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In this lesson we use the song Eu Vou Estar, by Brazilian band Capital Inicial, to teach you Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation, give you a couple of important grammar tips, and help your Portuguese become even more Street Smart. READ MORE>

Muito obrigada, University of California, Berkeley & Cal Performances, for this wonderful opportunity to see the Brazilian duo Sergio and Odair Assad live. What a treat!

You might be wondering if Assad is a Brazilian name. The brothers were born in Brazil from a Lebanese family, just like me. In this new tour, they go back to their roots and offer us the wonderful results of their extraordinary talent and cross-cultural background. 

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(Wikipedia)

The city of Natal in Brazil’s Northeast gets almost 300 days of sunshine and that’s why it’s known as the “City of the Sun.” Sunshine isn’t all the city has to offer, not by a long shot. The visitor can also count on its many beaches, sand dunes, parks and even the largest micareta (off-season Carnival) called Carnatal. READ MORE>

I’m thrilled to publish another video from the series Learn Brazilian Portuguese with Songs. These lessons are a collaboration between Susanna Zaraysky, author of the book Language is Music, and Luciana Lage, fromStreet Smart Brazil, co-author of the book 51 Portuguese Idioms - Speak Like a Brazilian. In these lessons we use Brazilian songs to teach you Portuguese and we contrast Spanish and Portuguese to discuss pronunciation and grammar. Make sure you check out Video 1 and Video 2  as well. READ MORE>

Street Smart Brazil will give away two tickets to see the opening of Tropa de Elite 2 - Elite Squad: The Enemy Within in San Francisco on February 10th at the Four Star Theatre. The movie is Brazil's official entry for this year's Academy Awards. You will see it uncut and undubbed for the first time in the big screen here in the US. These tickets are a gift from Variance Films and Flatiron Films. READ MORE>

(source: onordeste.com)

Much like the prohibition of slave gatherings in earlier times, the Bahian upper class in the early 1900’s didn’t like the idea that free blacks and those of mixed race could gather for any reason. In the face of a dominant European culture, the descendants of slaves were strengthening their own culture in their own way, and Afro-Brazilian religion was no exception. READ MORE>

This is the second video in our series Learn Brazilian Portuguese with Songs. These lessons are a collaboration between Susanna Zaraysky, author of the book Language is Music, and Luciana Lage, from Street Smart Brazil, co-author of the book 51 Portuguese Idioms - Speak Like a Brazilian. We are going to use Brazilian songs to teach you Portuguese. Additionally, we are going to contrast Spanish and Portuguese to discuss pronunciation and grammar. READ MORE>

I am thrilled to post the first video of the new series Learn Brazilian Portuguese with Songs in collaboration with Susanna Zaraysky, author of the book Language is Music.

Below the video is the transcript of our interview. Enjoy! READ MORE>

Our lesson today is about pronunciation. I get a lot of questions from students asking about the sound of the letters D. This video will show you the pronunciation of the D syllable by syllable. READ MORE>

(musicabrasileira.org)

With so many styles of music in Brazil, from sertanejo to mangue bit, bossa nova to funk, how is anyone supposed to know everything? It's not even a title I claim for myself though my musical quest did start 10 years ago. The first song I remember hearing from Brazil was either Zeca Baleiro's Essas Emoções or Max de Castro’s Onda Diferente. After that, I went commercial and listened to anything I could find playing on Brazilian radio stations. It was my way of feeling closer to Brazil despite being half a world away. It wasn’t long after that I started finding my own taste and that’s what I want to offer you now, some singers and songs you may not have heard of yet. READ MORE>