When It Finally Started To Click

I remember when the woman who works at my local Continente first said to me, "Your Portuguese is getting so much better!"

She said it in Portuguese and I understood it all!

A few years ago, she wouldn't have said that. She would've asked if I needed a bag and I would have smiled, nodded, and walked away carrying a bunch of groceries in my hands.

This is why I'm convinced these lessons work. Not because I'm a language expert (I'm not). But because I'm using them myself. Every day, walking my dog with audio lessons in my ears. Testing new phrases I'm learning whenever I leave the house.

If you're stuck in that in-between place where you're past the basics, *good enough to survive but not to thrive*, able to be polite but freezing up the second a conversation goes off script, then you're exactly who I make this for. I was standing right where you are not long ago.

Why Teaching Helps Me Learn

The selfish truth is that I create these lessons for myself first.

Writing about "when to use por vs. para" forces me to actually understand it. Recording audio drills means I listen to them 20 times during editing. Building PDFs gives me quick references on my phone.

I built my Flashcards tool entirely so I could help myself study when I had free time and didn't want to listen to the audio lessons. (I'm quite proud of that tool.)

My wife and I take private lessons twice a week. Early on, I mapped out a sequence from the path my own classes took me on, then paid a native Portuguese teacher to review and revise it into something you could actually follow toward confident, conversational Portuguese.

And I don't publish anything on my own say-so. Every lesson I write gets edited and corrected by a native Portuguese speaker before it ever reaches you, which ensures you're getting the relatable view of a fellow learner with the accuracy of a native expert behind it. The last thing I want is for you to trust something I taught you, use it in real life, and fall flat.

This is the same curriculum I'm following and sharing with you.

Traditional lessons teach rules. Life demands reflexes. They present formal Portuguese while real people speak in slang and expressions.

One honest caveat: if you're a total beginner still working out how to ask where the bathroom is, or how present-tense verbs conjugate, this isn't the right starting point yet, and I'd rather tell you that than watch you get lost. Start with the free audio lessons on my Visitor's Guide, get your footing, and come back. I'll be here.

So I build what I myself need: practical phrases that work at the gym, the bank, in the hallway chatting with neighbors. Then I share them with you. We both win.

A Little About Me

American of Azorean ancestry from the Bay Area. Met my New Yorker wife while living in San Francisco. We Lived in Portland, Oregon for 5 years. Adopted a dog there.

I've always loved visiting Portugal. I spent 3 months here in 2009, then kept coming back as often as I could. I even got citizenship (through my grandparents) in 2014. Finally, when remote work became a possibility for us, I convinced my wife to finally make the jump in 2022.

Three years later, I'm conversational but still learning. Somewhere between A2 and B1 level officially, but some days feel like A1, others like B2. That's the reality no one tells you.

My background in digital marketing taught me to build websites and create content. Combined with my obsession with Portuguese, this site was inevitable.

What Keeps Me Going

Small wins. Understanding someone's joke when they're speaking Portuguese. Following Benfica match commentary. Having actual conversations with my building's residents beyond just nodding and saying "bom dia."

Every lesson I share represents a personal breakthrough. That moment when something finally clicks. When a phrase I practiced actually works in real life.

If you're stuck where I was, good enough to survive but not to thrive, these lessons can help. Because I'm not teaching from memory. I'm teaching from this morning's visit to the pastelaria.

-Justin

Have questions? Want to share your own breakthrough?