Portuguese

Course Content

Building upon A1 foundations, this course expands your ability to communicate in routine situations requiring simple and direct exchange of information. You'll deepen your understanding of Portuguese verb tenses and expand your practical vocabulary.

What You Will Learn:

• Describe past experiences using preterite and imperfect tenses
• Discuss future plans using different future constructions
• Express preferences, opinions, and emotions
• Describe people, places, and things in greater detail
• Handle more complex shopping and service situations
• Make travel arrangements and reservations
• Discuss weather, climate, and seasons
• Talk about hobbies, sports, and entertainment
• Give and understand detailed directions
• Express needs and make suggestions

Grammar Development:

Preterite tense (pretérito perfeito), imperfect tense (pretérito imperfeito), future tense and "ir + infinitive," conditional mood basics, direct and indirect object pronouns, reflexive verbs and pronouns, comparative and superlative forms, demonstrative pronouns, relative pronouns (que, quem), and compound tenses introduction.

Verb Tense Mastery:

• Understanding when to use preterite vs imperfect
• Expressing habitual past actions
• Describing completed actions in the past
• Talking about future intentions and predictions
• Using helping verbs (ter, haver, estar) in compound tenses

Vocabulary Expansion:

• Clothing, fashion, and personal style
• Transportation modes and travel vocabulary
• Health, medical terms, and body parts
• Weather and nature descriptions
• Technology and modern life
• Education and workplace vocabulary
• Sports, hobbies, and leisure activities
• Extended food vocabulary and cooking terms

Reading & Writing Skills:

Read simple Portuguese texts, short stories, and news articles, write emails and personal messages, understand signs, advertisements, and public notices, compose paragraphs about familiar topics, and develop comprehension of both European and Brazilian texts.

Cultural Understanding:

Portuguese and Brazilian music and cinema, understanding fado and samba traditions, regional cuisines across Portuguese-speaking countries, important historical figures and events, festivals and celebrations (Carnaval, São João), and social customs in various contexts.

Course Content

Advance towards confident conversation abilities with comprehensive understanding of longer texts. You'll understand the main points of clear standard Portuguese on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, education, and leisure contexts.

What You Will Learn:

• Engage in extended conversations on various topics
• Express and defend opinions with supporting arguments
• Understand Portuguese news, podcasts, and media
• Discuss abstract concepts and hypothetical situations
• Handle most travel and living situations independently
• Participate in workplace and academic discussions
• Write coherent texts on diverse subjects
• Describe experiences, dreams, and ambitions in detail
• Provide explanations and justifications for viewpoints
• Understand regional accents and dialects

Advanced Grammar:

Subjunctive mood (present and imperfect subjunctive), conditional sentences and hypothetical situations, personal infinitive (infinitivo pessoal), future subjunctive, compound tenses (present perfect, pluperfect), passive voice construction, gerund and infinitive uses, advanced pronoun placement, and complex sentence structures with multiple clauses.

Subjunctive Mood Mastery:

• Understanding when to use subjunctive mood
• Expressing doubt, desire, and emotion
• Forming hypothetical and contrary-to-fact statements
• Using subjunctive in dependent clauses
• Mastering conjunctions that trigger subjunctive
• Future subjunctive for conditional situations

Communication Skills:

• Debate social, cultural, and political topics
• Express wishes, recommendations, and obligations
• Make polite requests and formal suggestions
• Narrate complex stories with proper sequencing
• Understand Portuguese idioms and expressions
• Participate in formal and informal discussions
• Give structured presentations on various topics

Reading Comprehension:

Read Portuguese newspapers, magazines, and online content, understand contemporary literature from Portugal and Brazil, comprehend formal documents and correspondence, analyze texts for main ideas and supporting details, and follow complex narratives and arguments.

Cultural Competence:

Deep understanding of Portuguese colonial history and its impact, appreciation of Lusophone literature (Pessoa, Saramago, Machado de Assis), contemporary issues in Portuguese-speaking countries, understanding Brazilian vs European cultural differences, business etiquette across Lusophone regions, and navigating social situations appropriately.

Vocabulary Enrichment:

Professional and academic terminology, political and economic vocabulary, media and journalism terms, literary expressions, formal and colloquial registers, specialized vocabulary for various fields, regional expressions and slang, and idiomatic phrases common in Portuguese.

Course Content

This level enables you to speak fluently with confidence at a professional level. You'll understand complex texts on concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions, and interact with native speakers with substantial fluency and spontaneity.

What You Will Learn:

• Understand complex texts on diverse subjects
• Interact fluently and spontaneously with native speakers
• Produce clear, detailed text on various topics
• Express viewpoints on topical issues with nuance
• Comprehend specialized academic and professional content
• Engage in technical discussions in Portuguese
• Write essays, reports, and formal correspondence
• Understand Portuguese and Brazilian films without subtitles
• Appreciate Lusophone literature at an advanced level
• Conduct business negotiations in Portuguese

Grammar Mastery:

Complete mastery of all subjunctive tenses, advanced use of personal infinitive, all conditional structures, sophisticated use of pronouns and their placement, passive voice in all tenses, gerunds and infinitives in complex constructions, stylistic variations in grammar, literary and archaic verb forms, and mastery of formal vs informal registers.

Professional Communication:

• Business Portuguese for corporate environments
• Formal presentations and public speaking
• Academic writing and research in Portuguese
• Legal and official document comprehension
• Media production and journalism language
• Translation and interpretation fundamentals
• Diplomatic and formal correspondence
• Technical and specialized field communication

Advanced Reading & Writing:

• Analyze classical Portuguese literature critically
• Understand modern Lusophone literature and poetry
• Write persuasive essays and argumentative texts
• Compose professional reports and proposals
• Create content for Portuguese media
• Comprehend legal and technical documents
• Appreciate literary devices and rhetoric
• Master formal academic writing style

Cultural & Literary Excellence:

Deep appreciation of Portuguese literature (Camões, Pessoa, Saramago), Brazilian literary tradition (Machado de Assis, Clarice Lispector, Paulo Coelho), understanding of Portuguese discoveries and colonial legacy, knowledge of Lusophone philosophy and intellectual history, contemporary issues in CPLP countries, African Portuguese literature and culture, and ability to navigate diverse Portuguese-speaking contexts with cultural sensitivity.

Regional Variations Mastery:

• Complete understanding of European vs Brazilian Portuguese
• Familiarity with African Portuguese varieties
• Understanding regional Brazilian dialects (carioca, paulista, nordestino)
• Recognizing Portuguese regional accents (Lisbon, Porto, Alentejo)
• Code-switching between formal and colloquial language
• Appreciating linguistic diversity across Lusophone world

Real-World Application:

Professional networking in Portuguese-speaking business environments, conducting negotiations and meetings, academic research and study in Portuguese universities, media and journalism work, translation and interpretation, teaching Portuguese as a foreign language, understanding Portuguese and Brazilian legal systems, and functioning effectively in any Lusophone context.

Exam Preparation:

Comprehensive preparation for CAPLE (Centro de Avaliação de Português Língua Estrangeira) exams or Celpe-Bras (Brazilian Portuguese proficiency), focusing on all competencies with strategies for achieving high scores in listening, reading, writing, and speaking sections.