Interviews

Practice Portuguese Co-Founder Joel Rendall: How He Reached C1 Level

Joel wearing a beige cap and green t-shirt is holding a baby dressed in white. The man is looking down and smiling at the baby, who is staring at the camera with a curious expression. They are indoors, with a shelf and a television in the background.

Practice Portuguese is one of the most comprehensive (and most popular) tools for learning European Portuguese. It’s something many people living in Portugal will be familiar with, but most people probably don’t know the story of how it came to be.  In this interview, I chat to Joel Rendall about how he came to live in Portugal, the difference between life here and life in Canada, and his personal tips for learning Portuguese.  Also worth mentioning: Practice Portuguese normally costs …

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Mia Esmeriz On Learning Portuguese in 6 Months

A woman in a brown jacket, gray scarf, and beige pants stands on a foggy beach smiling at the camera. The background features a calm, overcast ocean. In the bottom right corner, there's a small logo with text that reads "Learn European Portuguese Online.

If you’ve spent any time hunting for Portuguese-learning resources, you’ve probably run into the big frustration right away: most of what’s out there teaches Brazilian Portuguese, not European Portuguese. That’s the gap Mia Esmeriz has been filling since 2017. Through her website, her YouTube channel, and a full set of online courses running from A1 to C1, she’s helped thousands of people learn real, everyday European Portuguese — pronunciation, listening, grammar, and natural conversation. I’ve since gone through her courses …

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Interview: How Tricia & Griff Alker Started a Beef Jerky Business in the Azores

A display of beef jerky products labeled "Azores Beef Jerky," with one package of pork jerky in the center. Each packet is paired with a bowl of jerky pieces. The setup is decorated with a festive red and green plaid border on a burlap cloth.

In this interview, Tricia Alker explains how she moved from the US to the island of Pico in the Azores. She talks about how they had initially planned to start another business within the seafood industry, but life had other plans and they ended up starting Azores Jerky, a beef jerky company. What motivated you to move from California to Pico island in the Azores? In 1998 my husband was asked by a colleague/friend in California to help in a …

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