Fun classmates, problematic teachers and director I spent four weeks at Rio&Learn and want to be honest about both what worked and what didn't, because the second part matters more than a star rating captures. On the language side: the in-person group format helped me build a social circle in Rio quickly, which I valued. We laughed every single day in class. But for $800–900, my grammar and speaking didn't progress meaningfully more than they would have with cheap online private lessons. The "live learnings" outside the classroom were underplanned — one ended in a dead-end alleyway, another just involved baking in the Rio mid-day heat on the beach. In frequent debates that were intended to get students to talk about complex topics, our teacher talked over students rather than facilitating and frequently these conversations turned into her diatribes about what she was most passionate about. In private lessons, I asked a teacher named Rafaela to correct my written journal in Portuguese, an approach a previous teacher had agreed to, and she seriously resisted. These are service-quality issues a prospective student should weigh against the price. The harder part: the classroom environment had constant sexual undertones. In one class we were asked to rate the attractiveness of teachers, which all my classmates and I refused to accept this assignment. One teacher showed an image of a strap-on when the class had explicitly asked her not to bring that kind of content in. She started to show us on the computer, but when students got up and covered the screen, she decided against that, and instead showed us a pink strap-on from her phone. Hmmm how do I make this next comment without my review being banned? This same teacher also made a comment that straight men wanting to be a receptive partner is inappropriate — language that read as homophobic to me and to others in the room. The incident I also want future students to know about involved Albert, who manages the school. He approached me for using the private bathroom stall marked for females when the one marked for males was being used. As a queer person, I don't identify so strongly with these gender norms. He compared me to his own kid, suggesting that I wouldn't be able to use a female's bathroom cleanly. I pushed back in the moment, but the encounter stayed with me — every subsequent bathroom trip on the premises, I thought about him. I couldn't shake this deeply disturbing encounter. If you are queer and considering Rio&Learn, I'd want you to know this before you enroll. There are many ways to learn Portuguese in Rio. This one came with a cost beyond tuition.
Date de l'expérience: 15 May, 2026