Ivo, our host is the man behind the drive of what is making DOX English Conversation Course a local phenomenon for the Cabo Friesians (my word not theirs) in learning English. Students attend classes twice a week and come from a range of backgrounds; lawyers, helicopter pilots, students, restaurateurs, business managers, doctors, oil rig workers etc from youngsters at school to retired people with a desire to learn English.

Ivo and his wonderful wife Gabi, are ably supported by Claudia, Bianca and Wendel and with visiting native English speakers like ourselves, volunteering their time as they pass through beautiful Cabo Frio this all provides for a unique approach that is, DOX.

Ivo tells me DOX comes from the word paradox and is the right fit for his thinking about English and learning this often complex language.

We are very fortunate to have come across such a warm and welcoming couple who allowed us to be immersed in their daily lives for the weeks we spent together. Throughout the day, every day we get to meet new people arriving at DOX and are privileged to learn more about their backgrounds and culture and their views on life from a Brazilian perspective.

It’s just another learning curve for us on our journey and like most people we have met, they are often frustrated with obstacles that their own governments put in front of them like, high taxation, poor support for small business enterprises to get help starting up and the two most often criticized components within the Brazil are surprise, surprise, yes you guessed it; Education and Healthcare with Police Corruption coming a close third.

The philosophical discussions and action times at DOX, with the smiling faces, the quizzical looks, the heavy American English accents being developed and nobody is getting dragged down in the mire of grammatical correctness, just plain conversational English fluency being developed.