Journal Post 4 - Spring 2025
Recap: I’m studying Brazilian Portuguese. While before I've focused on studying the more neutral São Paulo dialect, I’m currently interested in the Rio dialect. This is because I’m going to be spending 6 months there this year between June and December. I’m studying Portuguese by reviewing vocabulary, listening, reading, conversation, and grammar. I study vocabulary through mnemonic devices, songs, and television. I pick up grammar concepts through context and flashcards I review from those I made for LAIS390 last year. I meet with my language partner twice a week, listen to Portuguese music, and read about Brazil/Mozambique/Angola as part of Dixon Abreu’s Building Brasilia CLAC and my HIST199: Changing South Africa Portuguese CLAC. These CLACs have a reading component as well as useful speaking practice.
The resources I’ve been using include Amazon Prime, Netflix, Italki, YouTube, DeepL, Spotify, flashcards, Reddit, Kwai, and the Portuguese Memory Book.
The Critical Language Scholarship is 6 weeks away and the funding hasn’t been cancelled yet. Yesterday, they bought me my flight tickets and it’s seeming more likely by the day that the program will run. The biggest challenge has been figuring out which visa I’m going to need. After several lengthy conversations with International Education, the Brazilian consulate, and CLS, I think I’ve figured that out and will get my application submitted this week.
The goal for this month has been to learn as much as I can about Rio and start preparing for the CLS program. This month, I finished watching ‘Arcane’ on Netflix in Portuguese. Conversations are complicated but with the subtitles and audio, I can usually figure out what’s happening. I also last week had my official ACTFL interview. It was stressful, but I believe I succeeded in accurately representing my current level of Portuguese. Practicing my portuguese has felt more difficult this final month of school as classes have gotten more intense. My South Africa course alone has asked for two papers and a final exam in the last week of school – and I’m enrolled in 6 credits this semester – so I’ve felt busy which has hurt the time I feel I can devote to my SDLP.
Overall, I’m doing well. I'm thrilled for the opportunity to study in Rio for 6 months and am excited to see how much my Portuguese can improve while I’m there. The ACTFL scale is 10 levels. I would self-identify currently for Portuguese as a 3 or 4 (Novice High or Intermediate Low). CLS says its average student can climb 2 levels during the eight weeks, which would get me to a 5 or 6 (Intermediate Mid or Intermediate High). I would hope that spending an additional 4 months immersed in the language would get me another 2 levels (Advanced Low or Advanced Mid). Assuming I could get to Advanced Low or Advanced High, I could come back to Richmond in the Spring with working proficiency in Portuguese. This is very exciting as I could use it to better translate documents and communicate with Brazilian partners for the ABSAT team and be a better Portuguese tax site translator and ESL teacher. Of course, my level with non-Cariocas (people without the Rio accent) might be a full level lower than these estimates, but as long as I am thoughtful about hanging out with a linguistically diverse set of Brazilians, I should not fall too deeply into mastery of a niche dialect at the cost of broader language skills.
Before leaving for Brazil, I hope to spend May practicing my Indonesian and Spanish skills so that I don't improve one language at the cost of the others. I’m not yet sure how I can incorporate those languages into my routine while in Brazil but a once a week conversation with a Spanish/Indonesian language partner seems like a good place to start. I’m very grateful to UR and the Global Studio for allowing me to spend the past year learning Portugese. It’s given me the space in my schedule to make learning the language a priority and it has given me good evidence of my commitment to learning Portuguese which served me well in my application for CLS. When I come back from my trips abroad, I hope continue taking SDLPs but this time to study Indonesian.
Recap: I’m studying Brazilian Portuguese. While before I've focused on studying the more neutral São Paulo dialect, I’m currently interested in the Rio dialect. This is because I’m going to be spending 6 months there this year between June and December. I’m studying Portuguese by reviewing vocabulary, listening, reading, conversation, and grammar. I study vocabulary through mnemonic devices, songs, and television. I pick up grammar concepts through context and flashcards I review from those I made for LAIS390 last year. I meet with my language partner twice a week, listen to Portuguese music, and read about Brazil/Mozambique/Angola as part of Dixon Abreu’s Building Brasilia CLAC and my HIST199: Changing South Africa Portuguese CLAC. These CLACs have a reading component as well as useful speaking practice.
The resources I’ve been using include Amazon Prime, Netflix, Italki, YouTube, DeepL, Spotify, flashcards, Reddit, Kwai, and the Portuguese Memory Book.
The Critical Language Scholarship is 6 weeks away and the funding hasn’t been cancelled yet. Yesterday, they bought me my flight tickets and it’s seeming more likely by the day that the program will run. The biggest challenge has been figuring out which visa I’m going to need. After several lengthy conversations with International Education, the Brazilian consulate, and CLS, I think I’ve figured that out and will get my application submitted this week.
The goal for this month has been to learn as much as I can about Rio and start preparing for the CLS program. This month, I finished watching ‘Arcane’ on Netflix in Portuguese. Conversations are complicated but with the subtitles and audio, I can usually figure out what’s happening. I also last week had my official ACTFL interview. It was stressful, but I believe I succeeded in accurately representing my current level of Portuguese. Practicing my portuguese has felt more difficult this final month of school as classes have gotten more intense. My South Africa course alone has asked for two papers and a final exam in the last week of school – and I’m enrolled in 6 credits this semester – so I’ve felt busy which has hurt the time I feel I can devote to my SDLP.
Overall, I’m doing well. I'm thrilled for the opportunity to study in Rio for 6 months and am excited to see how much my Portuguese can improve while I’m there. The ACTFL scale is 10 levels. I would self-identify currently for Portuguese as a 3 or 4 (Novice High or Intermediate Low). CLS says its average student can climb 2 levels during the eight weeks, which would get me to a 5 or 6 (Intermediate Mid or Intermediate High). I would hope that spending an additional 4 months immersed in the language would get me another 2 levels (Advanced Low or Advanced Mid). Assuming I could get to Advanced Low or Advanced High, I could come back to Richmond in the Spring with working proficiency in Portuguese. This is very exciting as I could use it to better translate documents and communicate with Brazilian partners for the ABSAT team and be a better Portuguese tax site translator and ESL teacher. Of course, my level with non-Cariocas (people without the Rio accent) might be a full level lower than these estimates, but as long as I am thoughtful about hanging out with a linguistically diverse set of Brazilians, I should not fall too deeply into mastery of a niche dialect at the cost of broader language skills.
Before leaving for Brazil, I hope to spend May practicing my Indonesian and Spanish skills so that I don't improve one language at the cost of the others. I’m not yet sure how I can incorporate those languages into my routine while in Brazil but a once a week conversation with a Spanish/Indonesian language partner seems like a good place to start. I’m very grateful to UR and the Global Studio for allowing me to spend the past year learning Portugese. It’s given me the space in my schedule to make learning the language a priority and it has given me good evidence of my commitment to learning Portuguese which served me well in my application for CLS. When I come back from my trips abroad, I hope continue taking SDLPs but this time to study Indonesian.
Comments
Wow, this is such an impressive and well-rounded approach to language learning! It’s clear you’ve put a lot of thought, structure, and passion into your Portuguese journey, especially as you prepare for full immersion in Rio. It's really cool to see you learning Indonesian at the same time, it has many similarities to what I'm learning: Malay. It’s exciting to hear how you’re aiming for ACTFL level gains and thinking about long-term applications like translation and teaching. Wishing you all the best for CLS and your time in Brazil!