We reach euphoric heights when we are understood in shops, restaurants and tourist offices. It is all part of the great adventure. There are always useful helping hands for keen beginners. The objectives are manageable, easily assessed. Problems in language learning, as with any form of study, are apt to arise in the Intermediate level.
Adult learners are extraordinarily hard on themselves.
They expect to jump instantly from survival level to proficiency, to be able to express themselves as fluently and easily as they would in their first language. Students who have happily reached survival level building on basic learning through vocabulary and phrases pass away in horror before the dreaded word Grammar . Those who have doggedly mastered the grammar of the beginning stages feel they have reached a plateau that extends limitlessly before them. This is the stage when a minimum of a month in Portugal or a Portuguese speaking country would extend your language learning progress dramatically. We can stick laboriously to our book learning, use CD Roms or carry on with our Internet studies but the range of possibilities and variation is far smaller for the Intermediate student.