Our mission is to help you communicate in Portuguese with ease and navigate the Brazilian culture with confidence
Street Smart Brazil specializes in Brazilian Portuguese lessons via video meetings. We have been teaching Portuguese online since 2008. We have unmatched experience helping learners around the globe speak Portuguese with ease.
We teach perfect Portuguese for all occasions, and have complete programs available, from absolute beginner to completely fluent. Shop for Portuguese lessons here.
Our Mission and Commitment
We are passionate about language and culture. Our mission is to help you gain the ability to communicate in Portuguese with ease and navigate the Brazilian culture with confidence. We are committed to offering our clients a fun, challenging, and fulfilling learning experience.
Luciana feels at her best when clients and readers of her blog say that they finally understood a certain topic. Teaching in a simple, practical way is one of Luciana’s strengths.
Your Instructors
Learn Portuguese with language tutors who are not just native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. They are experts in the Brazilian language, culture, and lifestyle.
Learn with Portuguese language tutors who are:
- Native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese
- Fluent in English and additional languages
- College-educated with learning experience both in Brazil and abroad
- Trained professionals with work experience in Brazil and abroad
Hear it from our clients:
The quality of the instruction is outstanding. – Jennifer
Street Smart Brazil has done a remarkable job in rigorously selecting a group of teachers who meet the highest standards in language tuition while remaining supple and responsive to their students’ needs. – Carlos
I was really impressed with the quality of teaching; from the informative handouts to the schedule tailored exactly to my needs and above all, the teachers, who are hugely knowledgeable and enthusiastic. – Danielle
My teacher is incredibly nice and patient with me, and extremely knowledgeable about the Portuguese Language and Brazilian culture. – Michael
My instructor is a GREAT teacher, very enthusiastic and very encouraging. She listens attentively to what I’m saying and she gives the right amount of feedback at the right time. – Vanessa
The Street Smart Brazil Teaching Approach
Why do we venture into learning a new language? Because we want to communicate and interact. Whether for personal or professional reasons, we learn a new language to open the doors to a new culture, new ideas, and new friends.
With that in mind, we use a communicative approach to teaching Portuguese in a practical way. We use real-life situations that you are likely to encounter. All of our classes are packed with cultural content to help you achieve language and cultural proficiency. After all, how effective is a speaker of a foreign language without cultural sensitivity?
Learn better with Street Smart Brazil:
- Communicative approach to get you functioning in Portuguese as soon as possible
- Focus on real-life situations to develop your ability to live and do business in Portuguese
- Cultural coaching so you can get more out of your experiences in and with Brazil
- Personalized learning to attend to your specific needs and objectives
Our History
Luciana Lage, FounderLuciana Lage founded Street Smart Brazil in 2008. With 10+ years of experience teaching Portuguese, Luciana created a unique approach to teaching her native language using original content, focusing on class customization, and emphasizing the cultural experience. Luciana has also taught Portuguese at University of California, Berkeley, and currently teaches at University of San Francisco.
Luciana owes the inspiration to open her own school to her client Blake. She says that Blake kept telling her time and time again that she needed to have her own teaching practice.
There was also Brian, a client who was learning via Skype from Brazil (back in 2008 not many people were teaching Portuguese via video meetings). Luciana recounts that one day, in the middle of a class, Brian told her: “I wish I had done this before. I finally feel I am learning what I need to learn in order to live here.” Here is what happened next in Luciana’s words:
“When we finished our lesson something just clicked in my brain. I turned to my husband Carl and said: ‘That’s it! I am in business and I am Street Smart Brazil.’”
Through the years, Street Smart Brazil has built a wonderful multicultural community that is engaged in speaking Portuguese and learning about Brazil. It is this deep sense of community that inspires and motivates us every day to give our very best to sharing our culture and teaching our beautiful language.
