During these final weeks, I have been catching up on work for classes. Naturally, as you can see me writing this journal in the last week, I tend to push assignments as far back as possible, fully knowing the stress they may cause in the future. However, as my final weeks of college wind down, I have become more sentimental. I cannot express how much the time and effort both Gabi and especially Dixon have put into my learning Portuguese. Without the two of them, my learning would not be nearly as effective, and more importantly, enjoyable.
Throughout the semester, I have been listening to Portuguese music. At the beginning, Gabi would give me her recommendations of songs and artists. Now, I have been searching on my own, and finding artists I enjoy listening to. Before learning Portuguese, I regularly listened to Spanish music to refresh my brain on Spanish. Now, I use Portuguese music in the same way, and while I may not understand the quick-paced words in the songs, I still appreciate the music and can catch glimpses of words.
Dixon and I talked about my birthday which was in mid-April and my brother’s which was in late-April. He taught me the word for “cake” which is “bolo.” We talked about how I love to bake and cook. We then talked about the end of the semester. He talked about how he is teaching a summer LALIS 221 Spanish class that is extremely condensed and shortened. Originally, he was planning on going to Cuba for a 221 course with around fifteen students. At some points, I would need to stop him and have him repeat what he said, because I had not caught a word or two and therefore did not understand the sentence. Dixon also asked about how I felt about the end of the semester and my college career ending in this way. I was not sure how to say it, so I tried to say “it has not hit me yet” to the best of my ability. He taught me a common saying: aindanão caiu a ficha. This phrase translates literally to: the chip has not fallen yet. This is also a common saying for “it has not hit me yet.” Recently, I had completely forgotten about my goal of learning common phrases/idiomatic expressions for the past couple of weeks, so hearing this was a great reminder. It also made me smile a bit, because it was such a fun thing to say.
Dixon and I briefly discussed the administrative work that I have to complete for the semester. At the time we talked, I was slightly confused on which recording required Dixon to be in it, so we planned that if he has time this week, we can talk together and make a recording session for the podcast presentation. If he is too busy, I plan on using some of the work he has given me in order to provide material for the podcast.
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Hi Alana!
Happy (belated) birthday! I really related to your first sentence about putting off assignments until they're almost due and appreciate your honesty. I definitely am guilty of that too...I think your journey with Portuguese is really beautiful and it is so great that your love for Spanish and your class with Dixon brought you to the SDLC program and Portuguese. Music is so great and I'm glad you're able to listen to it as a language learning tool too.
As a fellow senior this post was especially hard to read and I definitely feel that same sadness and shock around graduating, especially given the circumstances. Regardless, it's so cool that you're learning common phrases and idiomatic expressions. Soon you'll be just like a native speaker! Thanks for sharing, Alana. And congrats on graduating!