Today (May, 2024), I added a new course to my website: Brazilian History and Literature for upper-intermediate and advanced students (B2, C1, C2). Actually, I made it official, because I’ve been organizing and teaching this course for some years now.
I learn a lot from my students, and I also change things in my lessons because of them. It was because of one student that I noticed the lack of Brazilian Portuguese Graded Readers, so I wrote one, and I’m writing the second one!
Some years later, talking to another student, we ended up reading Capitães da Areia, by Jorge Amado, together. I made a reading plan for him with some comprehension questions, and followed the plan with him. During the lessons, we talked about his answers, his vocabulary questions, and the book.
I enjoyed it so much that it became a dream of mine to read with more students. So, I started offering these reading plans to other students, too, and it made me very happy to see the acceptance and openness of students to my idea. So, I organized a kind of “book club” for a book called Maria Altamira, by Maria José da Silveira, and got around 10 students reading this book in different paces, as their homework, but also answering comprehension questions, talking about vocabulary, and the story of the book, of course.
After that, I read many other books with my students and created one course on my italki profile dedicated to reading Brazilian Literature. To my surprise, students interested in this kind of lesson started contacting me.
How do these Brazilian Portuguese advanced lessons work?
As I said before, I’ve been reading many of these books with students that I know, so it’s easier for me to talk to them and suggest books. I only propose books that I read before, enjoyed, and offer topics for discussion. Capitães da Areia follows the story of a group of boys living in an abandoned warehouse as they grow up. There are many moral, religious, political, etc elements in this book, and it’s great to talk about them during a Brazilian Portuguese lesson. If you are interested in reading and talking about this book, here it is.
When I have a new student interested in starting this course, I recommend they take a test lesson first, so we get to know each other a little. Before starting with a book, I like to begin with short stories first, and then decide on a longer novel. During these advanced lessons, we also talk about grammar, structures, vocabulary, and any other aspect of the language the students find interesting.
On a different side of things, talking about literature is a way to escape the crazy world we are living in a little bit, even when stories presented in fiction books are hard or sad sometimes. Not to mention all the good things that fiction and language learning do to our brain, as it’s been studied a lot and you can find information about it online.
Are these Brazilian Portuguese advanced lessons for me?
If you…
- are an upper-intermediate or advanced student (B2, C1, C2),
- like to read and discover new books,
- enjoy talking about books that you’ve read, that you’ve bought, or want to buy
- want to practice portuguese,
then I can say that these lessons are for you!
Let’s talk about Brazilian Portuguese literature, you’ll be surprised! 🙂
