Sarah (my teacher) and I sharing a light moment during one of the Portuguese classes |
However, I
have to learn Portuguese if I am going to survive here in Brasil. This time
though ain't looking for a `in-laws' first impression`,but rather a possibility
to make my communication with Brazilians a little bit more effective. Brazilians study Portuguese, Spanish and English while in primary and high
school levels, but only speak Portuguese as their national language, both
officially and casually. English is spoken by those who take interest to be
fluent, but generally, it is almost impossible to communicate with it even in
government offices. Spanish is closely related to Portuguese so they find
it easier to use it when necessary.
Every
Monday,Tuesday, and Wednesday between 1pm and 4 pm (that is about 3 hours) I
spent time in one of Brazilian Universities studying Portuguese. My classes are
facilitated by Sarah, a 19 year old lady studying Letters (Languages) in the
University. Eva and I commonly call her Professora
(meaning teacher in Portuguese). Our classes are semi-formal, or largely
casual, though they involve serious Portuguese grammar content.
A class session |
For
instance, in Portuguese we have masculine
and femine words. For example, a girl is garota (F) and a boy is garoto
(M); a pen is caneta (F) and a
glass of water is copu (M). Basically,
most of the words ending with `a`are
feminine and those ending with `o`or `u`are masculine.
Also the pronouns in Portuguese have a plural.
Eu-------------I
Você---------You
Ele/Ela-----He/she
Noś----------We
Vocês-------Plural
for You (not found in English)
Eles/Elas--Plural
for He/she (not found in English)
An example
in a sentence would be:
Deus abençoe
vocês
God bless
you(plural)
There are
more differences I have observed apart from the two I have mentioned.
There are
three lessons I am learning from this experience:
1. When I
ever find yourself in a brand new culture,I need to acquaint myself with
appropriate resources to make me relevant and appropriately part of the new
system. Language,inevitably,is one of the cultural ingredients.
2. To be
proud of my language and seek to speak it more often.
3.
Portuguese is a tough language to learn and speak.