Oliver Cho's Posts (79)
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In my final meeting with my language partner my partner went over all I have learned through my 4 semesters of SDLC. This being my last semester I realized how far I have come and how much I learned. I enjoyed this last lesson the most because I came to the realization that I am now at a point where I can compare and contrast my Spanish and Portuguese as apposed to just being confused and mixing languages when trying to speak one or the other.
I can now confidently conjugate all Portuguese verbs in the future tense. The future tense is relatively easy because you can just take the unconjugated form of any verb and put the word will in front of it. For example to say I will go I would say “eu vou ir”, vou being the will. There is also a conjugation for the future tense, but I prefer to use the vou form because in my mind it makes more sense.
I can now use por and para in the correct situations in Portuguese. Both mean through, but para is used more in the context of for something, while por is used to say through something. For example to say I used a pen to write I would use para, but to say I got to school through car I would use por.
I can now confidently conjugate all Portuguese verbs to present tense. Although the situations are different for ar, ir, and er verbs I feel that I can now conjugate all these situations into any present form necessary to describe what I am saying. Although there are many more tenses for me to learn in order for me to speak Portuguese fluently I feel this is a step in the right direction.
To explore more about Brazil as a country I explore the current government setup of Brazil. Brazil is a federal republic and consists of 26 states. Brazil has a legislative body which is made up of a Federal Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. Like the USA the chamber has representatives for each state depending on the population of the state. The senate is made up of 3 representatives per state. Interestingly from 1964-1985 the government was actually controlled by the military. During these years generals ruled Brazil and suspended multiple constitutional rights of the people. Each president and vice president has a 6 year term in Brazil.
To explore more about the Brazilian culture I did some research about Favelas. Favelas are recognized as unruly shantytowns of Brazil. Interestingly there are very few rules in these Favelas, and because of this there is a lot of crime, but also a lot of creativity. The lack of restrictions has allowed people within the city to be expressive and not worry about any laws or rules. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjHxc_Y9pDfAhXotlkKHXzYBEMQyCkwAHoECAcQBA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dc3BRTlHFpBU&usg=AOvVaw22UoMvxPjXTv3BpvFI607T
While home for thanksgiving I ate a restraint called Café Brazil. I ordered the Feijoada as I was familiar with it from my cook out with the Brazilian students. During the time between when I ordered and my food arrived, I tried to translate the menu. I did so with mediocre success. I found that many of the basic ingredients I had no trouble translating however, the more unique ingredients I had a hard time with.
This week my language partner invited me to a Brazilian cooking event amongst the Brazilian students on campus. We made Pao de Queijo and Feijoada. Pao de Queijo was a kind of chesse bread and Feijoada was a black bean pork stew. I enjoyed seeing the Brazilians converse with each other and how they brought their culture from home to Richmond. I did speak a little bit of Portuguese with the other students; however, I could not keep up with their conversational pace.
In my final week of lessons my language partner and I reviewed everything I had learned from this semester. The biggest component I have picked up on from this semester is vocabulary. I feel that throughout the semester I have learned a lot of new vocabulary which has allowed me to expand my sentence forming ability. With the ability to describe and say the words associated with more object I can now confidently say more sentences and be more conversational in Portugese.
This week my language partner and I tried to have more conversational lessons. We practiced having conversations in Portuguese discussing multiple topics. These topics included what I did over Thanksgiving break and what classes I am taking next semester. This activity has really shown me how far I have come in comparison to what I started from. We also practiced having conversations in Portuguese through text. I learned some cool new slang and shortcuts in Portuguese through this activity.
This week my language partner and I watched a Portuguese show called 3%. We alternated watching the episodes in Portuguese with English subtitles, and vice versa. After each episode we had a short discussion about the episode in Portuguese. I enjoyed this activity as it has helped me to gain a more real world experience in Portuguese having a discussion with my language partner as well as listening to Portuguese at real world speed in the show.
This week my language partner and I went through a refresher in terms of grammar. We mainly reviewed my conjugation skills and use of tenses in different situations. I was able to complete most of the easy conjugations such as present, preterit and imperfect tenses. However I could still work on future and conditional tenses, as well as commands. This refresher has helped me to realize how far I have come in learning Portuguese. I can now proficiently make sentences on my which make sense.
This week my language partner and I worked on vocabulary. We went to multiple locations such as dhall and the library and pointed out objects. Some of which I knew and many I did not know. There are many objects which I knew in Spanish and thought I knew in Portuguese. However, there are many words which are similar in Spanish but have a different pronunciation in Portuguese.
This week my language partner and I typed worked on translating an article in Portuguese to English. The article discussed how the World Cup started and the trials and tribulations which came along with that. In this process I have found that not only does Portuguese not translate directly into English, but also that there are multiple ways in which to say something in Portuguese. This has helped to open my eyes as to what is the best way to say something and has allowed me to say things that I used to think was out of my reach.
I have found Brazilian culture quite interesting. More specifically Brazilian history. I have found that it has had a heavy influence on the language and how it has come to be. For example if the Portuguese had never colonized Brazil, then Brazil would probably not be speaking Portuguese. I have also found that the Brazilian culture's emphasis on family and openness is expressed quite well in the language. Finally, I have explored the landscape of Brazil, and found that the Amazon is both a curse and a blessing for Brazil. It is a blessing for the obvious reason that it is an incredible example of nature's beauty with its animals and plant life. On the other hand it is a curse in that it raises many issues for Brazil such as over logging and illegal animal trade. Overall I feel that this semester I have learned a lot from more about the Brazilian culture and its affects on the language.
The 4th learning goal I have completed this semester is interpreting a conversation between two Portuguese speakers. I had my language partner send me a recording of a conversation between her and her friend. I did my best to analyze to conversation and ask questions about the conversation to my language partner in the next meeting. I found that I surprised myself in this activity. It was quite simple for me to decipher what they were talking about after slowing down what they were saying. I was also easily able to formulate some questions about the conversation.
In preparation for the final this week my language partner and I review the things we have learned this semester. We began by reviewing question word such as who what where how, and moved on to the conjugation of verbs and what situations certain tenses are used in. Finally, we practiced preposition and had a small conversation. I have found this semester has been the most progressive as far as my sentencing forming skills. A big part of this has been the learning of verb conjugation, as well as having been learning Portuguese for 1.5 years now.
