Learn European Portuguese à la unschooling. Find your voice in Portuguese!
Here you will find the courses The Language Unschool has for you.
PORTUGUESE À LA UNSCHOOLING
Portuguese is a special language. It requires a special approach.
What will the Portuguese à la Unschooling do for you?
To speak a foreign language means:
FREEDOM
to be yourself: freedom to fully be yourself in another country (although it’s possible that you might uncover different sides of you because the culture will inevitable influence you)
to speak up your mind: which is why I help you find your voice in European Portuguese
to enjoy life: freedom to simply enjoy life in the country where the language is spoken
of decision: freedom to decide who you’re going to talk to and how deep or superficial that conversation will be
to give: freedom to contribute with your talents; many people want to volunteer but cannot because the language is a barrier
of choice:
freedom of choice - if you understand what is going on around you, you can then choose more wisely.
Empty space, drag to resize
I feel the most empowered when I have a conversation in the languages I can speak (Portuguese, English, Italian, French, Dutch, Polish, Spanish), or even in the languages I can only understand (German, Swedish, Frisian, Mandarin). I also love being surprised by understanding bits and pieces of similar languages I never even learnt. And above all, languages have allowed me to connect with people and feel at home wherever I was.
Empty space, drag to resize
The Language Unschool is the culmination of my experience in learning 10 foreign languages.
THE UNSCHOOLING APPROACH
follows these principles:
respect for the way you learn - and we use different methods to help you
attention to what interests you have, so that you can consume native content you like from our library (see below about the Tuga Book)
learning a language is a cyclical experience; it’s not about moving on from lesson one to lesson two; you need repetition and review things from a different perspective
honour the holistic nature of language learning. The different components of language learning - reading, listening, writing, speaking, grammar, vocabulary - are to be experienced in a holistic way.
Empty space, drag to resize
I’ll give you an example. An Unschooler of mine had heard me say the expression “chover a potes”, which means it’s raining a lot.
But she forgot.
Some months later she read it again in one of the lessons (and heard it too, because it was a text-audio exercise).
And what did she do about it?
Normally I advise my Unschoolers to write down new expressions and have a reference noted to help them remember it, but she didn’t.
Well, she did, but in a different way. She first used (spoke) the expression in her village and surprised everyone around her. They said she was becoming a true Portuguese.
Now comes the writing part.
She shared this little story with the other Unschoolers in writing (was she teaching others or helping herself learn?), thus closing a natural cycle that involved reading, listening, speaking, writing.
After spending years at school and traditional courses, I started very organically developing my own strategies to learn languages. The Language Unschool, and more specifically the Portuguese Program à la Unschooling, is the combination of that experience and my hyper listening powers (who doesn’t struggle to understand the Portuguese?) into a holistic experience of learning European Portuguese.
Continue to the next tab to learn how the Portuguese Program à la Unschooling will help you feel comfortable in European Portuguese.
Empty space, drag to resize
This is how THE LANGUAGE UNSCHOOL can help you feel comfortable in European Portuguese:
Portuguese Start is your first contact with the language at The Language Unschool. You will understand the structure of the language, start understanding how we speak, learn my best tricks to start conversing, and you will acquire your first 600 words in Portuguese by watching/listening to 42 engaging stories in real Portuguese. You'll be able to understand at least 70% of them!
Self-paced lessons video, audio, PDF, exercises - do the lessons whenever you want and as often as you want; no need to waste time to meet me at a specific time and place
The Tuga Book my now fluent Unschooler, Prapti, spent months collecting resources of real Portuguese content into our private library, which you can access to immerse in the language using content you like; spend time listening, reading and watching real Portuguese instead of wasting time searching
WriteIt a space to write your own sentences daily and get them edited by me (corrections imply something is wrong, which is not the case, right?); they are sort of mini-lessons, especially if you read my comments not only on yours, but also on other Unschoolers’ posts; if you want to speak, you should focus on writing, because writing gives you time to look up a word or verb conjugation, whereas speaking means speed, and that’s probably why you freeze and don’t even try
Weekly challenges and tips a space to write your own sentences daily and get them edited by me (corrections imply something is wrong, which is not the case, right?); they are sort of mini-lessons, especially if you read my comments not only on yours, but also on other Unschoolers’ posts; if you want to speak, you should focus on writing, because writing gives you time to look up a word or verb conjugation, whereas speaking means speed, and that’s probably why you freeze and don’t even try
Tools to help you stay organized time tracker, language journal, study plan; you want to be efficient with your time and focus on the activities that will bring you closer to fluency faster, right?
Our Community is like a Portuguese Unschooling hotline! You can ask me any language-related question 24/7 (I do sleep though), to share your progress weekly, to learn from each other (we’re all Unschoolers here!); in short: you’re not alone!
Special help with mindset (not the “cheerleader” kind of help, which only works for 5 minutes); sometimes, even when you’re putting in the work, participating, you still feel stuck; that’s when it’s time for me to listen to you and see how we can get you moving again
Live Chats these are the special sauce of the Portuguese Program à la Unschooling; I’ll be live 3 times a week to talk to you and other Unschoolers. If you attend one, you should come with a specific question and it’s up to me to help you by using content you like and using a method that fits your learning style. Imagine you’ve learnt the theory of the Present Continuous in Portuguese, but you’d now like to understand it in practice. Well, assuming you’re a kinaesthetic learner, I might use comprehensible input to help. I could show you a mime video and I’d describe what he is doing: he is brushing his teeth, he is eating. I could even make you mimic the mime while describing your actions in Portuguese! The possibilities are endless.
How can you become a Portuguese Unschooler, I [think I] hear you say?
It may be a recording or you might be in luck and attend it live. But how would you know?
Well, you need to be part of the Unschooling mailing list to be on top of what is going on here.
If you happen to be sure and are ready to become a Portuguese Unschooler, then let’s talk.
You can schedule a Zoom call with me:
Our Unschoolers' #iupiiis
First #iupiii that I share. My husband had to go into medical center to make two appointments. I was able to understand the clerk and translate from her Portuguese to him in English so he could pick appointment times. Did not have to ask if she could repeat to me nor ask her if she spoke English. Felt like a real win! Thank you, Catarina.
P.
USA
My #iupiii moment was yesterday when as vizinhos novos (new to us) nos convidaram a jantar em um restaurante. Neither speaks any English. We managed to converse for 2+ hours. They invited us to a community piquenique next week. Lots of listening and speaking yesterday!
P.
USA
My apartment has many problems, and the repair workers often come in for the tasks. This has been going on for many months. The leader of the workers doesn’t speak English at all, not even “yes” or “no”. In the past, I had to use a translation app on the phone all the times just for the bare minimum talk. Lately, I started to speak in Portuguese, although not 100% of times, and he is clearly becoming comfortable to talk with me. That’s my #iupiii.
C.
Japan
Have A General Inquiry?
If you have a general inquiry and would like to speak with me directly, you can contact me via email at: catarina@thelanguageunschool.com
Get to grips with European Portuguese free lesson Please check your inbox (also your spam) with details about the training. Note that this can take a few minutes.
Login or sign up to start learningLogin to start learning
