Coimbra Portuguese Immersion Week 2026
From 12 to 16 October 2026, Portuguese on Demand took a group of students to Coimbra for a very special week of Portuguese language immersion.
After many months of planning, organising, emails, bookings, timetables and preparation, it was wonderful to finally see everyone arriving in Coimbra and bringing the whole project to life.
The idea behind the week was simple: to give students the opportunity to step away from their usual lessons and spend several days surrounded by Portuguese: listening to it, speaking it, making mistakes, being corrected, trying again, and, most importantly, using the language in real situations.
What the lessons were like
Our lessons took place every morning at Ginásios da Vinci in Coimbra.
Students were divided into groups according to their current speaking level, from A1 through to the more advanced B1/B2/C group.
The focus of the week was very deliberately on speaking and listening.
This was not a week of long grammar explanations, tests or pages of written exercises. Instead, students were encouraged to use what they already knew, stretch themselves a little further and become more comfortable expressing themselves spontaneously.
There were introductions, discussions, listening activities, pronunciation work, vocabulary challenges, pair work, role plays and plenty of moments when students had to think quickly and find a way to communicate in Portuguese.
And, of course, there was plenty of correction too!
One of the important principles of the week was that mistakes were not something to avoid. They were part of the learning process. Students were encouraged to speak, experiment with the language and accept correction as a natural part of improving.
I was joined during the week by teachers Bárbara and Daniela, and students had the opportunity to work with different teachers and experience different voices, teaching styles and ways of communicating.
That variety was an important part of the immersion experience too. In real life, Portuguese will not always be spoken by the same person, at the same speed or in exactly the same way.
Portuguese outside the classroom
Of course, an immersion week in Coimbra could never be limited to the classroom.
Once the morning lessons finished, we went out to explore the city and the surrounding region.
Our programme included walking tours, a Tuk Tuk experience, a visit to the University of Coimbra, Quinta das Lágrimas, a visit to Praxis, a Fado evening, our Bacalhau dinner and a very special excursion to the Aldeias do Xisto.
For many students, these activities were also another opportunity to hear Portuguese being used naturally and to connect some of what they had studied in class with Portuguese history, food, traditions and everyday life.
Visiting Coimbra University was particularly special. Coimbra is a city where history seems to appear around every corner, and spending time there allowed students to experience a part of Portugal that simply cannot be recreated inside a classroom in England.
The visit to Quinta das Lágrimas also brought one of Portugal's most famous historical stories to life: Pedro and Inês de Castro. And our trip to the Aldeias do Xisto gave the group the chance to leave the city behind for a while and discover another side of central Portugal.
Portuguese around the table
Food was naturally an important part of the week too. Claro!!
Sharing meals together gave everyone time to relax after lessons and activities, talk to different members of the group and enjoy some very Portuguese experiences around the table. Our Bacalhau dinner was certainly one of those occasions, among many others.
That social side of immersion is important. There was conversation, food, laughter (lots!) and, by this point in the week, a group of people who had already shared quite a lot together.
As a teacher, my main goal with the students during the Immersion week was to consolidate the idea that language learning is not about being perfect, but it more about participating, understanding people, reacting, asking questions and gradually feeling that the language belongs a little more to you.
Watching confidence grow
One of the most rewarding things for me during the week was watching students become more willing to speak. Some arrived feeling confident. Others were understandably nervous about using Portuguese in front of a group.
But immersion has a way of making you stop waiting for the perfect sentence.
You need to communicate.
And once students realise that they can communicate, even if the verb ending is not perfect, even if they need to restart the sentence, even if somebody corrects their pronunciation, something begins to change...
The objective was never perfection. The objective was progress.
I was extremely pleased to see students supporting one another too.
Different personalities, different ages, different levels and different reasons for learning Portuguese all came together during the week.
Some students have been studying with me for a long time, while others are much newer to Portuguese on Demand, but everyone had made the decision to dedicate an entire week to improving their Portuguese.
That takes commitment!
More than a language course
For me, the Coimbra Immersion Week was never intended to be simply five days of lessons in another country.
I wanted students to experience Portuguese as something alive.
Something spoken over coffee.
Something heard in the street.
Something used when asking a question, ordering food, listening to a guide, talking to a teacher or chatting with another student.
That is when a language starts moving away from the pages of a textbook.
Obrigada!
I would like to thank every student who travelled to Coimbra and became part of our 2026 Immersion Week.
Thank you for the time you invested, for your enthusiasm, for accepting corrections, for trying even when you were unsure, for taking part in the activities and, above all, for trusting me with an important part of your Portuguese-learning journey.
A very big thank you also goes to professoras Bárbara and Daniela for teaching alongside me and helping make the classroom side of the programme such a positive experience.
And thank you to all the people and local providers in Coimbra who helped us during the week.
On our final day, students received their certificates marking the completion of the Programa de Imersão em Língua Portuguesa.
It was a lovely way to finish a very full week.
I hope that everyone returned home not only with photographs and memories of Coimbra, but also with a little more confidence, a little more Portuguese and a renewed motivation to continue learning.
Muito obrigada a todos os que fizeram parte da Coimbra Immersion Week 2026.
Até à próxima aventura em português!
Cris Jacobs
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