“It’s ‘outra,’ not ‘ootra!’” My Brazilian friends Alice and Matheus were laughing at me as I tried to pronounce this Portuguese word correctly over and over again during our three-hour Portuguese lesson. Overwhelmed, I finally got it right and sat down exhausted. What an effort! This experience was just a microcosm of my day in which I gained a much greater appreciation for the true difficulty of learning new languages. For three hours, we struggled through foods, places, and songs without much apparent progress in our Portuguese pronunciation or knowledge. However, the Brazilians never stopped encouraging us, getting excited when we pronounced something well.
Following our language immersion experience, I decided to use my newfound skills to order for myself without the Brazilian students. I chose feijoada even though our host mom had warned us against it since it is very strong. Although we’ve been in Brazil for over a week, I still struggle to order food in Portuguese, but I was determined. I made it through the water and meal portion, but when he started asking me about the sides I would like, I turned with a look of “help me” to Sophia, who graciously stepped in. Another failure! As far as the feijoada dish, I have to say that our host mom was right to caution us. The heavy meat and strong taste were not to the liking of my American taste buds which are used to grilled chicken and pasta.
The afternoon brought an adventure to the Portuguese language museum. Here were a plethora of interactive displays and aesthetically-pleasing exhibits that show the rich history of the Portuguese language. While exploring the various exhibits, it was fascinating about the many different roots of even simple Portuguese words like “pao” and “cidade,” which originate in places everywhere from Taiwan to Mozambique. Hearing different dialects from a display on languages across the world showcased the true diversity of expression that exists even within Brazil itself.
Touring this museum after my day of speaking broken Portuguese revealed the challenge of truly grasping a new language even with all of the resources we have available. Humiliating experiences of mispronouncing words and struggling to order food create empathy for those who have no other option but to learn a language through being thrust into the culture. It has been an eye opening, difficult experience, giving me motivation to absorb as much of the language as possible in the short time we’re still here.
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