Class #10 with Alexia, November 3, 2026
note: this is a recording of your private coaching session with Alexia. No one will see it except you, Alexia, and Foster 🙏
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Session summary
This hour started with a cup of English breakfast tea and ended with both of you hungry. Along the way: chá preto com leite (and the mint tea someone in England served you with milk), Matte Leão and your four days in Laranjeiras, hotel breakfasts (the ibis in Brussels, kippers at an old B&B in Scotland, and Alexia's month in Swanage when she was fifteen), sueco versus suíço, waiting three weeks for a phone appointment, your first breakfast in Japan, spicy food and who you trust to cook it, queijo minas in Somerset, Christmas in four countries, and finally Toby Carvery and Too Good To Go.
Two things are worth naming. The first is the questions you asked. Você estava com medo antes de ir? Ou você estava só animada? and é uma coisa deste estado? kept the conversation moving, and you brought the Japan story back on your own, ten minutes after breakfast had come up. Your English came in at specific gaps (time difference, watermelon, healthy) rather than whole sentences. The second is the one thing to work on before next class, which is the same as last time: third-person verbs coming out in the eu form. Ele voltei for ele voltou, ele falei for ele falou, eles não gostei for eles não gostaram. A few seconds after that last one, you said gostaram correctly yourself.
☕ Chá preto, chá de menta e o Matte Leão
Estou tomando chá — I'm drinking tea (you said está tomando. For "I", it's estou.)
Chá preto — black tea
Chá de menta — mint tea
Quando eu tomei chá de menta — when I had mint tea
Eu me forcei — I forced myself (forçar-se is reflexive, so you need the me)
O meu favorito — my favourite (you started with minha favorita. O chá is masculine, so the word stays masculine.)
Matte Leão — the tea and mate brand every carioca knows
In England everyone seemed to assume every tea needs milk, which is how you ended up with mint tea with milk in it. Era horrível. You'd also stopped drinking tea for a while because everyone at home was on plant milk, and that ruins it. Now you buy normal milk again.
Alexia is the opposite. She can't drink tea without something sweet, which is why she says it stops being tea and turns into a sweet drink. You told her you used to be the same and eu me forcei to drink it without sugar.
On the beach in Rio, vendors walk the sand selling mate. You can find it in supermarkets too, in bottles or little cups. Matte Leão is the brand, it makes several products, and the tea you like is one of them. Alexia's favourite is Matte Leão com limão. It's harder to find in São Paulo than in Rio, so look for it while you're in Laranjeiras.
🏨 Quatro dias no Rio
Por quatro dias — for four days (you said para quatro dias)
Ele voltou pra casa da mãe dele — he moved back to his mum's (you said ele voltei para casa do mãe)
A pousada — guesthouse
Two small fixes in one story. For how long something lasts, use por: vou ficar no Rio por quatro dias. Para is for where you're going or why: vou para o Rio. And mãe is feminine, so it's a casa da mãe, not do.
You wanted to stay with your friend, but he's moved back in with his mum, so there's no room. Pousadas in Rio are expensive, so it may be the ibis again: cheap, and you always know what you're getting.
🍳 Café da manhã de hotel
O café da manhã — breakfast
Não é saudável — it's not healthy (you reached for healthy and bad for you)
Alexia's best hotel breakfast was at the ibis near the central station in Brussels, where she stayed with her dad: waffles made to order, every kind of bread, croissants with and without chocolate, cheese and lots of fruit. She didn't want to leave.
Your best was at an old B&B in Scotland that still serves kippers: two small, very salty fish with lemon and an egg on the side. You thought it was a very healthy way to start the day. A full English, on the other hand, is fun to eat, but não é saudável.
Alexia's month in England at fifteen came with breakfasts of beans and potatoes, and her reaction was isso é almoço, isso não é café da manhã. She couldn't eat all that and then have lunch.
🏸 Peteca, sueco e suíço
A peteca — shuttlecock (Alexia didn't know the English word. You did.)
Sueco, a Suécia — Swedish, Sweden
Suíço, a Suíça — Swiss, Switzerland
Alexia's trip was an exchange her English school in Rio ran in January. She went to Harrow House in Swanage and slept at the school instead of with a host family. Badminton yes, rugby não, muito obrigada. Every weekend there was a day trip to London, Bournemouth or Poole. One night the Swedish boys set off the fire alarm, and everyone ended up outside in the middle of the night, freezing.
When she said suecos, you asked if that was Switzerland. Fair question, because the two words are almost the same. Sueco goes with Suécia, suíço with Suíça. In Brazil, peteca is also a game of its own, hit with the hand.
📞 Atrasada e a consulta por telefone
Atrasada — late
Eu estava dois minutos atrasada — I was two minutes late
A consulta — appointment
Uma ligação — a phone call (you said uma ligada)
Ligação is the call. Ligado or ligada means switched on, or tuned in. You were late because your doctor's surgery rang you. All you need is a twenty-minute phone consulta, and the next free slot is three weeks away. Alexia said the same thing happens in Portugal: you think something's ticked off your list, and then you have to do it all again next week.
🍱 O primeiro café da manhã no Japão
A única vez que eu fui para o Japão — the only time I went to Japan (you said que foi)
Eu lembro do primeiro café da manhã — I remember the first breakfast (lembrar takes de)
Eu fiquei muito confusa — I was really confused (you said muito confusão. Confusão is the noun, confusa is how you felt.)
