Student Reviews

Our kids classes”CARIOQUINHA KIDS” are extremely fun!!! Children learn by doing in our methodology like the adults but with different tools!!!! From Kennedy family!

“Donna and Elaine are studens at our school. They take group classes. Their kids also have classes with us at home. They are 9 and 11.”
I cannot rate this Language school highly enough!
We moved to Rio De Janeiro just three months ago, none of us had any Portuguese at all, we discovered very quickly that its absolutely essential here in Rio as there is very little English spoken. We want to get the most out of our Brazilian experience so, of course we wanted to meet local people and be able to talk to them in their language.
I was introduced to Portugues Carioca by a friend who is also a student of the school. We arranged a friendly and informal meeting and within a matter of days my family and I were happy and confident that the unique teaching methodology used by all the Teachers here would be the best way for us to learn Portuguese.Marcia and her team were extremely flexible, they were able to arrange classes to fit round me at their beautiful school in Leblon. They also organised for a teacher to go to my husbands work early in the morning so that he could have his lessons to fit round his busy schedule. The jewel in the crown for me was that they also arranged for my daughter and her friend who are both beginners and at the same learning stage to meet once a week and have a “fun” learning session with a teacher who comes to our house, they play games, talk about animals, music, loads of fun stuff, the children absolutely love this and honestly cannot wait for their Thursdays sessions.
We are all seeing huge improvements with our Portuguese already and feel so much more confident, this is all thanks to Portugues Carioca! I urge you all to contact Marcia and her fantastic team – you will not regret it!.Many Thanks,
The Kennedy Family
Photo was allowed by both families: Elaine’s and Donna’s. Teacher Isabelle is with them in the picture.”

Intensive Survival Course IN GROUP – 30 hours

I am a Californian and on my second trip to Brazil I sought out Portuguese classes because I wanted to understand and speak with my friends that live here in Rio. During this trip I had an apartment in Copacabana so I chose to take a cab to class everyday which intimidated me because I could not converse very well with the cab driver and would usually just tell the individual, “sorry, but I don’t speak Portuguese”. By the third day of class I was able to piece together what the cab driver was saying and by the end of the week I could respond! All of the staff at Portuguese Carioca were warm, enthusiastic, and helpful. My survival course teacher Roberta is a gifted individual, she made the class fun and challenging.I am a Californian and on my second trip to Brazil I sought out Portuguese classes because I wanted to understand and speak with my friends that live here in Rio. During this trip I had an apartment in Copacabana so I chose to take a cab to class everyday which intimidated me because I could not converse very well with the cab driver and would usually just tell the individual, “sorry, but I don’t speak Portuguese”. By the third day of class I was able to piece together what the cab driver was saying and by the end of the week I could respond! All of the staff at Portuguese Carioca were warm, enthusiastic, and helpful. My survival course teacher Roberta is a gifted individual, she made the class fun and challenging. I can’t say enough wonderful things about Portuguese Carioca, and I will be back to take another course as soon as I can!

Intensive Survival Course IN GROUP – 30 hours

I love the survival course, it really gave my Português as a newcomer in Rio a kick start. To my surprise In just one week I felt I could to some what degree survive in the streets of Rio! The course is very Intensiv and challenging, but the teachers are really professional and awesome. They make it so fun and to the point with their teaching method . They make you feel that it is so easy to learn Carioca. Now I eat, dream and breath Carioca. If you should take one class in Português, this is it!

Best regards

Kongsberg Oil & Gas -IN-COMPANY COURSE/ one-to -one

I’m attending the Português Carioca course in Rio de Janeiro twice a week. It’s a great verbal method helping me to rapidly learn Portuguese while working full time. Marcia and her team are very professional, and always on time.

Operations Manager / Teekay Shipping – IN-COMPANY one-to-one

First of all I have to say that I am really proud and happy to be a student of yours. I started taking lessons at Português Carioca the same week I arrived in Rio in January 2014. As a single, full time working mother it was crucial to learn basic portugues as soon as possible in order to communicate with Kindergarten, the nanny and to carry out every-day tasks. Tatiana has been my Portuguese teacher and already after the first lessons I was able to manage the first simple conversations. I particularly appreciated that the teacher could come to my apartment or at my workplace and that Marcia at the same time includes you in activities and arrangements at the school. Tatiana is fun, energetic and probably the most effective language teacher I have ever had. For me, the teaching method has also been excellent; the focus is on speaking and on every day topics that helpme manage all the daily challenges. The learning of grammar has been different from other language schools I have attended and far more effective. I fully recommend Português Carioca to anyone.

