Anita: My suggestion is always the same. Practice with short things. Keep your communication efficient in a way. Whenever you are needing to interfere as to reply. It’s not too much to think about at one time so you can focus in what they saying because it’s too much for our brain thinking. Okay, I need to build a huge sentence to reply to this but I’m at the same time trying to figure out that long speech that person told me. You know this can be too much for us when we trying to express ourselves.

Stacy: Welcome. Welcome. One of the top things people ask me when they find out that I live in Portugal and that I’ve lived here for five and a half years is do you speak Portuguese and do your kids speak Portuguese? And to be honest, I don’t yet. I’m trying and I have been following people online who teach Portuguese. So I was really excited when today’s guest, Anita, reached out to me because I had already been following her for some time as I have been on my journey to learn Portuguese. One of the hardest things when you move abroad to a country where the language is different is that language barrier.

Stacy: And so today I’m really excited to get to bring in a guest who can talk to us about that as well as some of the other challenges that expats face when they move to new countries and also how to make the most of it, how to have an amazing life and how your understanding of language really shapes your experience in that place. So let me introduce you to this week’s guest. Anita Da Silva is a Certified teacher with 19 years of experience and the founder of Portuguese with Anita, one of the biggest communities of Portuguese learners that boasts 100,000 students on its social media platforms. Anita, welcome

Anita: Obrigada, thank you so much, Stacy. I’m so happy to be here.

Stacy: I’m so happy to have you as well. And it’s fun to get to meet you in real life after following you for. For quite some time. You have such a warm presence in your reels and the things that you post online. And you’re really like that in real life. Real zoom light, a real podcast recording life. I would love to get to know a little bit more about you and your background and what led you into this work that you do now today, teaching online to help people learn Portuguese.

Anita: Well, trying to make a long story short, I was 10 when I decided I wanted to become a Portuguese and a second language, another second language teacher. I was always very determined. So I was like 4 or 5 years old when I started to write and to read. So it’s way before you start primary school in Portugal. I normally start by the age of six. So my passion for the language started in a very early stage of my human experience. And I was about 10 when I said to my mom, look, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. And she look at me like, oh my gosh. Okay. So you know what you have to do to achieve that. And I said, yeah, I’ll do whatever it’s necessary. So, you know, along my.

Anita: My way, let’s say it like these, my academic story actually moved into. Into that direction as well. And I qualified myself in teaching Portuguese and then I chose English as well. I had to choose another language. I was a bit confused between German and English at the time, but for Portuguese, I knew for sure I wanted to do that. So, funny enough, I think that sometimes life or the universe conspires to get things sorted for you. I finished my first degree in university and the job found me, you know, I. I was not exactly looking for anything specific to start with. And I was blessed to receive an invitation to teach Portuguese, a second language, to a small group of expats at a resort, a touristic resort here in. Near Quinta du Lago, a luxury resort. So. Oh, wow.

Anita: I was like, this is exciting and scary at the same time, but I love challenges. So I was like, why not? So let’s do it. It might be, you know, a sign. Of course, I was only 24 at the time and. Sorry, 25. And I was like, okay, this is challenging. But at some, you know, at. At the same time I was like, this is cool. I really like it. So I fell in love with the rule as well. You know, not just the. The idea of teaching people a language, but as well help them to build this bridge in, you know, in the gap that is relocating to a country. At the same time they are learning the language and the culture. Right. So it felt like a mission to me, you know, that’s how it all started.

Anita: And from then to these days, it’s been an amazing journey. It’s going to turn 20 years now in September, more or less. September, October, that I’m. I’m teaching Portuguese as a second language. And I absolutely love it. I think that was meant to be probably because I have fun doing it, you know, and it’s such a great feeling of giving people the possibility of seeing the language in a different perspective as well. I say different perspectives because my teaching techniques are not very conventional, as you probably know from following me on social media. Probably realize that I was not a conventional student myself when I was a kid.

