Portuguese Under the Microscope

For over a year now, one of my biggest challenges of our "new life" in Brazil has been learning Portuguese. Somehow though, I've never really mentioned it in my posts....so today the day has finally come. Let me start out by saying that Portuguese is a very complicated language! Actually, English is as well, and in fact learning any language is complicated, but to start out this post, let's take a look at why Portuguese is complicated.

1. Verb Conjugations

There is so much that could be said about this, but to keep it simple I'll sum it up by saying there are A LOT of conjugations for each verb. In fact, I have a book called "501 Portuguese Verbs" and each page is dedicated to a different verb and filled from top to bottom with all of it's conjugations. Let me give you an example:

"Falar" is Portuguese for "to speak"

Present:

I speak - falo

he, she, it speaks - fale

we speak - falemos

they speak - falem

Past

I spoke - falei

he, she, it spoke - falou

we spoke - falamos

they spoke - falaram

To say I was speaking, you were speaking, he was speaking, etc

use - falava, flavamos, flavam (I won't continue going into detail saying which is which)

To speak in the pluperfect tense (such as I had spoken, he had spoken)

use - tinha falado, tinhamos falado, tinham falado,

Future (I will speak, etc)

Falarei, flara, falaremos, falarao

Conditional - such as "I would speak...."

falaria, falariamos, falariam

Imperfect subjective - such as "If I were to speak..."

falasse, falassemos, falassem

Past Perfect subjective - such as "If I had spoken"

tivesse faldao, tivessemos falado, tivessem falado

And that was a REGUALR verb, meaning it follows the grammatical rules...imagine the irregular ones!

2. Accents

Unlike English, Portuguese writing is filled with all kinds of accent markings that must be included when writing, and must be pronounced with speaking. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to type them with blogger (since I'm using the English version) so I can't give you an example and wasn't able to include them in the conjugation above. Some of the symbols are squiggles, other up slanted lines on top of letters, and a little tail having off of c's in some words. I have found it very tough to get used to this, but I'm making progress.

3. Genders for Nouns

Also unlike English, every noun is either masculine or feminine. So, when you are going to say "the pen" you have to say "A carneta" (since it's feminine) and when you say "the book" you have to say "O livro" (since it is masculine). Sounds easy right? Except for when you come to tricky words like colher (spoon) that doesn't end in an "a", but you have to remember that it is feminine. Or like the word "programa" (program) which looks like it should be feminine, but you actually have to say "o programa". And how about "grama" - which is grass or gram, depending on if you use "o" or "a" - o grama is the gram and a grama is the grass.

Fortunately, I have always found languages fascinating, so I don't mind thinking about and writing about these details...but maybe YOU don't find languages so fascinating :) So, let's get away from why Portuguese is complicated, and instead focus on what strategies I've used to learn it.

As you probably know, there are no language schools in our area, which has meant just diving in and learning from everyday living. However, as I head out the door I have to remember to pack some language learning tools in my purse - so here they are:

My number 1 most important tool is a sense of humor....without it I would become too sensitive to making mistake and never try. You have to be able to laugh at yourself and see learning a language as a game. There have been a few moments where I have forgotten to use this tool, but for the most part I am always able to laugh and have a good sense of humor about this potentially awkward and frustrating process. I just try to remember how funny it is at times when my English students say something like "I am going to eat my cat" instead of "feed my cat". I laugh with them at their mistakes, so I have to allow others to do the same with my mistakes.

My second tool is simply forcing myself to open my mouth. There is no such thing as being shy if you want to learn a language...you just have to open wide and let SOMETHING out! Jeyson has been great about helping me find opportunities to do this. In the beginning, whenever we went somewhere (such as the grocery store) he would just stand there pretending he didn't understand Portuguese and force me to step up to the plate. Of course everyone believed he didn't speak Portuguese because of his American looking features, and as a result people have even asked for me to translate for him!

Tool 3 is discovering the rules. I have learned to keep my ears open to hear rules and check with someone who speaks Portuguese to see if it correct...if it is I put it into action.

For example, I started to notice people saying "Eu gostaria ir...." or something like that. I knew eu means "I" and "gostar" means "like" and ir means "go". The only thing I didn't know was the "ia" after gostar. After talking with Jeyson, I found out that "ia" means "would" - so they are saying "I would like to go". I then put that "ia" on other verbs and was able to say comerIA (I would eat) dormirIA (I would sleep) etc. Finding a rule really opens up new doors of opportunity!

Tool 4 is GUESS - Sometimes I really don't know and am in a situation that I can't ask Jeyson, so I just make a guess. Once I remember wanting to say "toaster" but I didn't know the word and so I guessed by calling it an "electric oven" in Portuguese...thinking that maybe they would get the idea and then tell me the right word. After saying it, the person had no reaction at all. I was concerned that they hadn't understood so I asked...did you understand what I was trying to say when I said "electric oven"? The person said....what's the problem? That's what it's called! My jaw dropped - I had guessed and it was actually right!

The last tool, is asking everyone to verify if you were right. Although my friend Cinninha was my language partner, meaning we got together once a week to chat in Portuguese, I have always seen everyone has my language partners. I have learned to follow up many sentences with "Was that correct?" and try to remember any corrections they make for next time.

Well, I am DEFINITELY not there yet, but I have made a lot of progress since I arrived. I now find I can communicate in almost every circumstance, and am now really focusing on learning to communicate accurately....a big endeavour! As I forge ahead I am doing so with my bag full of tools, but really I have to give all of the praise for any progress made not to my tools, but to the Lord, who has answered prayer by enabling me to pick up the language as much as I have.

And now, on to some recent "eye-camera" shots :)

Jeyson busy working on a plane

Even after a year in Brazil, often I still feel like an alien :) (Sorry, we couldn't resist taking a picture of this strange statue outside a store in downtown Anapolis)

For the 2 following pictures, recently I was asked to take some pictures of what it looks like here in Brazil. I've done a post about specific places here (The Grand Tour) but this week as we were driving I happened to have my camera with me and took these pictures, which I think give a good overall feel about what it looks like here.

Avocados here are absolutely enormous compared to the tiny ones generally available in the Sates. They are super cheap here and we love putting them in salads and making guacamole. Interestingly, here they are mostly eaten with sugar! Jeyson also grew up eating a yummy avocado "milkshake" that is very good, too. Just put avocado, a banana, milk, sugar, and vanilla in a blender....definitely worth a try if you like avocados.


This week we also had the bittersweet moment of saying goodbye to Paulo and Cininha (left) who are leaving our mission and moving to Portugal to work with evangelism and church planting ministries. They will continue to serve as missionaries, though be "tent makers", meaning they will have jobs to help support themselves.

On Friday, we had a little goodbye get together at Asas for them.

Cininha has been a big help with my Portuguese, and Paulo and Jeyson have been together from the beginning here at Asas, back when when they were both living the rough life of bachelorhood :)

Me with Cininha and Camila

Our friends, Octinarcy, Emersson, and Rose at the get-together

And Paulo and Cininha with our friends, Joel & Michawn (& kids) who are missionaries from the States. Speaking of Joel and Michawn, last night the couple's Bible study group all went over to their house to watch the movie "Fireproof" and it was such a great time. The movie was really well done and inspirational, so if you haven't seen it I would definitely recommend it! Also, it was such a treat to enjoy some delicious American food! We had some delicious sloppy joe sandwiches, chips with onion dip and salsa, iced tea...yumm! Thanks, Michawn....we enjoyed it so much that I'm still full this morning :)

Anyway, (returning to Paulo and Cininha) it was sad to say goodbye, but we are happy that they are going where they believe God is leading and will continue to serve Him.