Students of Brazilian Portuguese who would like to take their conversation skills from okay to great

Speak Portuguese Faster, Better, and with More Confidence with our Teachers and Exclusive Conversation Techniques… All in 30 Minutes at a Time

And you’re covered by our ironclad guarantee. More information below.

Dear Reader,

You decided to learn Portuguese for a reason.

If you are like many of my students, you have decided to learn Portuguese so that you can speak with your loved ones.

When your extended (Brazilian) family is around, you want to talk to them in their language. You want to be part of the conversation.

But some decide to speak Portuguese due to “an advantage” they have — they’re Spanish speakers, either native or very advanced.

They chose to learn Brazilian Portuguese to become bilingual or trilingual while making less effort. A wise choice.

And if you are like the third group of students who decide to learn Portuguese, you are a language enthusiast.

You are a linguist who wants to immerse yourself in the Brazilian culture and express your thoughts eloquently in Brazilian Portuguese.

You decided to learn Brazilian Portuguese for a reason, and this reason brought you up to this point.

If that is your current situation…

You can have somewhat good conversations in Brazilian Portuguese, but you are afraid. You’re afraid you’ll make a blunder when you try to express your thoughts in a way you would easily in your native language.

Imagine: you think you said the wrong thing, then people would look at you with a question mark for a face. Then the dreadful thought — what did I just say?

Perhaps you have never been in this dire situation.

Perhaps you are even somewhat confident in your vocabulary and grammar skills.

But whenever you talk to your Brazilian friends, you have that nagging sensation that you’re missing something.

A joke you would like to crack…

A deep thought you would like to convey summarily…

An idea you wanted to express fast, but you needed so much vocabulary that it lost its force…

It’s frustrating.

I know it is. I’ve been there more often than I remember.

You see, I’ve learned six languages to fluency, but I’ve dabbled in 14 more. And I know exactly how it feels when I don’t know how to express a thought so clearly depicted in my mind.

It’s usually at this point that we decide to have extra help.

And that’s what you’re looking for, probably. After all, you’re reading this letter.

But if you’re looking for extra help, how do you know this help will be effective?

Well, there are some pointers you should look for whenever seeking help to learn Brazilian Portuguese.

In this letter, I’ll give you those pointers. You should look for them if you want that help to go from “okay, like it” to “it’s great to have it!”

Also, I don’t want to hide it from you — the help I’m offering here fits the bill perfectly.

But if you decide we are not a good fit for you — and we are not for everybody, as you will see — you would do well to keep those features in mind whenever you seek extra help from anyone out there.

In your lessons, all we speak is Brazilian Portuguese.

And there’s a reason for that. I can show you with a story.

My first Chinese teacher was a kind lady named Audrey Ma.

She would speak to me mostly in English. I felt comfortable with the classes and knew that whenever I didn’t know how to express myself in Chinese, I could go back to English.

But that didn’t go well when I started meeting people outside the classroom.

I went to a Chinese restaurant in my city. The owner is a Chinese woman with a personality similar to Mrs. Ma’s.

But unlike Mrs. Ma, she would not go back to English whenever I didn’t know a word.

She would say the same things over and over until I understood.

The first time I had to talk with this restaurant owner, I felt frustrated. I knew what to say — if we were speaking Portuguese or English. I even knew I’d had that vocabulary in Chinese.

But I needed time to think and retrieve the vocabulary, and you don’t really have the time you want in that situation.

A few months later, I hired another teacher. This one spoke perfect English in her video presentation. But during the class…

She refused to speak English!

I felt intimidated. I even felt ashamed when all I could do for one minute or two was blurt out one or two sentences.

But you know what? I decided to press on.

Not long after, I managed to speak faster.

And with more ease.

Because I knew I couldn’t fall back on English or any other language that wasn’t my target language, I got better and better at figuring out how to express myself in the language I was learning.

I even managed to have a conversation entirely in Chinese with one of my brother-in-law’s clients, who was originally from China.

In fact, studies back up the perception that I could speak faster after a couple of weeks of lessons entirely in my target language. ^{(*only related to language skills, TEFL Trainer.)}

In Canada, two groups of students received French language instruction. One of the groups received the instruction entirely in French — from when they got to the classroom to when they left.

The other group was taught using both English and French.

Guess which group performed better?

The group that was taught entirely French.

And that makes sense.

When immersed in your target language, provided that you’re not a total beginner, you have to think of ways to express yourself in that language faster.

And when you think of ways to express yourself, you can take that literally — you are forming ways, paths, in your mind that you follow whenever you need to express yourself in that particular situation.

And if you follow a path more often, you can usually go faster.

And that’s the logic behind using only the target language in your lessons.

That’s why our classes are entirely in Portuguese.

We never resort to your native language during the lessons, so you’ll be able to form those paths in your mind and use them outside the classroom.

At a time most convenient for you

People are busy.

I didn’t notice that until I started teaching online.

I would have students who booked the same spot for the following three months. They wanted to make sure they had that exact time for their class.

And when, for whatever reason, I — or they — could not show up, rescheduling was a headache.

And that is because they would have their days entirely planned out. And the other available spots I had were not convenient for them.

