Journal 2: I’m continuing to study the same type of Portuguese as before (Brazilian Portuguese from the São Paulo region). I’m studying vocabulary, practicing listening comprehension, grammar, reading, and conversation. There’s been a pause in my Reddit posts lately, one which I seek to break out of. Dixon gave me a fantastic book which I think I’ll make the base of my vocabulary study for the rest of the semester. The book is called Portuguese Memory Book by William F. Harrison and Dorothy Winters Welker. It’s a book of Portuguese mnemonics. For listening comprehension, I pick one song each week and listen to it until I can hear every word. For grammar, I'm continuing to use Conjuguemos and old grammar flashcards from Portuguese 390. For reading, I spend an hour each week reading about Brasilia as part of Dixon Abreu’s Building Brasilia CLAC. For conversation, I meet with my language partner for two hours each week although probably spend another hour talking/texting with friends and with my girlfriend in Portuguese. My conversations with Pedro are rather discursive but are centered around describing my day and relationships with others.
My resources remain largely the same: Flashcards, Reddit, Portuguese Memory Book, Conjuguemos, Spotify, Google translate (for song lyrics), DeepL, Cambridge Dictionary’s similar words feature, ChatGPT (for etymology). The newest entrant is Kwai.com to connect with Brazilian pop culture.
Initially I wanted to amass an impressive collection of new Portuguese words I could speak and use that as a measuring stick of language progress. Now, though, I’m starting to think that might not be the right measure. A better measure I believe would be my comfort-level speaking Portuguese and my ability to communicate my ideas without significant bottlenecks. I believe that Portuguese skills have climbed to a level now where if I think about what I’m going to say before and look up a couple of words, I can talk for twenty minutes straight in Portuguese.
While my girlfriend, Pedro, and André are all good English speakers speaking with them does enhance their knowledge of my language and culture. This comes pretty naturally because when learning about Brazil, sometimes there's a big difference from what we do in America that we can talk about. An example is understanding the differences in dating styles between young Brazilians and young Americans. Brazilians are more forward and physical compared with Americans. Brazilians also have an intermediary step between liking each other and formally dating called ‘ficando.’ This is a broad term outlining an amorous relationship that can go for weeks or months and be monogamous or not. This has been useful for myself and the Brazilians in my life because dating across cultures is confusing and having a guide helps.
The strategies I’ve used have been trying to do something related to Portuguese every single day so I never wake up and feel uncomfortable with the language. I’ve also tried learning new words or cultural knowledge and then immediately trying to use them in as many contexts as possible. For me, that isn’t too difficult as there are many Brazilians in my life academically and personally who I can talk to about concepts I learn with the others. Learning through song also remains effective because once I know what the song means, I’ll always be able to hear the lyrics and understand each word’s significance.
My motivation to learn Portuguese has been high in part thanks to the progress I feel like I’ve made and also because things have been going well with my partner. I’m frustrated by the fact that school’s getting harder, applications for summer activities are coming up and all in all I feel more constricted than earlier in the semester with what I can do with my time. I do feel like my Portuguese has surpassed my Spanish, which is a nice feeling to have, but there's an issue. At Sacred Heart, I often start talking in Portuguese before realizing I need to switch back to Spanish. It is still easier to speak than to listen and I find it frustrating how hard it is to understand a native speaker at a regular pace.
Cultural connections are growing out of what I’ve learned inside and outside of my classes. For example, Kwai.com has been a fun resource to go to to learn Brazilian slang and get a better understanding of the culture. Brasil Tropical Restaurant (which I’ve gone to 3 times this semester) has been a great way to learn more about Brazilian food and terminology when in a restaurant.
In terms of new language experiments, I want to try and meet my partner’s parents. They only speak Portuguese so I’m curious how good our conversation will be. Reflecting on it, I believe I've never had a conversation with a Portuguese speaker who can't also communicate in English. I think it would be great practice and a good experience for how to meet the parents of an international significant other. I suppose a not-so-successful experiment has been trying to watch Gravity Falls in Portuguese. Even though I love the show, the pace of conversation is too fast for me to keep up with.
