Lisbon Language Cafe

This is my second time studying Portuguese in Lisbon. When I was here in 2014, I took a one-month intensive course at the University of Lisbon's ICLP (Instituto de Culturo e Lingua Portuguesa), which gave me a great foundation in Portuguese. This time, I wanted to try a less-structured and more conversational approach to learning the language. A friend here told me about the Lisbon Language Cafe, and that's where I've been studying for the last few months. The premise of this school is that the best way to practice a language is to get together in a group of 4 or less (plus the instructor) and work on listening and conversation. I think it's a great method and I feel like the teachers at Lisbon Language Cafe really take their work seriously. Each time I attended, the instructor had a well-planned topic with vocabulary support and a variety of different exercises. And, you have the choice to attend when you have time and are not obligated to attend every week if you are busy. That allowed me to travel and still maintain my studies.

I have been going to two language groups every week and also taking one private lesson a week. It's been challenging because a lot of the students in my groups seem more fluent than I am. But, it's also been really fun, interesting, and satisfying to have the focus on conversational fluency. One location is at the LX Factory, where many of the classes and conversation groups meet, but other locations include Vertigo Cafe in the Chiado neighborhood and for Portuguese speakers practicing English, the cafe at the Maria Matos theater near Avenida Roma.

Here are a few pictures from the Vertigo Cafe group in Chiado:

One thing I really like about Lisbon Language Cafe is that the conversation groups meet in a cafe. That makes it really relaxing because it feels like a social occasion and you only meet for one hour. I think that's the perfect amount of time to try and practice a new language.  

I was also asked to help moderate the English language group at the MM theater cafe two times and it was really rewarding to talk to Portuguese adults learning English and see the other side of the coin. Needless to say, their English is way better than my Portuguese !

I'm so happy I found this school. It's provided a flexible, stimulating, and expansive way to learn language. Thanks to Frederico and Susanna for all their hard work !!!

Lisbon Language Cafe

Here are a few more photos of the LX Factory, a former thread and fabric factory, that has become a very interesting creative space for new businesses, start-ups with shared work spaces, art studios, restaurants and one of the best bookstores in Lisbon, Ler Devager. It's been great to spend time here studying Portuguese. 

Here's the cafe where we meet...and there's a great view of the bridge from the cafe window !

And, speaking of what a creative space this is, check out the restroom art for this month:

LX Factory

Às Aulas de Violão

One of the best connections I've made on this visit to Portugal is meeting Nicholas, my guitar teacher, and his mother Margarida. Margarida runs a volunteer Portuguese conversation group once a week in her home. I told her I wanted to buy a guitar while I was in Portugal and she introduced me to her son Nicky, who is a very accomplished musician and composer and gives guitar lessons.

He teaches me classical guitar songs which focus on finger-picking. It's been so much fun to go to his studio on Avenida de Roma and study with him and talk about music. He can play many different genres of music like, classical, rock, jazz and others. He's also a gifted instructor.

He also has a band, Cafe D'Alma, that I got to see perform last weekend. It was a wonderful performance and I'm so glad that I got to see them live.

Check out the Cafe D'Alma website here:


Sometimes after my lesson, we go down the street to a little "tasca" or restaurant called Vitta Roma for lunch. The food is great and very inexpensive. I feel much more like a native Lisboeta when I go out with Nicky and Margarida because they live in a part of Lisbon that isn't so touristy. Margarida always speaks to me in Portuguese so I get to practice.

I'm really going to miss these guys when I leave. I told Nicky maybe we can continue to do lessons on Skype after I'm back in SF. 

Uma Entrega Especial !

One of my favorite students at CCSF has family in Portugal. She asked me to bring them a backpack with some gifts for them and especially for her new baby brother, Santiago. They live in Costa da Caparica, which is about 45 minutes from Lisbon by bus. Luckily, my friend Shelly went with me because my Portuguese is still not good enough to communicate well. 

We had a really nice time meeting Vania, Lindemar, Ingrid, Yasmin, and baby Santiago. Vania prepared an amazing lunch which included very delicious Brazilian-style food such as a stew with "maniocas", an orange vegetable (cassava) like a sweet potato, feijoada (beans with some meat), rice and of course there was some excellent Portuguese wine. We were so impressed with their hospitality. They made us feel so comfortable and welcome.

It was very special for me to meet this family and to get to see where my student Fran is from. So often, I teach people from all over the world and though they sometimes show me pictures of their families and where they are from, this is the first time I have actually visited a student's family. It was such a great experience for me and I'm very grateful to Fran, and her family, and to my friend Shelly for making this possible.

After lunch, Shelly and I wanted to go to the beach and Yasmin decided to go with us. Lindemar gave us a ride to a little train that you can take to different beaches along the Costa da Caparica. It was so nice there. It was a sunny day and the water was warm. Yasmin wanted to go in the water over and over again so I went with her. We had a great day at the beach.

Later, when we returned from the beach, Vania had prepared a wonderful sobremesa (dessert) for us. It was a "maracuja" (passionfruit) tart. I have remembered that word, maracuja, because of that delicious treat.

