My Brazilian Portuguese language journey
My love affair with the Portuguese language began in 1989 and has not stopped.
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Back in the fall quarter of 1989, I was in my last year of college in the U.S.; my plan was to graduate by the time I was 21. Nothing would deter me and I was going forward come hell or high water. Thus, I met with my academic advisor to see which classes I needed to take in order to meet my graduation requirements in time to graduate in June of 1990.
Some of the missing electives included many options but what really caught my attention was a language that was similar to Spanish that I had already studied previously: Portuguese, the language spoken in Brazil, the largest country in South America. Without hesitation, I signed up for the Portuguese 101 class for beginners at Utah State University and attended the first day. There were only five of us and we were all female, making it an extremely small group by university standards. Cecy, our professor was a native Brazilian from Brasilia, the capital city of the country.
From day one, she made learning Portuguese come alive with her fun and exciting teaching methods. She played games with us, taught us cute songs, read us children’s books, and got us acquainted with beginning phrases like “Bom dia” (Good morning/day), “Tudo bem” and a few verbs. She opened the door to a new world I wasn’t familiar with.
Then she invited us over to her house for dinner. There I learned that she had met an LDS (Mormon) missionary and they had gotten married. They had two beautiful young kids. The little boy looked just like her with darker skin and brown eyes and the little girl was a towhead, meaning she was as blonde as could be, with blue eyes. Each one of the kids looked like one of their parents. Her husband looked like a Swede, similar to many in my own family of origin. She exclaimed, “I never imagined in a million years that I would have a child with such blonde hair and blue eyes!” It was unfathomable to her that one day her kid would look more American than Brazilian. Isso foi muito interessante para mim também! (That was very interesting to me too!)
OMG! That night’s food was divine. It was winter, so Cecy opted to serve us feijoada, the famous slow-cooked, flavor-packed, umami-rich national dish of Brazil. Featuring black beans and a variety of flavorful meats, Feijoada is an absolute feast for the taste buds! (description provided by Pinterest).
It has been said many times that the way to a man´s heart is through his stomach. Well, I’m here to say that women are no different from men in this regard. You can reach our hearts through food. Moreover, if it’s soul food, even better. After that meaningful meal at Cecy’s house, I had Brazil inside of me. There was no turning back. I had reached the point of no return…
Photo credit: Cookidoo
My Brazilian professor Cecy had opened my eyes to South America and I couldn’t get enough. Let me mention something extra special about her. When it came time to take Portuguese 102 which was the second level of the language, I simply couldn’t fit it into my schedule since I was trying to just take all the mandatory classes to meet the credits I needed for graduation the next year.
Cecy my Brazilian professor offered to give me private lessons for free twice a week
She wouldn’t accept the fact that I couldn´t fit her second Portuguese course into my schedule. I couldn´t say no to her generosity either.
I couldn’t believe it! Who does that? Only teachers who see that you have potential. The fact that a college professor would do that for me meant so much to me and it planted a huge seed in my mind about learning languages and the potential she must have seen in me to acquire Portuguese. Of course, I signed up for Portuguese 103 in my last quarter at university. I have often reflected on that experience and would love to reconnect with her someday.
After my graduation, I went outside of my state and moved to California. I wanted more adventure and diversity and “different-ness” than I’d had previously in my state.
That one Portuguese class had opened my eyes, and gave me a literal taste of Brazil; I was forever changed.
A few years later, I ended up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I went to church one day and a young Brazilian girl Named Priscila appeared at church. She had just arrived and was studying pre-med at the local university. I welcomed her into our congregation and I observed how she was struggling to speak Spanish. Then I saw that she was making a word out in English in an attempt to communicate. That is where we found some common ground. In the past, she had gone to school in my state of Utah while her father was doing his MBA. For me, it was so refreshing to be able to converse with someone who spoke English without having to choose my words to adapt to a non-native speaker.
While living in Argentina, I was delving deeply into developing my craft as a professional linguist. I would often be asked to edit texts from Portuguese to English that had been already translated. This would be something that would stretch my abilities greatly. Even though I didn´t have a formal degree in linguists or the like, my clients’ needs to have the English texts reviewed by a native English speaker were so great that I accepted those with gratitude, knowing that I would need to learn how to handle them in time. Did I make mistakes? Oh yes, and plenty of them.
As time went on, I realized there was a pressing need for me to refresh my knowledge of Portuguese. I stumbled upon this site called Conversation Exchange which allowed me to connect with speakers of other languages who wanted to practice or learn the language(s) I knew. That is when I met Renato, a native Brazilian teacher who lived in Vancouver, Canada. He had a great teaching method. We met on Skype.
After that, I met Adriana in Rio de Janeiro who taught me the “Carioca” accent (the way the locals speak). She wasn’t a teacher but rather a free spirit who prided herself in being very representative of that region.
Life got busy soon thereafter, so it was hard to fit in language exchanges; those were then put on the back burner for the time being. There is a time and season for everything.
Then we moved countries from Argentina to the US. My priority at that time was getting my two sons settled and adapted to a new country which was my native one. We spent six years in the US and then I made a decision for our small family that we would return to Latin America.
Apps were the latest craze and once we moved to Mexico and we were able to stay in one place, I decided to get on the free app Duolingo. I’ve found it to be a fun and interactive way to learn a language. I started with Portuguese but have added more languages such as French, Italian, Arabic, and German to my learning.
However, more recently I have yearned to have that face-to-face interaction with a live person. Thus, I went back on Conversation Exchange and have found a few people to do language exchanges with.
My favorite has been my newfound friend Joao in Sao Paolo, Brazil. We’ve had some wonderful conversations and have truly connected at a deeper level. At present, we talk every day and share what is going on in our lives. It is so nice to be able to find someone in another place on this planet who is not so different from me.
Learning languages is my passion and favorite pastime. I love learning them and find it not only intellectually stimulating but also culturally enriching. After all, Charlemagne seemed to have said it best: “To speak a language is to have a second soul.” I even wrote an article about that topic not too long ago.
Finally, thank you for taking the time to read this long-winded story of my journey of learning Brazilian Portuguese!
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I am a memoirist who calls a spade a spade and spares nothing when it comes to telling stories. I live in Mexico with my awesome son Dylan.