Has anyone had any experience with using Camões - Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua for learning?
The offer self/online learning classes
Yes! I did their Level 2 beginners course. Unfortunately it coincided with a particularly busy run of work, when I was often working 12-15 hours a day and had little time to do the exercises. I did most of them, but the course also included a weekly Skype call with a Portuguese-speaking tutor. During which we realised that my spoken Portuguese was probably not up to a proper conversation…
One thing to note about the exercises is that they don’t always explain what’s needed. It’s more of an immersive approach. I wish I could explain this better (I can’t remember the exact details), but sometimes I wasn’t entirely sure what was expected. Most of the times I could work it out, but not always. There is, however, the option to re-do them!
I think it would have been great if (1) if I had had more time; (2) if I’d started off at Level 1 – although that might have been too easy; and (3) if it was a way of consolidating more general daily usage. Instead of which, I live in total isolation (the COVID-19 lockdown hardly changed anything for me!) and my only real practice is here.
Hope this helps. The tutor I had my weekly Skype chats with was very good. It’s just a shame I had to keep cancelling them because of work pressures!
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Hi Anthony,
I did about ten years ago. They were online classes using Lidel text books. I liked that it required diligence. We had meetings one on one with the teacher on Skype. I certainly learned something.
Their platform is more advanced now, looks like. I think my experience may be out of date. There was no Practice Portuguese then. Camões was all I could find besides private tutorials which I was not interested in. If you sign up, let us know how it goes!
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Hi, just seen this post and am also interested in getting some online lessons to improve my Portuguese learning. I love practice portuguese and have been listening to the podcasts since it began but I know I need my own teacher to see/speak to and push me. Just wondered what other’s thoughts on face to face (online or in person) learning are? thank you, Andy
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