Anita: And during my academic process, as I had, I struggled to, you know, to stay in class for more than one hour in a row, just listening to the teacher and not having any visuals or interaction to practice, you know what I mean? And I didn’t want to become that type of teacher. I wanted to make the difference. I wanted my students to have fun, to be excited to learn about the language and being excited to go to the classes and at the same time to create bonds with each other, you know, because when you move to a country, I’ve been a bit of a chameleon myself as well, and I had some transition moments in my life where I needed to adapt, and it was inside my country. So imagine coming from a different country, different language, different cultures.

Anita: So I think it can be challenging. So having this type of environment in a classroom where you can create bonds with other students, with your teacher, with asking questions about every possible detail of the language, not just the grammar, because language is way more than grammar, Right? So that’s how it all started, you know. Now here I am after nearly 20 years, still teaching Portuguese. I have. I have helped more than I. I don’t know, to be honest, five or six thousand students all of these years. And just in my courses these days, I have 4,000 students subscribed from all over the globe.

Stacy: So, yeah, that’s amazing. I love that story. And it really resonates with me because I decided at age 7 that I was to be a writer and work in the world of publishing. And, yeah, it’s cool when you have that awareness as a young kid and you’re like, I Don’t care what I need to do. I’m going to figure it out. I’d love to talk a little bit about the impact of language on your experience in a country. And I’ll tell you a story from this week. So my daughter. We recently moved my daughter to a public school here. I had a teacher’s meeting that I had to go to. And it’s very different for anybody American, North American, even a lot of European countries. It’s very different here.

Stacy: The way that they do the teacher meetings, because it’s the teacher and all of the parents. You don’t get like one one time with the teacher the way that you do at other schools.

Anita: Only if they get in trouble.

Stacy: Yes. If they get in trouble, you get all the attention in the world. But not really. But it was. So I had to go to this meeting. It was my first one because we just moved over. I was really nervous because. Estu apprendi Portuguese mash et difficio. I’m trying. It’s very difficult, but I can do well if I have some context. So if we’re talking about one subject and I know the basics of what we’re talking about, I can understand like 70 to 80%. I can’t say a lot back. And I can kind of parse together things and get across what I need to. I’ve been able to navigate visa appointments and things like that, resident visa. But that was such a difficult experience for me, sitting in that room because they were moving between all these subjects. And then parents would ask questions.

Stacy: And at one point the teacher came around to me and she just like said a bunch of things to me and wanted me to sign something. And I was like, I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying. Sign that. Because I don’t know what I’m signing. And just being really vulnerable. Like, I cried when I got home because it was such a embarrassing moment to like be in that space. Nobody volunteered to help, even though I know probably half of that room spoke English. They knew I was struggling. And I’ve had a few moments like that where it’s, you know, it’s just really hard when you’re not able to fully be in that experience. And this is a goal of mine. I set a goal last year to be conversational. I didn’t quite hit that, but I’ve improved significantly this year.

Stacy: I really would like to be able to be in a space and understand everything. At least understand everything and be able to communicate. Mostly that would be Great. But talk to me about that. What you find with your expats and how they like as they learn the language, how does that change for them the experiences that they have in their new country?

Anita: So that’s normally something that why I always say if you can’t plan ahead. I know it’s difficult sometimes, right? Because there’s so many things, bureaucracy, when you need to relocate to a place, to move to a different country, right. All of this bureaucracy and things you need to do can be overwhelming, I’m sure. But the transition is smoother when you already started to learn Portuguese. Well, I’m saying Portuguese if you move into Portugal, of course in advance. So for example, I have many students who are planning and they still living in the home places like America, Canada, the UK etc. So I always say, even though you don’t have many ways to practice the language yet, start studying it step by step.

Anita: Start with the basic structure, find a teacher, find a nice course, follow channels where people teach Portuguese, follow YouTube channels as well. You know, everything that you can possibly start using in a step by step way will make this feeling a bit smoother. It will probably not disappear completely like in most of my student cases. It does not disappear that oh my gosh, they speaking so fast, right? I faced myself, I had my own struggles with that when I was learning English and I had these for work. I needed to travel a lot to the UK for some time and sometimes I was praying for people not to speak to me because I was scared of not knowing what, you know what I mean? So it was like, oh my gosh.