O fuso horário — time zone
A diferença de horário — time difference
This is the story you brought back on your own. Breakfast was soup and rice, with tea instead of coffee, and it left you sad and confused, so you waited until midday to eat. The rest of the food was wonderful. Between that and a diferença de horário (awake every night, asleep in the day), you missed European food a little more each day of that week. Alexia said plenty of people go through the same thing in Japan and end up looking for international restaurants by day two.
🌶️ Apimentado e confiança
Apimentado, apimentada — spicy (you said pimentada)
Confiar — to trust
Eu não confio nos vendedores de rua — I don't trust street vendors
O meu paladar não estava acostumado — my palate wasn't used to it
Se eu estiver com muita fome, eu fico chateada — if I'm really hungry, I get annoyed
É uma parte cultural específica — it's a specific cultural thing
Estiver is the future subjunctive of estar. Portuguese uses it after se when you mean "if" or "whenever": se eu estiver cansada, se eu estiver com fome. You said brava, which also works, but it's stronger, closer to angry.
You made the point that it comes down to what you grew up eating. In Brazil, pepper is usually an option on the side, and feijão e arroz aren't spicy. Alexia agreed: in Bahia nearly everything is spicy, acarajé included, while in the southeast you choose. The first time she went to South Carolina, o paladar dela não estava acostumado. At a birthday dinner there she ordered the plainest thing on the menu, pasta with tomato and basil, and it was so spicy she cried. Her favourite Brazilian food is mineira. Yours is baiana.
🧀 Queijo minas em Somerset
Queijo fresco — fresh cheese
Eu trouxe para a família do meu namorado — I brought it to my boyfriend's family (the past of trazer is irregular: eu trouxe, ele trouxe)
Eles não gostaram — they didn't like it (you said eles não gostei)
A goiabada — guava paste
O doce de leite — dulce de leche
Vai funcionar — it'll work
Three new Brazilian shops have opened near you in the last six months, but only one sells queijo minas, and you want to know who's making it in Somerset. Alexia's answer: it's a fresh cheese, so it can't be shipped from Brazil. Someone must be making it locally, and the label will tell you who.
You took queijo minas and goiabada to your boyfriend's family as the best thing in the world, and they didn't like it. They prefer strong cheese, like blue cheese. Alexia's idea for next time is queijo minas com doce de leite. Vai funcionar.
🎄 Natal em quatro países
O peru de Natal — Christmas turkey
O carneiro — lamb, mutton
O bacalhau — salt cod
O polvo — octopus
A melancia com presunto em cima — watermelon with ham on top
Em cima — on top
As variedades — varieties (you said pariatas)
This year is your first Christmas in Brazil in five years. You land at five in the morning on the 24th, so you'll be tired all day. Your grandmother cooks more Italian food at Christmas, and one dish comes back every year: melancia com presunto em cima.
In England, it's chicken, potatoes, vegetables and Yorkshire puddings, which you think are the best part. In Portugal, Alexia's experience is bacalhau, polvo or carneiro, with no peru, so they order one to have the Christmas food they grew up with. For Brazilians, bacalhau belongs to Easter. You added that for the English, lamb does too.
Alexia's favourite of all is Thanksgiving food, especially sweet potato purée with marshmallows on top. You agreed that food in the United States has so many variedades, different in every region.
🍽️ Toby Carvery e Too Good To Go
A comida caseira — home cooking
A marmita — a packed meal, the container it comes in
O pote — container, tub
Your tip was Toby Carvery: a Thanksgiving-style plate for about ten pounds, and warm inside when it's cold out. Most people go on Sunday, but you and your boyfriend go on Monday because it's cheaper and less crowded.
Alexia's tip was Too Good To Go. A restaurant near her coworking space sells two huge tubs for four euros after lunch, one of salad and one of food, enough dinner for two. She often doesn't know what's inside until she opens it at home. You think there's something similar near you, but only for supermarket food, so check whether restaurants are on it too.
🔁 Ele voltou, eles gostaram
Ele voltou pra casa da mãe dele — he moved back to his mum's (you said ele voltei)
Ele falou para ficar no ibis — he said to stay at the ibis (you said ele falei)
Eles não gostaram — they didn't like it (you said eles não gostei)
Eles ainda fazem isso — they still do that (you said eles ainda fez)
A única vez que eu fui — the only time I went (you said que foi)
This is the same pattern as Class #6 and Class #9, now running in both directions. When someone else is the subject, the verb comes out in the eu form. When you're the subject, it sometimes comes out in the ele form. Four pairs cover today: eu voltei, ele voltou. Eu falei, ele falou. Eu gostei, eles gostaram. Eu fui, ele foi. Short sentences come out right. The slip happens when a story picks up speed.
📚 Homework
1. Matte Leão com limão
When you're in Rio, buy one from a beach vendor or a supermarket and tell Alexia next class what you thought, in Portuguese.
2. A Too Good To Go of your own
Check whether there's an app near you with restaurant food, not only supermarket food. Tell us what you find.
3. Tell the Japan story again
Record yourself telling it from the start, using a única vez que eu fui, eu lembro do primeiro café da manhã, eu fiquei muito confusa and a diferença de horário.
4. Four pairs into the recorder
Read the five sentences in the section above out loud into your phone's recorder, then the four pairs. Leave a gap after each one, then play them back and repeat while you walk or cook.
5. The words you handed to English today
Say each one out loud a few times, then put it in a sentence about your own week.
A diferença de horário — time difference
A peteca — shuttlecock
Não é saudável — it's not healthy
A melancia — watermelon
O presunto — ham
Em cima — on top
Apimentado — spicy
Confiar — to trust
As variedades — varieties
Atrasada — late
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