Yes, thatâs the same experience for everyone - myself included. Rest assured, the course itself was really well put together. Importantly, once the course finished, we were contacted in a timely manner when the course completion certificates were ready.
Our instructor was really patient, sympathetic and good natured. The course is a test of endurance as youâre essentially cramming in a yearâs learning into 10 weeks.
Tried Ciplemaster. Given their pricing I thought they would be more private tutoring style but it is more just classes and they are at set times that doesnât work for the US West Coast (e. g. Kids course is 0900 GMT which is like 0000 PST).
Going to check out Edpro and if that doesnât work there is a local person who is Brazilian but spent time in Portugal and claims to teach European Portuguese. Or will find a private tutor online at worst case.
Yeah thatâs my problem with these PLA courses too. I wonder if they could teach a course in Brazil but PLA certified. The time difference would be much easier.
we are doing the LUSA program (talk to Bianca). they arranged it around our schedule 0900-1100cst 3days/wk. it is $6k for 2 of us. I know it isnât on the website- talk to Bianca. it is the 150 hour program and you get a certificate upon completion.
Although a LOT of âvoceâ on PimsleurâŠ.
At least it seems first several lessons?
I donât recall really, maybe. You might have br pt? As long as the words end in âshâ for âsâ that should be it though
Thank you everyone for your input. I was able to reach them on WhatsApp (mentioned on their website), they sent me a timetable for classes starting on 28 January 2025 and ending on 24 March 2025, 4 hours every day with weekend breaks. I was also told ill receive a detailed email for registration etc. They have four options for online classes, morning, afternoon and evening.
Itâs the Euro version. I agree though, I really like it.
Pimsleur use pronouns in the first few lessons, then later tell you they are usually dropped. This is exactly how we have been taught in our in person European Portuguese lessons.
Thank you, but do most European Portuguese use the voce verb form or tu? I was told by my tutor almost no one uses voce- so I did not want to learn mostly the form that no one uses anymoreâŠ.
VocĂȘ is used, insofar as you conjugate verbs in that form but you donât actually say âvocĂȘâ. Itâs just implied. In Portugal, when you use âvocĂȘâ it often can come across sort of like a snooty rich person talking down to a peasant - âyou can walk, Iâll get an uberâ sort of thing.
But youâre learning, itâll be obvious, if you have to use vocĂȘ to get a thought across, donât stress too much, anyone not intentionally looking to fight will be fine with it.
You can tell them to call you vocĂȘ for the simplicity 
. If they treat you by âtuâ, it is harder to understand because verb conjugation at âtuâ is more difficult to remember. Verb for vocĂȘ basically sounds almost the same verb in infinitive form.
Iâm doing the Edpro course right now. Enrollment was fairly easy, and the teaching method and pace suit me. The teacher is knowledgeable in pedagogy and very professional. That said, about 3+ hours of lectures every morning for five days a week can be quite taxing. The flip side is that we get a two-week Christmas break right in between the two halves of four weeks each.
I consider this learning to be the bare minimum for developing oneâs Portuguese skills. Taking advantage of supplementary online courses or for those in Portugal, continuous practice over several months can help one achieve a decent conversational level, I think.
The price of 700 euros is quite reasonable compared to the 6,000 euros concierge course. When you consider that the average take home salary in Portugal is 1,200 euros per month, the latter certainly seems like excessive.
Finally, the exemption from CIPLE is the big draw for me here as Iâd hate to sit for any exams at this stage of my life.
My question wasnât about Edpro, it was about LUSA discussed by the other poster, as there is no mention of any exemption from the A2 exam on the LUSA website - in fact they specifically mention helping you prepare for and enroll in the exam.
My mistake. Sorry.
If you look above in the mid-October time frame of this thread there is an extensive discussion of a certificate called âSIGOâ that could be issued by LUSA (and similar schools) and some applicants have been told or have reached the conclusion that the SIGO certificate is sufficient and exempts you from the CIPLE. You are correct that LUSA does not represent that it would exempt you from CIPLE which leaves me with questions. Also, the number of hours you would spend in class through A2 are few fewer than the 150 hours required in the PLA course which does qualify to exempt you from the CIPLE exam.
I went to LUSA for a few weeks one summer, self studied, used a weekly tutor and passed the CIPLE the following summer. Glad I have the certificate and no anxieties about the language requirement.
Roughly how many hours of tuition and how many house of self-study would you say you did before passing A2 exam?
They do in emails. It is confusing that they do not do so on their website. I recommend contacting Lusa directly for clarity on this issue.
Dan.
I was going to do 4 weeks at LUSA but got COVID and ended up doing 3. I signed up for the July CIPLE test the following summer and had one more week at LUSA but took a class I had already completed to review past tense and then also had daily one-hour sessions with my tutor until the test (about 1 week). He had me write some essays which was helpful for the test and all in all helpful in focusing on some strategies for the written part.
Between the two summers I probably spent about 4-5 hours a week with Practice Portuguese and the one hour with tutor (and sometimes homework from him). Also I tried listening to various podcasts in Portuguese. Thereâs an RTP app called Estudo em Casa. The app was meant for teaching kids at home during COVID but is very helpful as there is Portuguese and school subjects at various grade levels. I did various subjects on that app aimed at third to sixth grade levels. I would do a few hours of that a week. I would also recommend the podcast Portugueses No Mundo as they actually used these for part of the listening exercises during the CIPLE (how these are A2 level I do not understand!) playing two different snippets from the podcasts.
I do know some French, Italian and Spanish so that was helpful as there are of course grammar/word communalities but sometimes itâs a hinderance because I was often corrected in class for using âperoâ instead of âmasâ and often wondered if the word I had chosen was the Italian word or really the Portuguese word. So, if you donât have other Latin languages, I wouldnât worry. Good luck!
Yup, I know the pain⊠