Anita: I remember staying in my corner like looking, oh my gosh, what am I going to order? Let me order something simple so they don’t ask me too many questions, you know. And that feeling, it’s actually very common in some of my students when they come to Portugal and they think that oh, I had some lessons, I can speak fluently. Well, you will be getting there. But you also have to stop being scared of making mistakes. Making mistakes is what scares people more. People freeze in that moment, you know, and they feel so not empowered, you know. And it’s heartbreaking sometimes because I know people have the knowledge but they don’t know how to. So my suggestion is always the same. Practice with short things. Keep your communication efficient in a way. Whenever you are needing to interfere as to reply.

Anita: It’s not too much to think about at one time so you can focus in what they saying because it’s too much for our brain thinking, okay, I need to build a huge sentence to reply to this, but I’m at the same time trying to figure out that long speech that person told me. Am I right? So, you know, this can be too much for us when we trying to express ourselves. So we need to give ourselves a moment. We need to say, can you please repeat as many times as possible? I’m sorry, I don’t understand. I am doing my best learning the language, but please be easy on me. You know, don’t be scared to ask for help. You told me.

Anita: And I know that there are more people who actually, unfortunately, I’m so sorry you had to go through that sometimes you know, that people understand your problem, but they don’t help. It’s not necessarily bad if you see it in the perspective that will force you next time to be more confident about your knowledge. Even if it’s wrong. Who cares? Say it, Stacy. Say it. Make mistakes. Embrace your mistakes like they’re part of the process. You know, I’ve done and I still do, I’m sure. So many mistakes in English, in Spanish, all the languages I’ve learned so far, you know, But I laugh at it. I try, of course. Sometimes I feel, oh, my gosh, that was so embarrassing. I couldn’t explain myself fully the way I wanted, and it makes me really upset.

Anita: But don’t take so personal what people think about it, you know, I’m sure the teacher knows you’re doing your best. You’re a fantastic mother by putting your child in a public school, you know, to learn fully the culture, the language, you know, this is a fantastic experience in your kid’s life, you know, so you’re doing amazingly just for being so brave to go there and, you know, to a parents meeting. It’s even challenging for Portuguese people. So imagine for you know, different language. But yeah, that’s very common, unfortunately. But I always have these suggestions. Go for it. Don’t be scared. Who cares if you make mistakes next time you’ll remember the mistakes for sure and you will not make them again.

Stacy: You know, I think that idea of just being okay with, you know, saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing is everything. And I, when I learned Spanish, I was 24, I lived in the Dominican Republic. We were going out. I don’t drink anymore, but were, you know, having fun, going out.

Anita: More relaxed, right?

Stacy: More relaxed. And I remember every. It was the really rainy season there. And for like weeks I would come back and I’D talk to our security guard at our building and say, oh, the sky is crying again today. I thought I, I thought I was saying it was raining, but I would, you know, talking about the weather, the sky is crying. I never cared that I met. Like when I learned, I was like, oh, that’s kind of embarrassing that I’ve been saying the sky is crying. But like, it didn’t, it wasn’t a big deal. And I, I think, you know, as you get older and it’s just different to learn new things.

Stacy: And then I think also when it’s a high stakes environment, what I found is that sometimes I will be following pretty well, but then I’ll lose the thread and then I get a little panicky and it’s like my brain shuts down. So what do you do in those situations?

Anita: Wow. I know this is very cliche, but take a deep breath and try again. You know, take it in, give yourself a moment. That’s everything. We are humans and we think we should, especially as women, I think especially as we have this pressure from society, like everyone looking at us, expecting us to fail. You know, I, I feel that. And, and this is, this was something that used to worry me a lot. I had that switch when I was about 37, 38. Everything changed for me. I stopped caring so much about what other people thought about, you know, what I wear, what I say, what I do for my life, that everything started to flow naturally. And even when I am panicking and I have these brain frozen moments, I just think, okay, go again.

Anita: Anita, reset what I was going to say and then I will restart again. It’s like, you know, even machines break sometimes and they have their moments. Right? I’m sure you have to reboot your computer sometimes, right? So do the same with you. Breathe in, breathe out, take a moment and then, I’m sorry, let me try again. And that’s what I normally do. And trust me, I had very embarrassing moments in my life with languages before.

