Cristhiane Vieira-Rozenblit Talks About Brazil Ahead

By Rodrigo Brandão

As the Founder and Managing Director of Brazil Ahead, a leading Brazilian Portuguese school in New York City, Cristhiane Vieira-Rozenblit has gotten used to meeting her team of instructors on a weekly basis; she has done so every week, since the school opened at the end of 2007.

The 2010 Team of Brazil Ahead Instructors.

These meetings are a crucial part of Brazil Ahead’s teaching strategy: they allow Ms. Vieira-Rozenblit’s team of instructors to share their teaching experiences and think aloud about new ways of teaching the basis of a Portuguese to a widely different group of students.

And while Cristhiane has been teaching Portuguese for over 14 years, the challenges of dealing with an average of 300 students a year (all in different levels and with different needs) keep her alert to upcoming trends. And in 2010, Brazil Ahead is changing a couple of classes, tweaking some old programs, and trying to bring American students a little closer to becoming fully proficient in Portuguese.

Q: So, what’s new with Brazil Ahead in 2010?

CVR: While continuing with our schedule of classes, movies, outings and immersion program in Rio, Brazil Ahead has further expanded its offerings in 2010. All group classes are now 2 hours (rather than 90 minutes), as this schedule has shown to improve retention, group classes meeting twice a week are offered year round, due to the large success of this offering last summer. Moreover, based on the success of the children’s monthly sessions that Brazil Ahead offered at the Brazilian Consulate, we are now offering regular children classes, as well special children sessions during school vacations and breaks in our Manhattan location. Lastly, in addition to Business Portuguese and Portuguese for Spanish Speakers, Brazil Ahead now offers Business Portuguese for Spanish Speakers.

Q: You are now offering an intensive, five-week Portuguese course for beginners. Tell us about the main goals of this intensive sessions and also, about the specific methods behind teaching a course like that?

CVR: Brazil Ahead is offering both intensive (four times a week) and semi-intensive (twice a week) courses, in addition to the regular once-a-week courses. The more frequent sessions result not only in faster progress but also promote higher retention. The intensive and semi-intensive courses are ideal for students who strive to achieve conversational proficiency in Brazilian Portuguese in short time. In order to facilitate the faster pace, those classes focus on conversational Portuguese with extensive use of visual and audio material.

With the regular schedule (once a week), each class needs to allow for a review of some previous material that students may have forgotten; with the more intensive schedule, the challenge is to make the rapid absorption of new material feel effortless.

Cristhiane Vieira-Rozenblit

Q: As the Brazilian economy grows in size and political relevancy, is it common now to meet professional looking to learn Portuguese in other to get ahead in a more competitive job market? Do you offer courses aimed at that demographic?

CVR: Brazil Ahead is the first Portuguese school in New York City to offer a complete curriculum of Business Portuguese. And this offering has been further expanded to offer Business Portuguese for Spanish Speakers. Brazil Ahead is also the first Portuguese school in New York City to offer a specific curriculum to students preparing for the Celpe Bras exam (the exam itself is given at Harvard University); we are delighted that several of our students have already passed this exam successfully.