Stop being treated like a visitor.
Built for diplomats, executives and their families living in Brasília — and for anyone else who moved here. You've picked up words. What you're missing is the sentence that ends the problem: the doorman, the counter, the pharmacy, the invitation you can't accept.
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Zé WillTwenty-eight years in language acquisition, from classrooms to corporate consulting. Eight of them as a Chancery Officer at Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. More about him
You understand more than you can say.
People speak to you and you follow most of it. Then it's your turn, the sentence doesn't come fast enough, somebody switches to English, and the conversation ends in the wrong language.
Apps gave you nouns. What you need are the complete sentences that come up over and over in a life lived here.
There's a second thing nobody teaches. In Brazil, refusing, insisting, asking a favour and saying thank you have their own rules. Say the correct sentence in the wrong shape and you'll be understood, and read as rude.
This isn't about losing your accent. It's about being understood and taken seriously.
Three things in every sentence.
What the sentence does
Sentences are organised by the problem they solve — authorise a delivery, ask someone to slow down, report a fault — never by grammar topic.
How it actually sounds
Every sentence comes with a pronunciation line and audio. Brazilians don't say what the spelling suggests, and we don't pretend they do.
The social effect
What the sentence does to the person hearing it — where the polite version is, and where you'd be crossing a line without knowing.
Pick where to start.
Portuguese for Residents
Thirteen units, from not freezing in the first exchange to telling a story about your week. Built for someone who lives here, works in English and wants a life in Portuguese outside the office.
Starter Pack
The sentences you need in your first month, with audio. The fastest way to stop pointing at things.
Private and small-group lessons
One to one, or groups of up to four, on Google Meet. The same course, with correction on the spot and more speaking time for you.
Zé Will
Wilian Fernandes Pereira has worked in language acquisition for more than twenty-eight years. Philosophy degree from Unicamp, CELTA from the University of Cambridge, based in Brasília.
He built this method after years of watching the same thing happen: students who could pass a test and still couldn't say what they meant when it mattered.