Stacy: You can’t avoid it, I feel. But it’s such a good reminder that I think it’s so easy in the moment to go, oh, no, I lost it. I don’t know what the context is. Oh my gosh, how am I going to get back to this?

Anita: Not a formula, you know, like, grammatically speaking, like there’s nothing you can, or pedagogically speaking, there’s nothing you can do to change that because it’s within you. It has to do with your. Yourself. Right. Not your knowledge. So, yeah, give yourself a moment. You are a human being, right. So you’re doing your best already. Like, how many people wish they are so brave to step out of their comfort zones and learn a new language?

Stacy: Oh, I like that perspective. Makes me feel better because I was actually like. I think when I left, I was like, what am I doing with my life right now? That was really hard, you know, but actually, I mean, I also know just from neuroscience and brain development that these are all the things that we need to do to keep our brains active and to grow and to develop as human beings. And those things that are on the edge or difficult, those are the things that actually make us better and help us build resilience and help us improve.

Anita: And growth as grow as well. You know, like, we learn from these experiences. Experiences. As you’re like, oh, I did it. Look at this small victory tomorrow. Another small victory. That’s it.

Stacy: Yeah. I love that so much. Okay. On theme of language acquisition, one of the things that you mentioned that I really loved is that you take a different approach to how you teach language. And one of the challenges that I have faced as an adult is that, you know, when you learn language as a child, it’s a very natural process. Nobody needs to show you flashcards or, you know, like, have you repeat or conjugate verbs, which. It’s not my favorite part, like writing out the verb and conjugating it. It’s. It’s just difficult sometimes to be able to find the thing that really connects for you as a learner. As an adult, can you talk a little bit about your approach? I haven’t yet taken one of your courses, although were just chatting beforehand, and I was like, why have I not taken one?

Stacy: So that’s definitely on my list, especially with the goals that I have for the year. But maybe you can talk a little bit about your pedagogical approach. What do you do to help? I know you have children’s courses or children’s course and adult courses. And how do you approach that? And how does that, the way that you approach it, work? Like, I guess, how is it successful with your. With your students?

Anita: Well, let’s. Let’s. Let’s talk about two different versions of me as a teacher here. Anita as a classroom teacher and Anita as a virtual teacher these days. So before I started my project Portuguese with Anita, I was actually the pedagogical director of an international school here in. In the Algarve, very close from where I live. And One thing is your classroom environment, because you’re there. It’s a physical space where you can create different activities, games and fun and all of these things. But you mentioned something very important, and it is the way that kids learn and the way adults learn. But imagine a combination of the two together. I use that a lot.

Anita: So what I do with my adult students, either if it was in Anita’s classroom or Anita’s online courses, now, I try to create a relaxed environment, and I am very present as a teacher as well. I think that helps my students to get the confidence to speak, to be in a safe environment where they’re not judged, where everyone can make mistakes and, you know, and embrace it as something fun. So I try to create that environment in my classroom, first of all, before my strategies take place. That is the main thing. You know, people need to feel safe when they’re learning the language. There is no, oh, you’ve done that wrong. You know, like, oh, you know, it’s not, oh, that’s cool. That’s a different, you know, that’s, you know, let’s see it. Not in a rough way.

Anita: And then, second of all, I bring a lot of activities that make you learn without realizing you’re learning. Like some games, for example. I have all sorts of different games to. To practice vocabulary, your speech, everything. I am very interactive in my personal life as. As a. As a person. So I. I became a very interactive teacher as well, and visual. Because when I needed to do the switch from classroom to my online courses, I was a bit. It was not always easy. You know, I went through, I’m not going to say hell, but many challenges as well, because, you know, it was a decision that I always wanted to have my own school. I had a very nice job, very well paid. I reached the top of my career before I was 40. That was one of my goals. Basically.

Anita: I had everything, what any teacher in Portugal would dream of. And I was judged by some friends, right, oh, what are you doing? Gonna leave your job, your career, these and that because of a dream. And I thank God I never listened to them. So I just got rid of these people in my life. Sometimes choosing the right people to, you know, to surround you. It’s a big help as well, right? Your circle is very important in your career as well. At least for me, it was. And. And second of all, I reached, you know, that was the first challenge. The second challenge was, okay, how can I still create this fun and cool environment in my classroom if I’m using a computer?

