There are a number of teachers and schools here for anyone wishing to study the Portuguese language. I have no personal experience with any of them, having learned the language on my own (not a good way to do it; if you're over the age of ten you'll learn much faster under a teacher's guidance), but my aim here is to present what is available and what, if anything, I know about them. And I'll state what should be obvious: The fewer the students, the better; one-on-one is best. This list is certainly not exhaustive, and I'll be adding other teachers as I become aware of them.

Ynaê Sodré

YNAÊ SODRÊ (that's pronounced "ee-nai-EY saw-DREY") gives private classes in Portuguese, and she will come to you, showing you the city and its cultural spots depending on the personal taste of the student.

Ynaê is also a great singer and can be heard on a CD of fundamental importance in Bahia (DENGO, the work of samba-de-roda's master Raimundo Sodré; and no, the last names are not a coincidence: father/daughter).

Ynaê's telephone number is 55 (Brazil) (71) Salvador 3245-9115, her cell phone is 9192-6188, and her e-mail address is inaesodre@hotmail.com.  (In case you're curious about that modified name in the e-mail address, some years ago the Brazilian government banned "y" and "k" from the alphabet, "Tony" officially morphing into"Toni" and "Ynaê" into "Inaê".  As as far as I'm concerned she's still Ynaê!

Inaê Sodré is in her final year of "Letras", which is the Brazilian equivalent of studying Portuguese literature and language -- at the Federal University of Bahia.  She's taught Portuguese at Curso Conexão Idiomas and at PROPEEP (Programa de Pesquisa, Ensino, and Extensão de Português: Research, Teaching and Extension of Portuguese) at the same university. She currently teaches Portuguese for Foreigners at Salvador's Alliance Francaise. Depending on her students' needs, she works with grammar, conversation, and pronunciation by way of writing dealing with Bahian and Brazilian culture, literature, and poetry, along with the lyrics of great Brazilian musicians.

FALA-BRASIL is a one-on-one Portuguese course taught by Augusto Pondé.  Professor Pondé has a Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Languages, speaks English and some French, and has been teaching Portuguese to foreigners since 1980.  His website is at www.fala-brasil.com.

TERRA BRASILIS is located in Barra, a couple of blocks away from the farol (lighthouse).  The school offers both individual and group Portuguese classes, and fluent English and German are spoken on the premises.  Their website may be found at www.portuguesecourseinbrasil.com.br. 

CASA DO BRASIL is located in Barra at Rua Milton de Oliveira, 231. The telephone/fax number is 264-5866, and there is a website at www.casa-do-brasil.net. E-mail is casadobrasil@quasar.com.br. English and German are spoken.

DIÁLOGO is located in Barra at Rua João Pondé, 240. Telephone is 264-0007, and fax is 264-0053. There's a website at www.dialogo-brazilstudy.com, and the e-mail address is info@dialogo-brazilstudy.com.

SHEILA WAKSMAN, a carioca (native of Rio) living in Salvador and a fluent English-speaker, has a range of courses which are delineated on her website at www.basicalingua.com. Sheila teaches in Barra.

SONIA-PORTUGUESE is a website (run by Sonia, of course) for English-speakers, dedicated to teaching the Portuguese language.  Lots of good information and excellent tips for free, and Sonia's book and course on CD ROM are also available. The website is at www.sonia-portuguese.com.

* A few notes for those intending to learn Portuguese (I will, as a matter of necessity, approach this from an English-speaker's point-of-view):

I'll start with the English language r. It doesn't exist in Portuguese. And when it creeps (or blares) its way in it sounds terrible. It's what Brazilians imitate when they make fun of English-speakers (particularly Americans, who pronounce it in a more, well, a more pronounced manner).

In Brazilian Portuguese an r at the beginning of a word is pronounced like an English-language h. When talking about a cidade maravilhosa they say "Hio". Conversely, a Brazilian with a little knowledge of English tends to pronounce red as "head": "This pencil is head!" Pretty ridiculous, but that's how a lot of us sound to them too. And it gets worse...

The English-language r does happen to be approached in one region of the country -- the interior of São Paulo -- where the accent is perceived by the rest of the country the way a Manhattanite might perceive, say, Billy Bob Thornton's accent: It makes us sound like hicks who can't talk right.