Overall, things are going well. School is getting a little harder, but I’m still finding time to learn the language and have fun.
My resources remain largely the same: Flashcards, Reddit, Portuguese Memory Book, Conjuguemos, Spotify, Google translate (for song lyrics), DeepL, Cambridge Dictionary’s similar words feature, ChatGPT (for etymology). The newest entrant is Kwai.com to connect with Brazilian pop culture.
Initially I wanted to amass an impressive collection of new Portuguese words I could speak and use that as a measuring stick of language progress. Now, though, I’m starting to think that might not be the right measure. A better measure I believe would be my comfort-level speaking Portuguese and my ability to communicate my ideas without significant bottlenecks. I believe that Portuguese skills have climbed to a level now where if I think about what I’m going to say before and look up a couple of words, I can talk for twenty minutes straight in Portuguese.
While my girlfriend, Pedro, and André are all good English speakers speaking with them does enhance their knowledge of my language and culture. This comes pretty naturally because when learning about Brazil, sometimes there's a big difference from what we do in America that we can talk about. An example is understanding the differences in dating styles between young Brazilians and young Americans. Brazilians are more forward and physical compared with Americans. Brazilians also have an intermediary step between liking each other and formally dating called ‘ficando.’ This is a broad term outlining an amorous relationship that can go for weeks or months and be monogamous or not. This has been useful for myself and the Brazilians in my life because dating across cultures is confusing and having a guide helps.
The strategies I’ve used have been trying to do something related to Portuguese every single day so I never wake up and feel uncomfortable with the language. I’ve also tried learning new words or cultural knowledge and then immediately trying to use them in as many contexts as possible. For me, that isn’t too difficult as there are many Brazilians in my life academically and personally who I can talk to about concepts I learn with the others. Learning through song also remains effective because once I know what the song means, I’ll always be able to hear the lyrics and understand each word’s significance.
My motivation to learn Portuguese has been high in part thanks to the progress I feel like I’ve made and also because things have been going well with my partner. I’m frustrated by the fact that school’s getting harder, applications for summer activities are coming up and all in all I feel more constricted than earlier in the semester with what I can do with my time. I do feel like my Portuguese has surpassed my Spanish, which is a nice feeling to have, but there's an issue. At Sacred Heart, I often start talking in Portuguese before realizing I need to switch back to Spanish. It is still easier to speak than to listen and I find it frustrating how hard it is to understand a native speaker at a regular pace.
Cultural connections are growing out of what I’ve learned inside and outside of my classes. For example, Kwai.com has been a fun resource to go to to learn Brazilian slang and get a better understanding of the culture. Brasil Tropical Restaurant (which I’ve gone to 3 times this semester) has been a great way to learn more about Brazilian food and terminology when in a restaurant.
In terms of new language experiments, I want to try and meet my partner’s parents. They only speak Portuguese so I’m curious how good our conversation will be. Reflecting on it, I believe I've never had a conversation with a Portuguese speaker who can't also communicate in English. I think it would be great practice and a good experience for how to meet the parents of an international significant other. I suppose a not-so-successful experiment has been trying to watch Gravity Falls in Portuguese. Even though I love the show, the pace of conversation is too fast for me to keep up with.
Overall, things are going well. School is getting a little harder, but I’m still finding time to learn the language and have fun.
Comments
I think interacting on Reddit is a very cool idea. I didn't consider trying to integrate myself with other Turkish learners online, so that seems like a great strategy to share struggles, accomplishments, and to gain new ideas about learning. I also think Conjuguemos is an awesome resource, and I remember using it for my early Spanish learning. I definitely also think keeping your momentum with daily Portugese is great, as taking breaks from a language can make resuming really difficult. It seems like everything is going super well, so congrats on that.
Great job Leo! I am happy to hear how successful you have been in your language endeavors. Ficando sounds a lot like the American “talking stage” haha, perhaps dating norms aren’t so different after all. You are lucky to have so many Portuguese speakers in your life! I wish I had more people to practice speaking Ukrainian with.