School
Português et cetera, the Portuguese Language and Culture School was founded in 2005 by Fernanda Ferreira PhD. Fernanda is a writer (under her pen name Marta Linel), Teacher of Portuguese language and culture and researcher of Portuguese folklore and traditions. To find out more about Fernanda's background and writing, click on biography and publications pages.
After several years of experience teaching the Portuguese language to foreign students, why did Fernanda decide to found her own language school? These past years public demand for such a school has been growing and in Fernanda's experience, other establishments and University departments have not always been able to accommodate these needs in order to give the students the tuition they deserve.
The complexity and at the same time simplicity in second language teaching require an approach tailored to every student as an individual. Bearing this in mind, our classes are mostly private or held in small groups.
Imagination and creativity are the basis of every class, inspired by the diversity of the international groups of students with their varying linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
The pleasure of learning, spontaneity, flexibility and fun versus rigidity and repetition, combined with nonetheless rigorous tuition are the hallmarks of this school.
We write and use our own teaching materials that are created especially to complement the existing literature on the market.
Our teachers tutor their students but in doing so make sure to offer them assistance wherever needed, facilitating the students' integration into the socio-cultural reality of their new country.
Both linguistic and cultural difficulties in situations of daily life, such as dealing with public services, banks, solicitors, postal services down to the more simple things such as ordering your meal in a restaurant and going shopping are all subjects discussed freely during classes. The teachers are always happy to help.
Understanding the Portuguese people - their disorganisation, their unpunctuality, their melancholy and sometimes downright pessimism? An excellent subject we often discuss in classes, thus lifting the mystery and breaking down cultural differences.
Our teaching of the Portuguese Language links the reality of Portugal and daily life here closely to its linguistics.
Our team of teachers specialize in:
Portuguese Language
Portuguese History
Portuguese Literature
Portuguese Culture
Cultural Activities are organized on a regular basis to complement and elaborate on the subjects taught during class.
In 2007 português et cetera expanded to include the study of Portuguese as a First Language.
Why? Because it is important not to neglect the Portuguese people.
Portuguese students often have basic language problems, weaknesses in communication competencies which get worse throughout school and even at University level.
To improve communicative performance in their mother tongue we have started Portuguese Workshops (to back-up school work).
These workshops place more importance on educational games to fix and practice language rules but also include reinforcement of the school programmes for those who study at Primary, Secondary and University levels of Education and offer help with evaluation and exam practice.
For those who enjoy writing, we have set up Workshops in Creative Writing
Here we encourage self expression in various forms - story, poem, narrative, commentary... To reflect, criticise, practise, debate, starting from the flowing word.
For the business world we have professional training in Business Portuguese
For the language to be more objective, concise, precise. To optimize business relationships, which is increasingly important in a country of service industries like Portugal.
Another angle developed at português et cetera in 2007 was English, the language of the "global village", an indispensable tool in the world of work, for leisure activities and "internationalization"
