Success Story of a Portuguese Native Speaker
The English Teacher Who Discovered He’d Been Teaching Pronunciation Wrong His Entire Career
My First Contact With Henrique
I’ve worked with doctors, engineers, executives – high-level professionals across every industry. But when Henrique reached out, I’ll admit I was curious.
He was an English teacher. Brazilian, yes, but he’d been teaching English to other Brazilians for years, specifically preparing them for job interviews in English-speaking countries. He’d spoken English his entire life. He knew grammar inside and out. He could explain conditionals and phrasal verbs in his sleep.
And he wanted pronunciation coaching.
“I want to be better,” he told me in our first conversation. Not “I have a problem.” Not “people don’t understand me.” Just: I want to be better.
That’s when I knew this would be interesting.
The Wake-Up Call Nobody Expects
In our first session, I had Henrique read a passage. Standard diagnostic – I do this with everyone to identify which sounds need work.
About thirty seconds in, I stopped him on the word “father.”
“Say that again for me.”
“Father.”
“Now say ‘ah’ – just the sound.”
He did. And I watched his face change.
The long AH sound – the vowel in “father,” “spa,” “calm” – he’d been pronouncing it his entire life with a slight Portuguese influence. Not wrong enough that people couldn’t understand him. But not quite right. And if you’re teaching other Brazilians to speak English, that small difference compounds across hundreds of students.
“I’ve been saying it like that forever,” he said slowly.
“I know,” I told him. “Most Brazilians do. Portuguese doesn’t have this exact sound, so you’re approximating it with the closest vowel you have.”
That was the moment. Not anger, not defensiveness – just this look of realization spreading across his face. If he’d gotten that one sound wrong his whole life… what else had he missed?
The Real Problem: You Don't Know What You Don't Know
Here’s the thing about teaching a language you learned as a second language: you can master the grammar, the vocabulary, the idioms. But pronunciation? That requires someone to show you what your ear isn’t catching.
Henrique thought his English was solid. And compared to most Brazilian English speakers, it was. But he was teaching with a flawed model – passing on Portuguese-influenced patterns to students who needed to sound professional in London, Toronto, New York.
We identified eleven specific sounds and patterns he needed to work on:
The TH sounds, which most Brazilians struggle with. The vowels – AH, AW, AE, IH, and the vowel in “book.” His L’s and T’s had Portuguese qualities that marked his speech as non-native. But the biggest issues, like with most Brazilian speakers, were rhythm and stress patterns.
Portuguese has a different musical quality than English. Where English has that bounce – stressed and unstressed syllables creating a rhythm – Portuguese flows more evenly. And critically, Henrique was placing primary stress on the wrong syllables in English words. “PREsent” when he meant “preSENT.” “REcord” when he meant “reCORD.”
When you’re conducting a job interview, those misplaced stresses make you sound uncertain about your vocabulary. For someone teaching others to ace English-language interviews, that’s a problem.
Eleven Weeks, Eleven Sounds
We structured it systematically: one sound per week for eleven weeks. Each week, we’d drill a specific element until he could hear the difference, reproduce it consistently, and – most importantly – catch himself when he reverted to old patterns.
What made Henrique different from most of my clients was what he did with the information.
Most people practice, improve their own speech, and leave it at that. Henrique went back to his students immediately. Week two, after we’d worked on TH sounds, he revised his entire pronunciation curriculum. Week four, after mastering the AH/AW/AE vowel distinctions, he started incorporating those specific drills into his interview prep sessions.
He’d send me voice notes between our sessions – sometimes of himself practicing, sometimes of his students, asking “Is this what you mean? Am I hearing the difference correctly now?”
That’s when you know someone’s truly integrating the work. He wasn’t just learning to speak better English. He was learning to hear English differently. And that’s what you need as a teacher.
The Transformation That Multiplies
By week eleven, Henrique had rebuilt his pronunciation foundation. The TH sounds were clean. The vowels were distinct. His rhythm matched native English patterns. His stress placement was accurate.
But more than that – he’d developed an ear for these patterns in others.
When his students would practice interview responses, he could now catch the exact moments where their Portuguese background was showing through. He could identify which specific vowel they were struggling with, which stress pattern was off, which rhythm was making them sound hesitant.
“I’m mind-blown by what you’ve taught me about pronunciation,” he wrote in his review later. “I’ve spoken English my entire life, only now realizing how it’s supposed to sound.”
That’s the thing about accent work – it’s humbling. Especially when you’re a professional who thought you already knew. But Henrique didn’t let ego get in the way. He saw the gap, did the work, and immediately applied it to help others.
What Actually Made the Difference
Looking back, three things made Henrique’s progress exceptional:
First, the systematic approach. One sound per week meant he could focus deeply instead of trying to fix everything at once. By the time we moved to the next sound, the previous one was becoming automatic.
Second, his professional motivation. This wasn’t just about sounding better personally – it was about being a better teacher. That kind of purpose drives consistency.
Third, the immediate application. He didn’t wait until he’d “perfected” everything to start teaching these patterns. He learned, integrated, and shared in real-time. That reinforcement loop accelerated his own learning while helping his students improve faster.
Today, Henrique teaches English with a completely different level of precision. His students preparing for interviews in English-speaking countries now learn pronunciation patterns that will actually serve them in London boardrooms and New York offices – not approximations that “kind of work.”
And when new students come to him saying “I’ve spoken English for years, I just want to sound more natural,” he understands exactly where they are. Because he’s been there.
That pronunciation wake-up call? It didn’t just make him a better speaker. It made him a better teacher. And that impact multiplies across every student he works with.
Individual results vary based on effort and practice. Accent training focuses on communication skills and cannot guarantee career advancement, workplace recognition, or professional outcomes.
My Philosophy
Your voice is part of your identity – but your accent shouldn’t hold you back.
You deserve to be heard, respected, and understood for what you say – not how you sound.
Accent reduction isn’t about sounding “perfect.”
It’s about being authentically you, with clarity.
Ready to get started?
I’ve helped thousands of non-native speakers over the last 10 years, including C-Level Executives, Scrum Masters, Entrepreneurs, Founders, and Actors sound more clear and confident.
I’m excited to help you work on your communication goals.
If you’ve been asked to repeat yourself or if you feel that your accent affects your communication confidence – I’m here to help.
To identify the specific sounds that you need to tweak to have a more neutral accent and pronunciation, book a free accent assessment to get started.
Let’s work together to make sure your voice reflects the confident, capable professional you are.