ONLINE course

Dear Marcia,
thank you so much for your course – I really find it both enjoyable and beneficial. ”For me it was a way to go that I decided that I needed to start learning Portuguese, but the real difficulty was to find the right school where to learn. When I first time came to Portugues Carioca from the very beginning I felt that I was at the right place. I liked a lot that I was welcomed as a friend and all my questions about classes and the course were answered directly with attention to every detail. I decided to take private classes five days a week as I wanted to get the result as soon as possible. And the result came soon. When I started I couldn’t speak or understand almost a single world in Portuguese.

Student in Barra group

Português Carioca is the best language course in Rio. Our teacher’s energy, sense of humor and knowledge unmatched. We enjoy every class and find we have learned important vocabulary and phrases quickly so that: we can go out to restaurants; buy necessities; and feel like Cariocas within a few months. The owner Marcia Haaberg has had unlimited energy and patience to organize the time and location which has worked best for us. We are a class of 8 estrangeiros and are very lucky to have found Português Carioca!
Jenn G mora na Barra da Tijuca.
Obrigada,
Jenn

We are sad to leave Rio and the beach and all of our new friends but we know we will back, hopefully some day soon!

Royal Norwegian Consulate – Private tutor

I have been learning Portuguese at Portuguesecarioca for a year and a half and it has taken me from knowing a few words to being able to have conversations and meetings in Portuguese at my work. I have had two teachers from the school and they have both been excellent. I particularly enjoy the focus on speaking a lot during lessons. The teachers are always on time and very well prepared. They have also been very open for feedback and I have been able to select, for example, texts on specific subjects if I wanted to learn more about an issue. I have also noticed that I have been learning quite a lot a on how to write Portuguese as well, even though this has not been my focus. I can easily recommend anyone to learn Portuguese with Portuguesecarioca. Another advice I would be happy to give is to try to squeeze in some intense periods with several lessons a day. This will really give you great progress.

My Portugues Carioca experience:

I am an Norwegian expatriate that studying Portuguese at Portugues Carioca. I had some skills in Portuguese from my time working offshore in Brazil. I took a Portuguese test prior to my class start up, result of this was that Portuguese Carioca gave me tailor made classes. I am very satisfied with the methodology that PC using, the teacher made me speak from the first class and really pushing me to speak correctly. Due to years of attempting to speak Portuguese without having a proper understanding of the structure in the language, my Portuguese was a bit messy.
But my teacher, Luiz, is very good, and I really feel that after 9 classes he manage to get things organized. Now I am looking forward to every class and it is very satisfying with the progress. Also the book for homework is very good and educational built up, it take you step by step and avoiding to much confusion(a bit is inevitable J)
I strongly recommend Portugues Carioca for new Cariocas

“After taking more traditional Portuguese classes, a week long immersion course in Portuguese and living in Rio for almost two years, I still was unable to speak beyond broken, basic sentences. Now, after taking Portugues Carioca, I am really taking off with my Portuguese. I notice I am able to understand people as I walk down the street, my pronunciation and grammar are much better and I have more confidence. I don’t have to stop and think about each word then fit it together like a puzzle. I am now thinking in phrases and putting the phrases together. This method of learning is working for me, and I plan to continue taking classes at Portugues Carioca until I finish all the levels.” I enjoy going to class each day.
You have a great program with Portugues Carioca!
Aamie

I highly recomend Portugues Carioca. The course’s methodology is very energetic, witch makes learning portugues entertaining and fun.
I have seen results within the first month. It’s made me more confident in adventuring into the city.
Although, the price of the course is not cheap, it is totally worth it. Lessons feel like they were tailor made just for you and very effective!

