Portuguese for foreigners
Most courses teach you grammar in a classroom. Here you pick a real situation — ordering in a restaurant, filling a shopping basket, catching the right bus — and by the end of the week you handle it in Portuguese, on your own, without anyone switching to English.
In your first week
“Uma mesa para duas, por favor.”
A table for two, please.
1 week
per challenge
A0 – B2
all levels welcome
60 min
live lesson included
5.0 ★
student rating
The one-week challenges
You do not need a whole course. You need one situation that keeps coming back — and the exact words for it. That is what each challenge is: seven days, one real outcome.
From reading the menu to complaining about the coffee — the full table conversation, ready before your next booking.
You will say
“Uma mesa para duas, por favor.”
A table for two, please.
Find what you need, ask the price, understand the labels and pay — without a word of English.
You will say
“O que procura?”
What are you looking for?
Ask for directions, understand the answer, buy a ticket and catch the right bus or train.
“Onde fica a estação?”
Where is the station?
Describe the problem, understand the answer, and leave the pharmacy with the right medicine.
“Preciso de um médico.”
I need a doctor.
Open an account, use an ATM, understand a bill and pay it without standing in silence at the counter.
“Queria abrir uma conta.”
I'd like to open an account.
Move beyond “hello”. Real conversations with Portuguese people — and the etiquette that goes with them.
“De onde és?”
Where are you from?
Have a situation that is not on the list? Tell Maria about it — the plan is built around your life, not the other way round.
How it works
Message me on WhatsApp. Where are you stuck — a restaurant, a pharmacy, an interview, a landlord? One sentence is enough.
A day-by-day plan of the exact phrases you need, with short listening and reading tasks built around your goal.
Twenty minutes a day on your own, plus one live lesson where I fix what did not stick and make it stick for good.
Walk into the restaurant, fill the basket, ask the question — and nobody in the room switches to English.
Why it works
Maria has been teaching Portuguese to newcomers in Coimbra since 2020, at Dream Room | Cantinho do Mundo — and before that, as a travel consultant. She knows exactly what a newcomer needs to say, and exactly when they need to say it.
Nobody remembers Unit 3. You remember the evening you ordered a meal in Portuguese and nobody blinked.
The accent you will actually hear in Portugal — and the expressions that make you sound local, not translated.
You learn the grammar you need for the sentence in front of you, at the moment you need it. Never a page of conjugations for their own sake.
Maria is Montessori trained. Progress comes at your pace, with visual material and no pressure to perform.
One-to-one, or up to four people chasing the same goal. Group lessons cost less and give you far more talking time.
Live video lessons from anywhere, or face-to-face in Coimbra — including practice out in the real city.
Maria João Gomes — educator and founder of Dream Room | Cantinho do Mundo, Coimbra. Teaches Portuguese as língua de acolhimento: the language of belonging.
Your teacher
Maria João Gomes is an educator in Coimbra who teaches Portuguese and English to people who have just arrived in Portugal. Since 2020 she has run Dream Room | Cantinho do Mundo, a space built for language learners — and, before teaching full time, she worked as a travel consultant.
That combination matters. A travel consultant knows that a missed bus or a confusing menu is the thing that makes a newcomer feel like a guest forever. So her lessons are not about perfect grammar. They are about the moment you stop translating in your head and simply speak.
She is Montessori trained, which shows: patient, visual, and completely focused on the person in front of her.
I had studied Portuguese for two years and still froze at a café counter. After one week with Maria I ordered lunch, asked for the bill, and complained about the coffee — all in Portuguese.
Message Maria directly
Send a message on WhatsApp with the goal — a restaurant, a supermarket, an interview, a landlord. You will get a reply from Maria herself, usually the same day.
Start a conversationPrefer email or LinkedIn? All contact details
Questions
The things people usually want to know before they commit to a first lesson. If yours is not here, just ask on WhatsApp.
See all questions