After nine years and two hundred students, I've learned one thing. The textbooks aren't wrong, but they're not enough.
People ask me a lot why I teach the way I teach. It seems like a simple question. Every time I sit down to answer it, I end up writing more than I planned.
So here it is, for anyone curious, or anyone considering working with me.
The textbooks aren't wrong
They're just not enough.
When I first started teaching, I followed the textbook. Vocabulary list on Monday, grammar drill on Wednesday, conversation topic on Friday. My students passed their tests. Some of them got good at it.
But they weren't speaking. Not really. They could order a coffee, sure. They couldn't tell a joke. They couldn't disagree politely. They couldn't say what they actually thought about what we were discussing, because they'd only been taught how to describe the weather and their weekend plans.
Then they'd go to Portugal, and they'd freeze.
Language is culture, and culture is messy
Here's the thing nobody tells you when you sign up for a Portuguese course. Portuguese isn't one thing. It's the formal Portuguese of the textbook. It's the Portuguese a grandmother uses when she's telling a story. It's the Portuguese a taxi driver uses when he's complaining about traffic. It's the Portuguese of fado songs and newspaper editorials and children's books.
You can't separate any of these from the culture they come from. If you try to, you end up with a student who knows the grammar perfectly and still can't have a conversation.
So in my lessons, we do both. We do the grammar, because without it you're guessing. We do it in the context of real things. A news article. A short film. A poem. A conversation I had with my neighbour last week.
The student is the teacher's best teacher
Every student who's worked with me has made me a better teacher.
Maggie from the US went from zero to B1. She taught me patience and the importance of small wins.
Eliott passed his B1 exam. He taught me how to prepare someone for something specific without losing the joy.
Jules has been with me for three years. He's taught me that the best lessons are the ones where you forget you're teaching.
This is why I never use the same plan twice. Even for students at the same level, the path looks different.
What I want for you
I don't want you to pass a test. I don't want you to tick a box. I want you to walk into a café in Porto, order a bica, start talking to the person next to you, and forget, for a moment, that you're speaking a second language at all.
That's the goal.
If that sounds good to you, get in touch. Let's have a conversation.
Nuno