But you will not have this problem with our Let’s Get Together and Chat lessons.

We have different teachers offering lessons at various times. I’m sure you’ll find a spot at the most convenient time.

In this way, you’ll feel glad that you found the spot at just the right time when you are more rested, time that you’re not taking away from other activities.

And you can guarantee that you will stick up to the schedule you made — even when you have to make some changes along the way.

A predictable investment with predictable outcomes

We know that the more you talk, the faster you can talk.

And when you do that with teachers, you can talk better as well.

And the thing is, if you are at the level I suppose you are — conversational, not quite as confident, wanting to have words come to mind faster while learning vocabulary related to different fields of everyday life in Brazil — you don’t really need to have a lesson every day.

In fact, many of my students don’t.

More often, they have 1 to 2 lessons a week. And because most of them are part of one of our programs and use our websites to their advantage, they have enough to do between lessons.

In this way, your investment in the lessons becomes predictable.

If, during a particular month, you have more time and more money to invest, you can scale up your lessons and speak more often.

But suppose you need to save for an upcoming trip or other expenses that you’re planning? Scale down and have fewer lessons per week or even fewer lessons per month.

And no need to get bogged down by an overly restrictive subscription. You only pay fully for the lessons you effectively take. If you need to take some time off, don’t worry. You can come back later.

You’ll never at a loss for words again

Conversation lessons are not only conversations.

Many service providers don’t understand this, but here at Portuguese with Eli, we do.

And we do understand it because I, Eli, am a language student myself.

When we get to a conversation with a friend or a colleague, we don’t always have to know what we want to talk about.

And that’s good… To a point.

It’s good because our brain already has everything we need. We know who we are talking to. We have a mastery of the basic structure of the language we are speaking. And our brain can rest at ease “knowing” that it won’t use so much energy to come up with things to say.

Imagine you are entering a well-lit room. That’s what you do when talking to a friend in your native language.

It’s quite the opposite when speaking a foreign language like Brazilian Portuguese. You are entering a dark room in a house you don’t know in a place you don’t know.

That’s why having a topic as a focus for your conversation is important. It’s the flashlight you need to find the light switches and turn them on.

When you have a specific topic to guide you through a conversation, you give your brain some props to work with.

You might think — I don’t have the words to talk about it, but I have some previous knowledge regarding this topic. I can rely on this previous knowledge so I don’t get overwhelmed by the vocabulary.

Of course, we can always veer away from the main topic, but we have something to go back to. We can explore different parts of the house since we have a flashlight to begin with.

And that’s what you’ll have with our topic-based conversation lessons.

Talk about what is important for you

I have a student who says she loves our classes because it’s like therapy.

It’s not therapy because we aren’t therapists. But it sounds like therapy because you always have a willing friend to hear you talk about anything you’d like to discuss.

The main difference is that our teachers and I will be there to guide you through the topic with appropriate vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.

So long as you bring your own topic, of course.

Preparing for a quick trip to Rio de Janeiro and would like to pick up some slang from that city? We will bring videos, articles, and even someone from Rio de Janeiro to speak with you.

And you’ll appreciate to have someone guide you using the right words

One of my students hadn’t had a Portuguese conversation in a long time. She wanted to visit my hometown — Fortaleza — since she had some family matters to attend to.

She wanted to practice with someone from there to pick up their pronunciation quirks.

But she didn’t expect me to teach her “wrong” Portuguese! You see, in my hometown, we have our own ways of saying things.

The sound V becomes H as in house. And some words change their form.

She thought I was teaching her wrong Portuguese on purpose, but after her trip to Fortaleza, she sent me a message.

People actually spoke like that!

She could do that because I offered her the opportunity to discuss her own topic. We are not dictators here. We are guides.

Someone will always be there when you need it most

I could cite some studies, but I’m sure you’ve had a similar experience, so I will share mine with you.

I made an international friend from Hungary. She was in my town for volunteer work. She had studied Portuguese diligently prior to her trip to Brazil, and while here she could communicate with locals.

I was moved. She learned Portuguese only because of the volunteer work she was doing here. So, I decided to learn some Hungarian to speak to her in her native language. She was encouraging and helpful.

We had a basic conversation in Hungarian, and I understood better how to help her with her Portuguese whenever she made a mistake.

It was all fun, but her volunteer work ended, and she returned to Hungary.

And my motivation to continue learning Hungarian went away with her.

Not that we didn’t keep in touch. We did. But because she went away, I had no one to share my progress with on a frequent basis.

Then I dropped Hungarian.

And I did the same with piano, guitar, painting, and drawing.

We don’t have anyone to share our progress with, we are more likely to give up when the going gets rough.

That’s why I still speak English. So many of my friends and students motivate, praise, and help me so that I don’t think of giving up.

Our teachers will do the same for you.

We hope you don’t mind when we get in touch with you from time to time through email to ask you how things are going.

And we will certainly not mind when you share with us the news that you use your Portuguese in a spontaneous conversation with the Brazilian you happened to meet on a trip.

How much is it all worth to you?

I confess — saying that we are offering conversation lessons sounds like a simple matter.