Anita: So I Needed to go over a lot of training to study all the possible platforms that could better for my students. And it took me a while to find the right team behind the scenes as well to help me with, you know, all of this technical part that it’s necessary when you have online courses and you still want to be a very present teacher. Because I don’t want people to feel lonely in the process, even though my courses are self paced courses. So basically I wanted to create all of these visuals as well, graphics, etc. And, and it was a hard journey. So I did, had to study a lot to go to many trainings, workshops, buy a lot of courses, a lot of investment in myself as well as a teacher, as a professional, behind the scenes as well.

Anita: But I did it like the visual parts, the visuals that take place because we adults, we have busy life. Stacy, if I give you a book to read, I give you a grammar book. Like okay, let me see. Boring. Nah. What? You know what I mean? Like you go over it, you might go, you might take one or two pages in an occasion, but then it doesn’t stick. Why? Because you have to run to get your kid from school, you have to go to work, you have to clean the house, you have to walk the dog. All the possibilities we have as adults.

Anita: So having something that it’s visual and at the same time very instructional in a way that clarifies the basics of the language from scratch, the basics of the pronunciation with the proper practice that you need the understanding behind the scenes as well, because that’s something that is very important. Like, oh, why do we say kaza for house and not kaza or any other pronunciation? You know, all of these rules, all of these things for us adults, they need to be very clear, otherwise they don’t stick. And then the other thing is, how do I apply all of these knowledge in my day to day life because I’m an adult, I’m not a kid that all they have to do after school is to do their homework, right? And have fun and relax. No, we have a million tasks to do, especially as women, right?

Anita: Am I right? You just have to find some nice strategies and to have the right guidance from your teacher as well. Like I don’t know if you are the type of person who does journaling, for example, do your journaling in Portuguese, do your shopping list in Portuguese, set your phone for Portugal, your phone for Portuguese language. Go to a yoga class. I don’t know if you like yoga Pilates. With the Portuguese instructor and ask her to speak to you in Portuguese. Find some Portuguese friends in. In this type of environment, things you like to do as well. All of these things are so important when we are adults because otherwise it doesn’t stick. You know, it’s not just about reading a book or doing a course that just tells you about theoretical part of the language.

Anita: You really need to have all of these tools around you. But post dates many students from my courses, sometimes they send me videos and photos. They put post Its around the house, for example, to learn vocabulary in the beginning as a beginner, especially the ladies, as we cook more well, there are more chances for us to cook than the boys. So they stick all of these post Its with sentences they want to remember in the fridge or even with the name of the objects. And I have so many funny stories from my students telling me that their husbands got. Got rid of the post its and they swapped it and you know, to test if they really need the post it. They are still, you know, to trick them to see if they really need the word or not.

Anita: You know, like fridge in the oven and stuff like that, you know, so it’s. There are some fun things you can do as adults as well, not just the kids.

Stacy: I love how practical those are because it, for me, one of the hardest things has been to make time to learn. And sometimes, you know, it’s as simple as listening to a podcast in Portuguese or music in Portuguese. But I like those really simple strategies and I love your. Your description of how you teach. I was also a classroom teacher in earlier in my career. And interestingly, while I kind of stepped out of that when I was a book editor and ghostwriter and even as a book coach today, I still teach today. I mean, I. All of the things that I did as a teacher, they carry forward also in my online work. So I loved that.

Stacy: The other thing that you mentioned about your dream and going after your dream, I think is a great segue for us because so many of our viewers and listeners have a dream to live abroad or do something big. Many, many aspiring authors that are listening to this right now, many who aspire to launch a business. And so that for me, I think is a really important point that I want to drill in on. Let’s talk specifically around moving this kind of big life change of moving abroad. I have lived in four countries outside of my home country, so I’ve been through this many times.

Stacy: There have been a lot of things that I have learned as I’ve gone through each of these moves that made the next one a little bit easier, little strategies or realizing that I could hire support or things like that. As you’ve worked with expats, have you uncovered tools, platforms, things that you could advise our listeners and viewers that might make their move a little bit easier?

