How Adults Learn
The engine of the whole project: deliberate practice, neuroplasticity, and what it actually takes for a grown mind to rebuild itself on purpose.
NOAH FALA PORTUGUÊS
Portuguese is the portal. The subject is becoming someone new as an adult.
A public notebook on becoming a beginner again: Brazilian Portuguese, the jiu-jitsu mat, the Marine Corps, covenant, and the city, held together by one question, how a grown mind rebuilds itself on purpose.
A série
The Second Curriculum
This site began as a place to study Brazilian Portuguese. It is becoming something larger: a record of what it takes for an adult to rebuild himself on purpose, across a handful of demanding practices.
Portuguese & Brazil
The portal. Learning to inhabit a language, not just pass a test in it.
The Mat
Brazilian jiu-jitsu as the laboratory where every theory about adult learning survives contact or does not.
The Discipline Archive
What remains of Marine Corps attention and standards after the uniform comes off.
Covenant
Entering an ancient tradition as an adult: study, practice, and chosen belonging.
The Table
Cooking as a discipline of belonging: the Levantine diaspora in Brazil, and the food that turns a foreign word into a home.
The City
New York as a text to be read: Jewish, immigrant, urban, lived in part and imagined in full.
Comece aqui
Start here
If you're new here, start with the videos and tools that best show how I'm learning Brazilian Portuguese in practice.
Vídeo
Best introductory video
A focused entry point for how this study process is structured.
Flashcards
Brainscape study decks
Vocabulary and phrase sets used for active spaced review.
Blog
Spaced repetition study note
A short breakdown of method, limits, and practical use.
Follow the process, the materials, and the lessons learned along the way.
Últimos vídeos
Ver todosRecent videos from the channel, focused on real Brazilian Portuguese usage, common mistakes, and practical understanding.
Flashcards
Study tools I actually use
I use spaced repetition as part of my Brazilian Portuguese study process. These Brainscape decks include vocabulary, phrases, and topic-based material that I build and refine over time.
Ver meus decks no BrainscapeAlguns decks podem exigir login no Brainscape.
Sobre
Noah Fala Português began as a record of learning Brazilian Portuguese as an adult, and has grown into a wider notebook on adult formation: language, the jiu-jitsu mat, the Marine Corps, covenant, and the city.
The goal is not to teach textbook language, but to understand how Portuguese is actually used: in conversation, in training environments, and in everyday life.
This includes patterns that make the language easier to understand, mistakes that English speakers tend to make, and observations that only become clear through sustained practice.
Everything here is part of an ongoing process — structured, practical, and grounded in real use.
Blog
Reflections and study notes
Notes on methods, tools, mistakes, patterns, and what seems to matter most in learning Brazilian Portuguese as an adult.
Artigo mais recente
The Second Curriculum
A founding statement: why an adult rebuilds himself on purpose, what my own bookshelf confessed about it, and the five practices that make up this site, Portuguese, the mat, the Corps, covenant, and the city.
Esfiha, Quibe, and the Grammar of Belonging
How the Levantine diaspora's food became Brazilian, what that has to do with Ottolenghi's cookbooks, and why an adult learner belongs at the table before he belongs in the language.
How I Use Spaced Repetition to Study Brazilian Portuguese
A practical look at why spaced repetition helps with retention, where it fits, and where it does not.