I went to pay for a bottle of gas yesterday. In Portuguese, of course. In fact, there's no other option. The first part of the story is that when I first went to buy gas on Friday, the system wasn't working. The man, Senhor Amilcar, couldn't charge me. and said, "Oh, it will be delivered this afternoon. Come back and pay on Monday." I went back to pay yesterday and was told, in the usual 'barrage' of Portuguese, that (from what I could discern) the price of gas had gone down. What a lovely experience: 1. To be trusted to come back and pay later, with much-needed gas delivered regardless. 2. That a drop in the price of gas has been passed on to me, the customer. There's no reason why they had to change, lower, their price. (Or maybe there is. I don't know, perhaps there is an energy supply law in Portugal), but still they honoured and shared the drop in price, which delights me. I mentioned the word "barrage." And I don't mean that in any negative way. What I mean is, buying gas, I'm able to sit down in the office, the escritório of the gas shop, and have our man in there, in his 70s perhaps, freely flow in Portuguese at me. It's a chance to soak up and relax into a wave of conversational and daily colloquial Portuguese without feeling startled. He just keeps talking and I sit back and let it wash over me. I relax and see what I can discern, smiling and laughing, responding appropriately to the tone, the atmosphere, and to the conviviality in the room. I like buying gas in my town for so many reasons. Here's a gas-buying mission module for you. I hope you have a similar experience.

Welcome to a new week of SPEAKING Portuguese, we have a new format... As of today we have taken away the goal of 90 days and we are focusing on speaking Portuguese today, AND every day. This daily post is where you can share: - WHAT you intend to say in Portuguese today - WHO you intend to speak to - WHERE you want to say it, - And, of course, the community for inspiration, support and encouragement 🤗 Today's mission of the day is available to all members and it's an important "What to Do in an Emergency" module, which you can find in the classroom here. To get the best out of this community, please take part, take a (baby) step, every day, and we'll check in on Friday about your weekly progress PLUS a party call for Premium members. So please don't scroll, enrol! WRITE IN THE COMMENTS 👇 What is it you want to say? Who do you want to say it to? Where do you want to say it? And let's help each other speak Portuguese now, today, every day...

This from the Monday morning briefing yesterday and prompted by @Brian Mathers (muito obrigado) and recognised by us all - a new FREE mission module for the "deer in the headlights moment", the 'confrontation' before the 'conversation' - introducing the ladder method... Here's the problem: almost everyone has this exact and AWKWARD gap. Not a lack of vocabulary - a genuine blank the moment "bom dia" runs out. You said it, they said it back, and then... nothing. Door knocked, nobody answered. #BeyondBomDia is built as a ladder - four small rungs past the greeting: 1. The greeting itself (where most of us stop) 2. A genuine observation ("está um lindo dia, não está?") 3. A real question ("como tem passado?") 4. A proper exchange ("e então, o que me conta?") It also borrows something we heard about from the conversation nights in Caldas - the 'copos' & conversation idea. For us, one rule: nobody's allowed to just say bom dia and walk away. Every greeting has to earn at least one real line back before the conversation's allowed to end. Worth trying with your own buddy or a small group. And when the ladder runs out again - because it will, that's fine - that's exactly where the panic phrases from Yikes! What Now?! earn their keep. Go check it out in the classroom, and tell me: where does YOUR ladder currently run(g) out? Rung 1, 2, 3? Let me know 👇 #SWAT - Show up. Wing it. Adapt. Talk. GET THE NEW MODULE HERE

Aprendi o alfabeto português na semana passada. A maioria das letras é fácil... excepto a letra R 😳 Aprendi também que existem duas formas de pronunciar a letra Y.

Olá boa noite @Debby Bradford, e "Parabéns a voce"! All together now...