Instituto Cultural Idioma

It is a waste of space, time and money. If you are a complete beginner, and especially if you are not a Spanish/French/Italian native speaker, avoid this school. They do not teach and cannot teach Portuguese. What they do is correct your bad Portuguese. So if you know a lot of Portuguese words and basic grammar and want to refresh your existing and most likely broken Portuguese, then maybe you will find this school useful. Big maybe.

Another point is that do not book more than a week of classes, at any school. Pay for a week and try them out first and if you like the school, extend your stay right at the school. I regret paying for 4 weeks upfront; wasting 2 weeks of my life trying to make it work and then simply quitting the school and giving them my money as a gift. The money they did not earn or deserve. Disgusting experience.


Good luck!

The small class was great, it meant each student got a lot of attention from the teacher.
The teachers (Catia and Catrina) were amazing - really friendly, helpful and good at explaining the difficulties in Portuguese pronunciation or grammar.
Great location, really easy to find but also quiet.

It would be nice if the school could put on more cultural activities or things to do outside of the classroom. Brazil and Salvador have so much going on all the time, it would be a really great way for the students to get to know the city and the culture.

It’s a safe location in a really cute house. Everyone was warm and inviting. My teacher spoke only Portuguese and Spanish but did an amazing job communicating with me. We worked on my listening and responding skills as well as working out of the text book. On Fridays they have a cooking class, making a traditional Baiano dish. They accommodated my vegan and gluten-free diet. It was so much fun and I felt a part of a community. I really wished I booked more than one week!!!

The school is located in a private house sandwiched between (now) two huge appartement building in the Barra neighborhood of Salvador. The neighborhood is fairly safe, has several small shops of all kind and is within walking distance of Shopping Barra, and even of the Barra lighthouse and the beach, but expect some hills! The infrastructure is fine with several class , and rooms as well as computer facilities and water available to students. And Lara in the secretariat was always ready to provide help and suggestions.

During the first few days of the first week of my stay, I was almost alone, save for one other student who had a different level. so instead of a group course I had 2 hours of individual classes per day with one of two coordinators/teachers of the school ,who patiently helped me in my first learning steps for Portuguese.
Later on and during the last two weeks of my three week course , more participants arrived and I was in a group course. The teacher was excellent: She had a very structured and systematic approach, exuded enthusiasm and was very lively and varied in her teaching. Catia was perceptive of the strength and weaknesses of the various students and actively encouraged each one's participation. I definitely learned a lot : about grammar, pronunciation, slang, music and the general culture of Brasil. Catia is definitely one of the best teachers I have ever had.

The only point about which I was a bit disappointed concerned the limited extra-curricular activities. There was one visit to the Casa da Musica , an afternoon cooking activity and a sun-down drink at the Alliance Française. I could see that with current staff levels it might not be even feasible for the Institute to organize a lot of extracurricular activities .But it would be very helpful if - alternatively- there were some brochures available in the secretariat to indicate interesting places to visit, such as eg museums, parts of town, locations of dance or cultural courses or to provide a list of cultural events, exhibitions, concerts etc.. . taking place in the city so that students would know what is going on in town, and could discover for themselves.
It would also be useful if the Institute could suggest a newspaper, magazine/ publication/internet site which students could buy or consult to find out about events. It could certainly help for students to have a more diversified experience it they so wish.
Finally, at a risk of revealing my age :a physical map of the city on the wall of the secretariat would also be nice :-):-)
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I did not use the housing facilities as I was staying with a private family I knew before coming;

I attended Instituto Cultural Idioma while working at the local university. The combination of immersive language use in my professional and personal life and courses that I could take at the speed I needed allowed for really amazing language learning. The staff were skilled and provided language frameworks that helped contextualize the language I was learning to use elsewhere. My trip to Brazil wouldn't have been the same without the school.

The school was very nice. The teacher also. They were very friendly and helpful.

What I did not like was the following: I booked one week. Because of carnival the school did not start on Monday as I booked, but on Wednesday. I could stay with the family the days before which was great. I started school on Wednesday and I asked when I could make up the two missing days and if it would be possible the upcoming week. She told me it would be ok. So I came to class on Wednesday morning and she asked me around 12 noon if I could stay in the afternoon to make up the class. I told her no, because I already planned to meet with to architects friends of my uncle. So she told me no problem. Since the secretary told me I could make up class also next Thursday and Friday I booked a trip to the chiapada diamantina. As I left on Friday she handed me a bill. I asked her what that was for. She told me for the two additional days. I told her I was in school for three days and booked five. So she told me she will talk about that to the administration. So I had one day on Thursday and no day on Friday, because Thursday was private and that was a lot of discussion that I did not have to pay it extra.

Anyway everything else at the school was perfect and also very recommendable.

Was all good. Very happy with everything. No complaints.