But, the biggest treat of the day was meeting Santiago. He is a beautiful boy and I know Fran is really looking forward to meeting him very soon.

I'm so glad that Fran asked me to make this special delivery. It was a window into the life of a hard-working and accomplished student who I know will go very far. Now I can understand more about the lives of my students and where they come from. Thanks Fran and special thanks again to Shelly for everything !!!

Here is the surf beach cam for Costa da Caparica !

Gigantones in Viana do Castelo !!!

In August, my friend Shelly and I traveled to a beautiful town in northern Portugal called Viana do Castelo. It's about 5 hours north by train from Lisbon. We went there because Shelly knew about a festival they have there once a year called Romaria de Nossa Señora D'Agonia. It's a 3-day festival that is very colorful and has a lot of different traditions that I'd like to learn more about.  I didn't read the wonderful program before going but here it is and it's written in both Portuguese and English - though the English part seems much briefer than the Portuguese. I just found out, by looking on the internet, that the word "romario" means: pilgrimage. A"pilgrimage" is when people travel to a place (a shrine or church or "sanctuary" (safe place) ) that is important in their religion or in their beliefs. The word "romario" originally comes from people or "pilgrims" who traveled to Rome, Italy.  

Full program with text and photos of the Romaria D'Agonia in Viana Do Castelo

The main features of this festival involve fisherman giving thanks to their patron saint (Nossa Señora D'Agonia). This includes  having processions and parades, decorating the streets with special "tapetes" or carpets made of colored salt, wearing traditional clothing that reflects the history and style of a particular village, fireworks all three nights at midnight on the river, lots of special foods and crafts and music and, most importantly, the Gigantones or giants, the cabeçudos and the drummers !

This festival was so interesting for many reasons...but the biggest reason I wanted to go was to see the Gigantones. Gigantones are giant paper mache people that exorcise (or get rid of) evil in the world. In Portuguese, they "exorcizar os males do mundo", according to the program I got at the festival. They also appear with "cabeçudos", which are referred to as big-headed puppets. The giants and puppets dance or whirl  (turn around and around) to the beat of many groups of very loud drummers. It's really exciting to watch. Take a look at the video below to see them in action.

More info and great pics about Gigantones in Viana do Castelo 

And here are some pics of the "cabeçudos" or puppet heads:

Another big part of this festival is wearing traditional costumes or clothing from all the different towns and villages of the Minho region (far north-west) in Portugal. We were able to attend a special "Festa do Traje" or Festival of Costumes performance and I learned that each place in Portugal traditionally had clothing with particular designs, colors, and fabric unique to that place. And, in the past, when people met each other outside their villages at a market or special occasion, they could identify exactly where people were from by the clothes they wore. Many times, scarves and aprons were used to dress up and personalize a woman's outfit so that she could distinguish herself and express her sense of style.

Also, I was really surprised to see that there is a traditional wedding outfit (for both the bride and groom) in black.

More info. about folk costumes from the Minho

Viana do Castelo is famous for it's filigree jewelry and traditionally women would wear gold jewelry that was passed down through the generations. We learned that for special occasions, women would wear all the gold they owned to display the wealth and heritage of their family. The women dressed in  traditional clothes are referred to as "mordomas" and here is an interesting quote from the program (see link above) about the gold they wear: 

"...these mordomas represent the largest outdoor showcase of gold in the world."

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Here is the famous Viana heart that is a popular jewelry design:

More about the costumes and jewelry of the Minho

Program link explaining the "Mordomia" costumes:

The "tapetes" or carpets were made of colored salt and decorated the streets around the "ribeira" neighborhood near the water. People create them all night on Friday and they are usually gone by Sunday. We were lucky that we happened to take a walk in that area on Saturday. A lot of the themes of this festival are linked to the traditions of fishing and the sea. I didn't realize that the carpets are made to be walked on after the procession to the sea on Saturday. This part of the festival is traditionally for fisherman and their families to give thanks to the patron saint, Nossa Señora D'Agonia. Here are some photos:

Many people with homes and businesses around the ribeira also decorate their balconies and windows. It's fun to walk around and look at the decorations.

More info about "tapetes":

Another way people decorate for this festival is to hang bedspreads and special blankets out the window to display. 

More info. and pics of the tapetes

There were also special processions through the streets with marching bands, people in costumes, and people carrying religious icons.

There was also a procession from the main church to the sea to bless the fishing boats...

And, the lights at night were really beautiful.

And finally, here are a few more pics of the town. It was such a rich and amazing experience to see all of that in only 3 and a half days. I hope I make it back there someday again. I have a lot of respect for the Portuguese people. Even though there were big crowds of people every day, everyone was calm and polite to each other. It was really fun to be part of this festa ! Thank you to all the people of Viana and beyond who made this festa happen. It was so beautiful and interesting for me. I wish we had that kind of unity and rich cultural heritage in the U.S.

After the festa, Praça de Republica is almost empty.