Anita: Well, regarding moving, I always suggest that people, especially on Facebook, you have all of these groups, communities. It’s very important to be inserted in a community of people that are like minded. In this case that are relocating to either Portugal or Spain or France, whatever the county might be, or even in the same region. You have many groups where people gather together sometimes just to have a coffee and share experiences. This is very important so you don’t feel lonely. I have many students who are not married, they just single and when they moved they felt very lonely. And one of the things that they noticed after joining to these communities is that they naturally started to have someone to spend, speak with, someone to make some plans with. Of course we need to be careful. The Internet is a dangerous place.

Anita: But there are many safe communities on Facebook and that’s something I actually didn’t mention to you yet, but I also have a community of students on Telegram and this is one of the things that I provide to my students. As I noticed there were a big number of people who feel lonely and they were like, oh Anita, do you know anyone in my area or in the city where I move that wants to go for a coffee? And I said, you know what, you’re giving me ideas. So I created a community. There are actually about 600 students there now in my Telegram community. So basically after they, you know, signing up for my courses, they have access to this community where they can get to know other people as well.

Anita: Not just to practice the language but to get advice, right, like real estate agents, lawyers, solicitors that can help them in the transition. It’s good to have people that went through the same. So getting to know someone in a foreign country can be overwhelming and somehow dangerous these days. So I do suggest to check some Facebook groups or going to, you know, one of my communities, for example, as my student, if they want to. But this is very important. And another thing that I always say is check the sources of the relocation services that you hiring. It’s very important to see if they’re reliable, see the reviews from previous customers because unfortunately there are many scammers, especially with housing and things like that. So yeah, always keep an eye.

Anita: I would always get a solicitor to do certain works for me rather than a person who just shows up in the Internet, oh, I can do it for you for less money. And then eventually it gets a bit messed up. So proper websites for. For that, with nice background, nice reviews, Facebook communities. So that is very important.

Stacy: I like the safety focus too, because I found when we moved to Portugal specifically, although this has happened in every country, we had a number offers to like, oh, we could rent this to you, but we don’t need a contract. Or, you know, if we don’t do a contract, it’s X amount of money, but if we do, it’s X amount. I’ve never been comfortable with that and I’m so glad that I’ve never done that because you just put yourself up at so much risk. And actually, as a tenant in Portugal, you have a lot of rights that are not. That’s not necessarily true in some of the other countries I’ve lived in. And then your point about a solicitor is so good. It’s a lot just for.

Stacy: For anybody not familiar with this kind of system here in Portugal, which is probably most of you, the solicitors are not. It’s not the same as hiring an attorney in the US, where it’s going to cost you like $300 an hour and X minimum hours, and it’s a fortune. And it’s complicated. I always have a solicitor review every contract that I sign here that’s of consequence. Like a housing contract. Yeah, Anything that I’m not sure about. I have a car. When we bought our car, I had them review that it’s not that expensive in the grand scheme of things. And I just think that it’s good life practice to have that, I think so.

Anita: Even me living in my own country is, you know, I’m Portuguese, born and raised here, but I still do find that it’s way safer when you’re buying a house, when you need to sort out some, I call them big paper problems regarding tax office, et cetera. I always hire a solicitor for that.

Stacy: It’s like, it’s so smart. The other thing that I found, that I’ve found in all of the countries we’ve lived in, this is true in Portugal as well, of course, is that a lot of the sources that I thought I would find information were not the sources that they use in the country that I’m in. So as an example, one of the things I’ve learned living in the Algarve, specifically, I don’t know if this is true for the rest of Portugal, is that everything happens in WhatsApp groups. So you need to be in the right WhatsApp group to learn about whatever thing is happening. And if you’re not there, you’re going to miss out. Like, for, as an example, there was like Halloween activities in our area, never advertised online. There was nowhere else. You’re going to find out.

Stacy: But you had to be in the mom group like on WhatsApp for the Algarve, Western Algarve. Also like Facebook Marketplace exists here, but we have olx, which is a used marketplace. Right. And so when were having trouble finding a place to live, we asked about the right places to find that stuff. Don’t make an assumption that it’s going to be the same. I think Americans just assume that everything we do, the rest of the world does and we’re like shocked, you know, when they do it differently. Do you have any other Portugal specific, you know, places that. Is there a relocation company you like working with? Is there a website that, you know, I mentioned OLX or other things that are good resources for people that are relocating.

