Portuguese Lessons for Foreigners

I may have lost count but the significance is not lost on me. It's been so rewarding! Located in beautiful Vilamoura, in the Algarve, Portugal, my classroom is open to all of you here. To all of you out there, lessons can be online. So why is Portuguese worth learning? The poet Fernando Pessoa once wrote: 'My homeland is the Portuguese language'

Look at a map and see how far and wide this 8 century old language can take you. Spoken by over 250 million people (natives speakers) world wide, it's the official language of Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe and Portugal, of course. In Macau, East Timor and Equatorial Guinea, it's a co-official language. It's still present today in Goa, Daman and Diu in India and there are traces of it in Malacca (Malaysia), in Flores (Indonesia), or in Baticaloa (Sri Lanka), where you can still find Portuguese based creoles. What an incredibly rich culturally loaded language, the 5th most spoken worldwide. It is my language and It has been a privilege to teach it! Recently, Rita has joined me in the team and here is her message:

'Indeed. Portuguese has been my homeland. In Portugal, from where it departed - from where I departed. In Brussels, in Paris, to where it migrated - as I would - before democracy, to escape poverty, to escape political persecution. In Macau (so far away), which it reached, which it turned into something else - which I love. But I also love the foreign. I've realised (with utter enjoyment) what a foreign language can do to you, with it's different expression, different words and sounds and rhythm and rules, it shapes you differently. Learning a new language is a wonderful discovery and - I couldn't agree more with Sónia - it is a privilege to teach Portuguese.'

Sónia & Rita