian media is everywhere in Portugal. You will meet different vocabulary and a different sound system, and I teach you those differences as we go.
No — beginners are the easiest students to help, because nothing has to be unlearned. Expect roughly 80 to 100 hours of study to reach a solid A1, and a similar amount again for A2. I would rather give you a real number than promise fluency in three months.
Evenings, European time. I teach a small number of hours a week alongside other work, which is why places are limited — and why I would rather have a short waiting list than a diluted class.
Use one, genuinely — apps are good at drilling vocabulary. What they cannot do is hear that your nasal vowels are off, tell you which of your mistakes actually matters, or notice that you have been avoiding the past tense for three weeks.
Yes, including children in Brazilian families abroad who are losing the language at home. Children need a different pace and a lot more play, so those lessons are structured differently — mention it when you write.
Get in touch
Two lines is plenty: whether you have studied Portuguese before, why you want it, and roughly when you could do an evening lesson. I answer personally, usually the same day.
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