BridgeBrazil - Is Awesome - Muito Bom!

How about putting the best parts of New York City on the beaches of Miami and having a blast learning Portuguese? - Welcome to Rio and BridgeBrazil.

I highly recommend BridgeBrazil. My initial plan was to enroll in one week of intensive courses and travel for the next 3 weeks with a basic knowledge of Portuguese. What happened was I stayed week after week at BrazilBrazil for four weeks - and don't regret one second of it. Plus, the confidence gained at BridgeBrazil has motived me to continue studying Portuguese well after a year from attending the program.

Ok now for the program. Stellar teachers that rotate each day. One day the professor is a nerdy grammar hound, the next day is a flamboyant old man singing, and the next is a young hipster sharing Brazilian street smarts. Talk about fun! The staff is a blast, the facilities are clean, and the class rooms are small. The rooms are tiny - this was intimidating at first but it made for rapid learning and rewarding interaction.

Location is downtown Rio - easily accessible and the subway stop was next to the large street market (I shopped often times for items that just so happen to fall off the back of the truck...who am I to judge?)

My host mom was hilarious, luckily she spoke Spanish so any confusions could be sorted out in Spanish. Her apartment was located just up the street from Copacabana. I'm suggestion would be to stay with a host family for one to two weeks and get your own place through Airbnb.