Anita: For example, I would say IMO virtual. IMO virtual. Like altogether IMO virtual. It’s quite good as well and quite reliable most of the times. And you find best like better deals than sometimes with real estate agencies. Please don’t hate me, real estate agents. But, but you sometimes have, for example, if you have a house, if you own a house and you want to sell it, you can do it yourself in these platforms. So it means that you’re not going to put the commission like you as you would have it in a real estate agency. So the chances of getting it for a better price are a bit bigger than with a real estate agency.

Stacy: That’s a great tip. And then use your solicitor, of course, when you get into the details, the.

Anita: Other person really owns what they selling. Okay.

Stacy: Oh yes, I have heard about, I did hear a story about something like that happened where the person actually couldn’t legally sell the property, but whoever bought it didn’t do the due diligence.

Anita: And sometimes they selling the same property to three or four different people at the same time and they actually get the money and they disappear. So you need to be careful with that.

Stacy: Yeah, yeah. There. That’s the thing is like, I, I don’t personally, I’ve not had many bad experiences living here. Like, I have not been scammed as far as I know. We’ve worked with really like everybody we’ve worked with has been great. But I do hear those stories and it’s true in the US it’s true in, you know, the Dominican Republic, where we live, Vietnam, Thailand, here. And especially as a foreigner, I know when I have gone to new countries, I was very naive. I would think that my perception of the place was the reality of the place. And so a lot of times that was just very rosy. Like, oh, people said, not about Portugal, but people said, this is really dangerous, but it seems fine. I’m, I’m.

Stacy: I feel safe, you know, And I think when you come in as a foreigner, you want to have that optimism. It’s important. But you also need to be listening to people that know more than you and be aware and be mindful. I think all of that is super important.

Anita: Absolutely.
Stacy: On that note, Anita, one of the things that I think I’ll think about how to ask this question exactly. When you move to a new country, there you have a lot tied to that, right? Like, maybe you’ve dreamed of this your whole life and you’re finally making that move. Or maybe you’ve you. The specific place, you’ve been following Anita on Instagram and you’ve been following, like, some YouTubers that share this, and you’re just so excited. And then you get there and you have the reality of your life still exists, but it’s now in a new place. And that’s. There’s so many amazing things, but it’s also still normal, real life that exists in the new place. It doesn’t change that much in some ways.

Stacy: How do you think about contentment and happiness when you are, you know, working with these expats as they make this move? How should people be approaching that move to really have the best, most joyful experience as they move to this new place?

Anita: Well, it’s not an easy question to answer, as I think you always still need to find that balance between what’s new and honoring at the same time, honoring your roots, right? Because you still come from a different background and there’s so much on us already when we are adults, right? Everything is there from our culture, from our point of view. Like you mentioned, sometimes you grow in a culture and you come with that perspective that it’s going to be the same in other country or you have this fancy idea. So I think that’s always. We always should have this balance between what’s new and honoring our roots at the same time. And one of the things that I always say to my students is, all right, you came to Portugal, you fancy moving here. You came to Portugal as a tourist, okay?

Anita: Living in a country as a local requires a bit more from you adjustment to the language, like the language barrier. It’s normally one of the biggest struggles, the culture as well. So you have to have an open mind otherwise you’re going to see like bad things everywhere. Because it’s not what you were thinking that it would be you coming in a perspective as of a tourist. You used to stay in a hotel and to be served with where the job of that person is to please you, right? And then when you’re moving as a local, you’re going to have neighbors, you’re going to have rules, you’re going to have bureaucracy, taxes to pay, etc, it can be very overwhelming.

Anita: So normally I think setting goals for your transition, realistic goals can be a way to keep your mind safe as well and in a happy place, you know. And I think this balance cannot be forgotten. And then when you hear, try to find other people to connect with, try to connect, create CRO nations with your Portuguese neighbors. Portuguese people are generally very welcoming. It would be really bad luck, let’s say like this, to have a bad neighbor. I’m sure this is, there’s like 0, 0 point point 1% of having a bad chances of having a bad neighbor. Normally Portuguese people are very welcoming. So try to interact with them, try to understand them, accept things when they are welcoming you. We like to give presents to people like oh, I have a lemon tree, let me share my lemons with you.