Because it’s simple. But so many people fail when they have to deal with simplicity.

Everything that I described above is how a conversation lesson should go.

A conversation lesson should be about your interests, at your pace, with gentle guidance and a helping hand, to push you on when you need. It should take place at a convenient time and it should be worth your time.

It is simple, yet so many other people fail to make lessons that simple and effective.

Once you sign up for our lessons, you become part of our team. Not our team of teachers, but of our team of students.

And it’s in my interest — Eli — that you succeed, improve, and become independent.

That’s why we offer additional support.

During the conversation, you get to talk. And you don’t have to worry about grammar and vocabulary.

After the class, when you’re studying on your own, you can always send us an email. We will answer all your emails, queries, and questions in a timely manner.

And no need to pay additionally for this extra help through the email hotline.

When I say that I am interested in your success, I mean it.

Based solely on the very statistics available in the US (Angie’s List, 2016), I could charge $85 an hour easily and that would be fair.

But our lessons aren’t one hour, they are 30 minutes long.

However, you won’t need to pay $42.50 per lesson.

In fact, you won’t pay even half of that.

Your investment per lesson starts at $15.

But your trial lesson is only $5 if you decide to book today.

Either you are 100% happy with your class, or you get $15 from us

Even with all the advantages that this conversation program offers, I don’t want you to be afraid to try us out.

And because I stand by our quality and offer, I want you to know that you’re covered by our 100% ironclad guarantee.

I want you to be 100% happy with your class.

If at any time you feel we didn’t do our part of the agreement—we didn’t make you speak, we didn’t help you express yourself in Brazilian Portuguese—just send us an email.

You will receive a 100% refund on the price you paid for your last lesson that isn’t your trial. If you would like to explain why you want a refund, you’re free to do so, but you are not required to.

As I say, no questions asked.

But suppose you feel you want to give us a second chance—perhaps even choosing another of our teachers.

In that case, I will provide you with an additional $15 as a coupon—on top of your refund—for you to choose another teacher and have another lesson.

That’s how much we trust you will like us.

You can get started now by clicking the button below.

After that, you’ll be taken to a booking page.

There, you can pick one of our teachers (or me, if I’m available), select a time that is most convenient for you, create an account in our system to make your next bookings easier, and insert your payment information.

Then, you’ll receive an email (and text message if you fill in with your number) to confirm your lesson and inform you of the next steps.

But before you sign up, please note that we may not be for everyone

But even though I trust my services and believe you can benefit from them, I must admit our lessons are not for everybody.

If you are not at least at the pre-intermediate level in Portuguese, these classes are not for you.

Those classes are entirely in Portuguese.

As I explained earlier, having the total immersion approach in our conversation lessons forces you to come up with sentences in Brazilian Portuguese.

But if you are a total beginner, having classes entirely in Brazilian Portuguese is counterproductive.

If you aren’t sure what your level is at present, you can take our trial lesson to see. Remember, your trial lesson is refundable. If you have a trial lesson and you learn that it’s either too hard or too above your head, just send me a message, and I will give you a 100% refund on your trial lesson.

If you want a structured curriculum to follow, we can help with that. But our classes are standalone conversation lessons.

And this is so for two reasons: to help you not worry about having homework in between lessons (though we will suggest a few) and to give you the freedom to choose the topics you want to discuss.

Our classes are planned in that our interaction will be controlled yet free. You’ll know beforehand what you will discuss — and we will share the lesson objectives with you as we start.

Knowing the topic beforehand someone limits what you can do… But at the same time, it frees you as it allows you to roam around the topic and explore it through conversation.

Imagine it’s your sandbox. You can play safely.

If you want unrealistically quick results, we might not be your best choice.

We guarantee that you will be satisfied with your lessons, and to some extent, we can force you to speak as much as you can.

But I can’t guarantee that you will go from okay-ish to native-like in only three lessons.

We play the long game here, and we hope you are in for this long game as well.

If you want to sign up even after those warnings, here’s the sign-up button for your trial lesson.

Sure, there are other entertainment options. You can use the trial fee to order yourself a snack, or go to the movies…

But if you have read up to this point, my bet is that all that I said made sense to you. It has been motivational and exciting and interesting. You probably can visualize yourself speaking Portuguese more confidently without fear of making mistakes. You’ve kept reading because I’ve described the experience you’ve been looking for all along.

You could also go for cheap tutors because they are cheaper. There are a lot of them online. All I can say is, do they have a track record and guaranteed satisfaction plus results to show for their work? In the long run, the hundred-some feel-good lessons you’ll have taken won’t be worth much in terms of progress… achievement… and real, long-lasting fun.

I understand you may be a little nervous, but if not now, when?

So, don’t wait – click on the button below. You’ll be taken to another page to book your trial lesson and select your first teacher (either me, Eli, or our colleagues).

Sincerely

Eli Sousa

PS: If it is the very first time you have a lesson with us, my system will notify me. I’ll get in touch with more information on how we can create a study plan that you can use alongside with your lessons.

Please allow for 48 hours for me to get in touch with you, since I have to prepare the materials and everything.