Marina Sarruf*<\/STRONG> S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 The teacher Leonila Zago, from the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, teaches the Portuguese language to foreigners who arrive in the Brazilian capital Bras\u00edlia. She has taught male and female ambassadors, missionaries, students, and businessmen from more than 15 countries, including Tunisia. And it was thanks to her that, up until this day, Abb\u00e9s Mohsen, currently the mayor of Tunis, capital of Tunisia, still speaks Portuguese.<\/P> Before being elected mayor, Mohsen was the Tunisian ambassador to Bras\u00edlia \u2013 between 1998 and 2000, and it was during that period that he studied with Leonila. After returning to the Arab country, the teacher never heard of Mohsen again. But, in an article on ANBA, Leonila read that her former student still speaks Portuguese. \u201cWhen I read the story I was very happy. He used to be a very hard-working, dedicated student,\u201d Leonila stated.<\/P> According to her, she was hired by the Brazilian embassy itself. In the beginning of the course, classes were ministered three times a week. \u201cEarly on, the student takes an intensive basic course in phonetics, and then he progresses to the more difficult part, which are verbs,\u201d said the teacher. Mohsen was Leonila\u2019s first student of Arab origin.<\/P> According to her, communication between teacher and student does not pose any big challenges. \u201cI use a lot of mimics, pictures and engravings during classes, which really helps,\u201d she claimed. On Mohsen\u2019s first day in class, the embassy had an interpreter in the room but, according to her, it was not necessary. \u201cBesides Arabic, he also spoke French, which helped a little, because some words are similar to Portuguese.\u201d<\/P> A fact that impressed Leonila was Mohsen\u2019s diligence in study. \u201cHe would work really hard to learn Portuguese. I remember he made a list of the irregular verbs and spread it throughout the embassy and his house,\u201d she recalls. Leonila also remembers that, every time she took Brazilian songs and photographs to class, the mayor became interested. \u201cI ended up being great friends with him. He came into the country with body and soul. He was a person who really made an impression on me.\u201d<\/P> In order to teach the Portuguese language to foreigners, Leonila uses the book \u201cBrazilian Portuguese for Foreigners\u201d (\u201cPortugu\u00eas do Brasil para Estrangeiros\u201d), which she wrote. The book is filled with illustrations, and presents a didactic sequence with grammar exercises, daily expressions, and some texts. \u201cBy the way, Mohsen made many suggestions for improving the book, and he was the one who helped me choose the cover,\u201d she said. <\/P> Other foreigners<\/STRONG><\/P> Leonila, who does not speak any other language fluently, besides Portuguese, has also taught classes to ambassadors from Holland, Austria, Switzerland, South Africa, and the Cameroon. Besides the diplomats, the teacher also receives many students who come to Brazil to do exchange. \u201cI have taught groups from Germany, the United States, Finland, Norway, France, and Mexico,\u201d she said.<\/P> The teacher has also received groups of elderly people, including priests and preachers who came to work as missionaries in Brazil. \u201cThat was in the past, now I don\u2019t receive those anymore,\u201d she said. Leonila also said that lately she has been teaching many foreigners who started dating Brazilian women abroad, and then come to Brazil. \u201cI am very happy with my work. It is rewarding to see a person arrive here unable to say a single word, and then come out talking.\u201d<\/P> Contact<\/STRONG><\/P> Leonila Zago *Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/STRONG><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many foreigners have studied with Bras\u00edlia-based teacher Leonila Zago, including Abb\u00e9s Mohsen, from Tunisia, who was an ambassador to Brazil from 1998 to 2000. \u2018He was a very hard-working, dedicated student,\u2019 said the teacher, who found that the mayor still speaks Portuguese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-culture"},"wps_subtitle":"Many foreigners have studied with Bras\u00edlia-based teacher Leonila Zago, including Abb\u00e9s Mohsen, from Tunisia, who was an ambassador to Brazil from 1998 to 2000. \u2018He was a very hard-working, dedicated student,\u2019 said the teacher, who found that the mayor still speaks Portuguese.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1466"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
marina.sarruf@anba.com.br<\/P>
<\/STRONG>Tel. (+55 61) 3201-0768
E-mail: leonila@portugueseforeigners.com
Site: www.portugueseforeigners.com<\/P>