Anita: You know, this is very Portuguese and sometimes it’s something that people are not, they are not used to. But it’s not very common to see in your home place where you come from. Sometimes you don’t even know your neighbor’s name. So you know, all of these aspects can help you to feel a bit more at home. You know, the sense of belonging as well. It helps you that and then cultivating habits that grounds you as well. Like go for some hobbies, like I told you before, to practice the language, but also to meet people like try to be present in social events where you know that you’re going to see more Portuguese people like something.

Anita: Imagine you move to a village where you have these, I don’t know, this monthly meeting with athletes or I don’t know and if you are into sports, try to go and you know, engage conversation and be part of this. This will help you as well feel the energy of the place and you know, step by step. I think, I think it’s going to be fine. You know, in Most of the cases, people are, you know, they feel blessed after moving because of the quality of life. The food, generally speaking, Portugal, it’s very attractive for various reasons, not because I’m Portuguese, but we have amazing food. The variety of culture that you have from city to city, it’s insane, right? The geography, you have everything in Portugal. You have the mountains, we even have snow.

Anita: On top of Serra da Estrela, we have these amazing coast and the amazing beaches in the Algarve. So it’s the variety. Try to explore that as well. It’s one of my best advices.

Stacy: You know, it’s great advice. And I like, you know what I heard also is having an openness to the way that things are here that might be a little different than your home. And for Americans, this can be very tough actually, because we’re used to a few, some things that we’re used to, you know, like getting things immediately when we want them. Having a certain type of customer service that doesn’t really exist in Europe, have.

Anita: Found a tourist and the local.

Stacy: Yes. Yeah. And, and then the bureaucracy here can be really tricky for Americans because it. Sometimes you’re like, why did you ask for an entire file of paperwork that you’re never going to look at? I don’t understand. But you still have to just. And then you go stand in line to hand it in. You know, we don’t do those kind of things in the US but you have to just roll with it. And, and I think the people that are successful are the ones that are open. Anita, this has been such an amazing conversation. I’m. I’m so grateful that we got to finally meet and I get to share you with our listeners. Can you tell our listeners where to follow you, where to find you and if they want to start that Portuguese learning journey, how to get one of your courses.

Anita: So I’m everywhere in the Internet as Portuguese with Anita. So in all platforms. I’m on YouTube, on TikTok. Well, I had to adjust to the new things as well. So TikTok as well, Instagram, Facebook, so you can find me there. I share daily videos about the culture, about everything that you can think that is Portugal related and of course the language to teach you the language. I have my online platform with my self paced courses for all the levels, beginners, intermediate, advanced conversations. I even have one for tourists. So people who just want to visit Portugal and get to know a bit more about the culture and the language. And I also have a kids course as well for the little ones. So you can find me in Portuguese with Anita, Connect with me. I’m always very interactive with my followers.

Anita: I always answer every single question.

Stacy: So, Anita, we’ll be sure to link all of those in the show notes so that our listeners can find them really easily. And truly, thank you for sharing with us. I hope that you know, if you’re listening to this right now and you’re thinking about moving abroad, and particularly if you’re interested in Portugal, I hope this was really encouraging, really helpful. And if it’s like a far off dream to maybe someday possibly live overseas, I hope it’s given you some things to think about. Anita, thank you so much for joining me today.

Anita: Thank you so much, Stacey. It was a pleasure.

Stacy: And thank you to you, our listener, for being with us so such a fun conversation and I appreciate you joining us. Thank you as always to Dominguez for her absolutely incredible podcast editing. Truly. She does all the things behind the scenes. I just show up and talk and she does everything else. So I am very grateful for her support. And if you have 30 seconds, I cannot even tell you how much of a difference it makes for me for you to just rate and review this podcast. Leave a couple words. It helps people find this podcast and helps me share the message of living a life that is not just better, but beyond better. And I will be back with you before you know it.