The Portuguese Communication Club is a project to help immigrants in portugal to learn portuguese in a fun communicative way, and to engage in the culture and tradition and society at the same time. We teach language classes that are based on understanding songs and stories and communicating ourselves (not on learning grammar) This enables you to acquire the language in the same way a child does and have fun on the way
Beginners – Portuguese through Culture and song
In the beginners course we learn traditional portuguese songs and we might even learn some dances – get to know something about the culture. When you get them going the portuguese are great singers, and it is not just fado. Expect to laugh and learn, develop confidence and the ability to make yourself understood in portuguese (and to get comfortable using bad grammar as long as it gets the point across) you will learn basic grammatical forms and vocabulary and by the end of it be able to tell short stories about what is going on in your life
Intermediate – Community building in portugal
At the intermediate level students are able to engage in more complicated concepts and issues so we study articles related to community building and society in Portugal. What are the social issues around us? How can we engage more with the people and society and what does it take to surround yourself with a beautiful community here in Portugal? You will learn more advanced grammar and vocabulary, but the focus will not be the grammar it will be the discussion be prepared to have your own opinion on the topics shared in the class.
Advanced – Portuguese in action.
Once we get to advanced level students have a competency in communication, and are able to get their point across, and also to undertsand others quite well. Rather than working on developing the language through more book learning or studying we take on a project that will use students communication skills, and allow them to develop and fine tune their language skills through practical application of the language. Each class can decide for themselves what project they are going to take on. They might choose to do theatre, or to write a book together, or to tackle a social issue. The teachers become facilitators and assistants to help take on this project and to help when language issues come up. For example in writing a letter on a social issue it might be that some editing is needed to make it sound professional, so in working through the editing and improvements a lot of learning takes place. At the end of the advanced course you can expect to have developed a lot of confidence in using portuguese in daily life, and fine tuning the portuguese usage so that you are confident to express correctly and effectively regarding complicated issues.
Philosophical Background
The design of the Portuguese Conversation Club is heavily based in the Community Economics of the Progress Utilisation Theory, Participatory Community Development, and the latest studies in Language Acquisition. Inspired by other socially active education such as “This is not an Ulpan” in israel, and the work of paulo freire, and the liberation theatre of Augusto Boal. It has a lot of room in it for other people’s ideas and improvements as long as it is always in the direction of creating unity, harmony and community.
Get Involved
Help us develop educational material, become a teacher or an assistant, or host a class yourself. We are interested in proposals, partnerships and suggestions.