Portugues Carioca is in a class by itself. I signed up for the class after I’d been in the country for 3 weeks. I remember that first day, sitting there thinking “how is she getting me to say all of this when I don’t speak any Portuguese yet?!” But it’s just building block on building block – starting with the basics and adding on. The methodology focuses on teaching structures that are immediately useful and can be formulated into useful sentences throughout the day. In other language classes, the instructor would explain things (when to use certain verbs, for example) so the ‘work’ was to learn what those different scenarios were. In Marcia’s class, we learn how to use the correct verbs through speaking. Then, when I am on the street, on the phone or in a cab, the correct words come out because I have already said them many times in many different ways in the class.
Here’s what the class is not: passive! We are very engaged for every second of the class; I really feel like I get my money’s worth. We spend the entire 75 minutes formulating sentences and questions and responses, all the while drilling the pronunciation.
Marcia also has a regular “Papo Carioca” with some Brazilians to practice what we have learned. At the last one, we spent about 3 hours chatting in Portuguese – what we do, where we are from and why we are here. It’s not that it was all easy – I am still building my vocabulary so there are some words I don’t know – but it was fun and I was happy that I could hold my own in Portuguese and not sound like a total gringo. Brazil is a country where you really need the language to experience the culture fully. I am very happy that I found Portugues Carioca.o.

I highly recommend the language program of Português Carioca because the focus is on speaking. Most of us expatriates are only here in Rio for a couple of years and what we really want and need is to be able to communicate verbally with the locals.  Professora Marcia teaches you to sound like a Carioca. She has a very energetic teaching style that encourages her students to learn the language. No English is spoken in her class, but she is able to communicate in very creative and entertaining methods. The book is extremely helpful for the little time spent reading and writing. In the 2nd week of class we did four tenses at once (present, past, present continuous, future) and it made complete sense! I have lived in Rio for 1 year. Initially I studied Portuguese with a private tutor.  Without a doubt I have learned more in the first 3 weeks of her course than I did in the 3 months of private lessons.  Now I am more comfortable talking with the Porteiros and vegetable market vendors…and they understand me. Thank you Marcia!!!

I have had Marcia as my Portuguese teacher the past 4 months. My experience is that she is a competent teacher with a firm grip of vocabulary and grammar. Her method can seem a little intimidating at first, with lots of repetitions of seemingly correctly pronounced sentences and words. However, I found that after a couple of weeks I was able to form simple sentences, and also to understand some of the responses I got. Since then, the progress has been great, and I am now able to converse people in shops, taxi drivers etc. on simpler subjects, e.g. weather, traffic situation etc.
Marcia is a full-blood carioca, and will teach portuguese spoken the carioca way – which is what you need if you are going to live in Rio de Janeiro. She will also give you a nice insight in the local culture and way of life. And she is a fun person to be with. I can greatly recommend her courses for anyone wishing to learn to speak Portuguese the carioca way.
M.Sc Structural engineering
Trondheim, Norway

I had Marcia as my Portuguese teacher while I was living in Rio, and during this period I really improved my Portuguese and felt more comfortable speaking the language. I  highly recommend Marcia and Português Carioca to all students who wish to speak and understand Portuguese in the carioca way.

Royal Norwegian Consulate General / Innovation Norway Brazil.

Marcia has been my Portuguese teacher since just after I arrived in Rio de Janeiro, from August 2012. I started out with daily classes, and now I am in the school two afternoons a week. For me, Marcia’s teaching method is just the right one: She focus on speaking, and speaking correctly, and is strict enough so I have to focus. And she always gives good feedback and helps me with the right pronunciation, which is very important to me. Her new book is very useful, too: You learn grammar, and at the same time you learn vocabulary that is very useful when settling in Brazil. I fully recommend Português Carioca, both for professionals and for tourists.

I really enjoy being a student at Portugues Carioca. I am in the beginner’s course, and I have learnt a lot during these first weeks. The overall main focus is oral activity. Marcia speaks only Portugues during the classes – and so do i!
Marcia is a great teacher; structured, creative and professional. She explains grammar and language structures in an easily understandable way. In addition to effective oral classes, we get a bit of homework every day.
I am pleased to recommend Portugues Carioca to everyone.

After struggling for a few months with various Portuguese teachers in Rio I discovered Português Carioca in Ipanema. In a very short time my understanding of both the language and the local culture had improved significantly. I would recommend Português Carioca to anyone who wants to get the real feel for life in Rio.