LIDEL celebrates 35 years of publishing Portuguese lessons for foreigners

Foreigners seeking fluency in Portuguese have long relied on LIDEL. One of the first companies to receive the Instituto Camões’s distinction as an Enterprise for the Promotion of the Portuguese Language, Lisbon-based LIDEL publishes lessons for speaking and writing Portuguese with non-native, heritage, second, host, and foreign language models, the company’s website explained.

As part of its mission to help foreigners learn Portuguese, a press release said, the company also offers an innovative platform with interactive digital lessons and other products through a partnership with BlinkLearning, an educational technology firm.

“It is with great pride that we have made this journey over the last 35 years, side by side with our authors, teachers, and students all over the world,” said LIDEL Group Executive Director Rita Annes. “The recognition we feel every day encourages us to go even further and keep collecting Portuguese smiles.”

Founded in 1963, LIDEL published one of the first textbooks for students of Portuguese as a foreign language, “Português sem Fronteiras,” in 1989. The textbook quickly became the most used by foreign learners of Portuguese. A subsequent title, “Portugues XXI,” became a standard in the industry, too.

Other recent titles that have proved popular with foreign students include the second volume of “Português a Valer” and a new edition of “Passaporte para Português,” which provides elementary language skills after around 180 hours. LIDEL is also now planning to publish the second volume of “Amigos pelo Mundo,” which teaches Portuguese through the stories of eight teenage friends from Switzerland and seven other countries. ce/jd