About me
I am Renata. I am Brazilian, I live in Oeiras just outside Lisbon, and I teach Brazilian Portuguese online in the evenings — to adults starting from zero, and to children whose families want them to keep the language.
How I teach
I am not going to claim a secret method. What I will tell you is where I put the hours, because that is what actually differs between teachers.
Nasal vowels, open and closed e and o, the Brazilian de and te, where the stress falls. Most courses leave this to the end, or skip it entirely. It is the part that decides whether people understand you — and the part that is hardest to repair later.
Brazilians say a gente vai far more than nós vamos, and put pronouns where textbooks say they should not. You learn it that way, with the written form marked separately, so you sound like a person and still know what an exam wants.
A solid A1 takes something like 80 to 100 hours of study, and A2 roughly the same again. I will tell you where you are and what comes next, and I will not sell you a timeline that only works in an advert.
Learning a hard language myself
I studied Mandarin seriously: HSK level 4 with a score of 210, a place in the Chinese Bridge competition in 2025, and study experience connected to Hubei University, plus travel across China including Enshi.
I mention it for one reason, and I want to be exact about what it means. HSK 4 lets me hold a conversation and help someone get through a day. It does not make me a Mandarin grammar teacher, and I do not do certified translation. Anyone selling you that on an HSK 4 is overstating it.
What it does give me is the part that matters for you: I have been the adult beginner who freezes mid-sentence, who is corrected in public, who memorises lists and still cannot say anything. When I tell you the wall you have hit is normal and passable, that is not teacher-talk. It is memory.
It also has one practical use. Chinese speakers who have just moved here hire me to come along to a viewing or an appointment and explain, on the spot, what is being asked — the everyday kind, never sworn or legal work. That is described here, and 中文说明在这里.
Being straight with you
People arrive looking for these, so it saves everyone time to say it here rather than after you have paid.
I teach Brazilian Portuguese. The CIPLE exam used for Portuguese citizenship tests European Portuguese specifically, and Brazilian vocabulary loses marks in the written section. If that exam is your goal, you want a European Portuguese teacher — not me.
I do not translate official documents in any language. For that you need a recognised sworn translator.
I speak Mandarin and can help someone through a day in it, but I do not teach Chinese grammar. Native Chinese teachers do that better than I would.
I teach a small number of evening hours each week alongside other work. That is a real constraint, not a scarcity tactic — and it is why I would rather keep a short waiting list than overfill a class.
The person behind the lessons
Same teacher every week, who remembers what you got stuck on last time. Based in Oeiras, just outside Lisbon, teaching in the evenings.
Get in touch
I write every reply myself. If I think you do not need lessons, or that someone else suits you better, I will say so.
Prefer WhatsApp? Message me directly.
