Betania Bezerra

I found out about my passion for the Portuguese language while attending middle school in my hometown of Porto Alegre, in the southernmost state of Brazil. During Portuguese classes I was fascinated by my native tongue while most of my classmates despised sitting through an entire grammar class. I realized that not only I had fallen in love with the Portuguese language, but that I was proficient at it.

 I was born and raised in a city that has a strong cultural tradition so I enjoyed a diversity of activities like book readings and theater plays. In addition, my mother used to be a Social Sciences teacher so I became attracted to the Brazilian folklore very early on. In 1997, I graduated from an Architectural Drafting and Design school. It did not take me too long to realize that was not my true calling.

 I had always dreamed of living abroad and learning about other cultures and other languages. When the opportunity came along in 2000, I didn’t think twice and came to the United States to study English. Along with English, I also started learning Spanish and became very fond of the Hispanic culture as well. The diversity of people and cultures in America made me realize that I was very proud of my own ethnicity and that I enjoyed sharing it with everybody.

 Following the footsteps of my mother I became involved with teaching. I started to help some of my American friends who wanted to learn Portuguese, and some of my Brazilian friends with their English. My passion for languages and cultures started growing even stronger as I realized how much I enjoyed being around it. At that time, I decided to pursue a degree in Linguistics and a minor in Portuguese and Spanish.

 I am delighted to share my love for the Portuguese language and Brazilian culture with my students. I am committed to helping them learn this beautiful Romance language while having fun. I love the phonetics, structure, and rhythm of Português. I strive to help my students improve their pronunciation, conversational skills, and understanding of the Brazilian culture as a whole.