"From corporate training manager to language teacher and creator — the thread was always the same: helping people learn."
I worked as a corporate training manager for nearly three years, which taught me how adults actually learn — not through passive absorption, but through meaningful interaction, immersion and practice. In 2023, I moved into language teaching full time, working 1:1 with students online.
In the meantime, I joined Applied Psychology studies — not because of where teaching led me, but because it's something I've always been passionate about. Although, indirectly, that brought me closer to the psychology behind learning, and helped me see new ways to teach and support my students.
Over more than 2,000 lessons with students from 18+ nationalities, I kept noticing the same pattern: people weren't just struggling with Portuguese, they were struggling to feel like they belonged here. I know that feeling firsthand — I've moved abroad twice myself, to places where the culture was foreign to me, where I didn't master the language, and where everything felt unfamiliar. Learning the language helped, but to integrate fully I had to learn and adapt to the cultural side too — and that wasn't always straightforward.
A year ago I started a podcast, first as a way to complement my students' learning. It quickly became something bigger — nearly 1,500 listeners now tune in on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. I loved reaching more people that way, and how well the audio format landed.
That's what led me to Survive in Portugal — The Audiobook. I'm an audiobook listener myself, so it felt like the natural next step. This isn't just about vocabulary — it's about becoming culture-fluent in Portugal: the everyday language basics for daily interactions, plus the local know-how that helps you actually live here, so you can build a solid base and keep improving at your own pace, day by day.