Group Classes
Make yourself at home at our ‘Casa’ and meet your new Portuguese-speaking family!
If you are looking for Portuguese language instruction in the Chicago area, then look no further! We specialize and dedicate ourselves entirely to the Portuguese language. Brazil in Chicago is the ultimate destination for people willing to master the Portuguese language!
Our class listing and enrollment is hosted on our active network page. Click here to review our class listing. If you do not see your class on this page please contact us as we may offer more classes as the need is determined.
Our courses meet once a week, for 2 hours, and run for 8 weeks. Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. If you’ve already had some exposure to Portuguese, please contact us for an interview. We have on-going classes at different levels and will be more than glad to have you in one of them!
What will I learn?
All of our classes are conversation-based, and we base on how we all communicate in our own languages in order to create a program that makes sense and constantly expands your life in this new language and cutlure. Scroll down to see in detail what is covered in each course.
My social life
My daily life
Life in society
Advanced Portuguese AP1 AP2 AP3
Basic Portuguese
BP1 BP2 BP 3 BP4
Intermediate Portuguese
IP1 IP2 IP3
Q: I speak Spanish, where do I start?
A: We recommend taking BP1 for a solid foundation, then jumping to BP3, then advancing to IP1. (Read more about it in the green box below).
Basic Portuguese
{ BP }
We have been teaching Portuguese to for over a decade, and we have developed a solid method that makes the transition from one language to another easy and fun. The English language has pretty much all the sounds of Portuguese. Grammar and vocabulary, however, require more time to master. That is why our beginner's course is divided in four levels.
- Basic Portuguese 1: Here students learn pronunciation, to describe themselves and others around them. They acquire the fundamentals in grammar (noun/adjective order, gender, plurals, possessive pronouns, etc), as well as an introduction to verbs.
- Basic Portuguese 2: This course lays a solid foundation on verbs in the Present Tense, as well as dedicate a lot of time on the differences between the two verbs TO BE. Students also learn the numbers, telling time and asking/giving directions.
- Basic Portuguese 3: Here students will learn some of the most important irregular verbs, as well as how to express future plans. They will also find themselves in situations such as shopping, ordering food, making plans with friends and planning a trip.
- Basic Portuguese 4: Students now have expanded the subjects of their conversation, talking about their families, as well as their heritage and background, since in this course they will have learn to talk in past tense.
Intermediate Portuguese
{ IP }
- Intermediate Portuguese 1: Here students will learn about verbs that are commonly used to describe one’s morning routine and also express mutual actions between two people, such as “we help each other” (nos ajudamos). They will also learn new adjectives to describe personality traits and new nouns to talk about food, order at a restaurant, and follow a recipe. In class and at home, students will continue to talk about actions that happened in the past while incorporating new verbs into this tense. Teachers will continue to help students pluralize difficult words, and will also introduce the use of direct object pronouns.
- Intermediate Portuguese 2: Students will learn to make comparisons and express their preference for certain foods, places, and people. In conversations with each other, students will talk about their childhood and their past experiences using the imperfect tense. This course will also engage students’ conceptions about the typical Brazilian, and challenge the way Brazil is portrayed in news, art, and popular culture.
- Intermediate Portuguese 3: In this course, students will learn the basics of talking on the phone, sending email, and writing a letter (or maybe just a text!) in Brazil. In addition, “para aula” exercises will help students practice opening a bank account, looking for an apartment, and finding one’s way through the airport. Teachers will continue to discuss the various variations of Portuguese spoken around the world, and focus on specific regions of Brazil that are of interest to students. Finally, students will be able to talk about their plans for the future, from dream jobs to plans for the night.
Spanish and Portuguese have a lot in common: the grammar is very similar, so is about 70% of vocabulary, not to mention shared culture, history and values. We recommend our Spanish speaking students to take BP1 for a solid foundation of grammar and pronunciation, skip BP2 and join BP3 or BP4 (following instructor's recommendation).
By the time the student joins an Intermediate level class he/she will already feel comfortable engaging in conversations in Portuguese.
{ AP }
Advanced Portuguese
By finishing all levels the student will be at a conversational level. Acquiring fluence is a constant effort, thus we strongly suggest our students to continue studying, practicing and being exposed to Portuguese. We suggest our Advanced Conversation classes.
- Advanced Portuguese 1: Students in this course will continue to learn about the different idioms and variations found throughout Brazil. In order to make each student’s language fit the situation, teachers will discuss the differences between written and spoken Portuguese, as well as introduce various slang terms and abbreviations that are commonly used in informal speech among friends. Putting these skills to practice, students will talk through scenarios like ordering a drink at a bar, making plans with friends, and making small-talk with neighbors.
- Advanced Portuguese 2: Many sessions in this course are devoted to learning to express emotion, doubt, desire, and other uncertain or subjective states of being. In addition, students will continue to learn new ways to use familiar verbs, and incorporate more colloquial language into their vocabularies. Teachers will bring in more fiction and Brazilian folklore for the class to discuss.
- Advanced Portuguese 3: This course will include news articles about recent events in Brazil as well as popular fiction. Students will be introduced to the “cronica,” a unique and varied type of newspaper column. In order to reinforce learned verb tenses, students will casually discuss their own thoughts about the future and learn more about the history of Brazil. This course will serve as a model and a preparation for later conversation-based "Advanced Conversation classes.
{ AC }
Advanced Conversation
This is an advanced conversation course designed for students nearly fluent in Brazilian Portuguese, or have completed the equivalent of the Advanced Portuguese 3 course.