Journal 4:
Recap: I’m studying Brazilian Portuguese from São Paulo. I’m doing this through vocab practice, listening, reading, conversation, and grammar. I study vocabulary through mnemonic devices, song, and television. I pick up collocations and grammar through context but haven’t made a significant study of it in about a month. I meet with my language partner twice a week, listen to Portuguese music, and read about Brasilia as part of Dixon Abreu’s Building Brasilia CLAC. Though, for I believe 2 of the past 4 weeks we actually haven’t met due to Thanksgiving break and then finals. I suppose that’s just the natural pace of the fall semester.
For learning vocabulary, I'd like to highlight how television (specifically Hazbin Hotel) has helped me pick up words in an engaging way.
WORDS: docinha, mulherão, senhor, fura.
When one character says to the other: "oh sweetie/sweetheart," they use the word docinha (literally means small sweet). Another word is mulherão. When one of the characters gains a new special ability, the other says "oh wow/how impressive;" but the way she says it is using the word mulherão (literally translates to great or impressive woman). Another word is "oh jeez" which is colloquially "senhor" (literally translates to sir). A final word I’ve learned via this tv show is "fura." It literally translates to “pierce or poke,” though it means “stab” in the show's context. All of these words I now know and still better associate with iconic scenes from the show.
The resources I used the most since last check-in have been in order: Amazon Prime (where I finished Hazbin Hotel), Netflix (where I finished Baki), DeepL, Spotify, Flashcards, Reddit, and Portuguese Memory Book.
The goal this past month has been more to hold onto what I’ve already learned. Granted, I’ve learned new things but with the pace of academics with final projects + my CLS application, it’s been busy and I haven’t had the time to spend hours actively studying brand-new material. Instead, I’ve focused on keeping day-to-day immersion high and reviewing what I’ve already learned. Pedro edited the settings on my phone and computer to make them Portuguese which has been a big help on this. This has auto-updated the default language settings on probably ⅔ of my apps which further enhances my immersion.
After the first day or two, very rarely do I now feel stressed or annoyed by my phone settings change (honestly, I thought it would be more difficult). Context is very useful when dealing with notifications and messages from my phone. The only app I'm not comfortable having in Portuguese is Google Maps. When the stakes are high and a turn needs to be made or a toll avoided; I don’t want to be also thinking about translating… at least not yet.
While my original goal was to read Jane Austen and learn tax vocabulary, it evolved to a desire to improve my communicative flow and then became a desire to improve my listening skills enough that I can handle regular conversational pace in Portuguese. My goal has since changed this past month/month and a half to increase my passive contact with the language as much as possible. I can’t change the country I’m in, the homework I’m assigned, or the amount of free time I have, but I can change my social media feeds, my web surfing, and the content I stream to be Portuguese.
Reciprocal goals have been winding down. My language partner is also busy doing finals and enjoying his Thanksgiving break meanwhile my girlfriend has gone out of town back to Brazil for a few weeks, and the Sacred Heart program has been winding down in attendance as the semester comes to a close. My class started with about 30 people and gradually declined to about 8 regulars.
No large new learning ideas for this semester. Over break, though, I’d like to see if there are any Portuguese speakers in the countries I’m going to travel to (Thailand, China, Australia). If there is a Lusophone diaspora community there, I’d love to chat with them and I'm sure they'd love to host a guest who can speak their mother tongue.
My motivation declined significantly until I adjusted my goals. When I still had the goal of sitting down for several hours every day to only think about studying the language, I started to feel unmotivated and unhappy when I couldn't find the time to do so. Now with the new goal, though, I feel better. I can relax by scrolling through social media or watching reruns of shows I love while also getting intensive Portuguese immersion. Talking to friends in Portuguese about my day is another example of in-depth immersion that better aligns with my time and energy constraints in these last few weeks of the semester.
Overall, I had a good semester learning Portuguese and I’m glad I signed up for SDLP. I’m hoping to do it again, although I’m not sure whether I’d like to use it to study Portuguese or Indonesian. I imagine probably Portuguese since life circumstances continue to make this academic year an auspicious time for me to learn the language (girlfriend from Brazil, friends from Brazil, Brazil trip in Spring, volunteer work that involves Portuguese), but I'm not sure.
Recap: I’m studying Brazilian Portuguese from São Paulo. I’m doing this through vocab practice, listening, reading, conversation, and grammar. I study vocabulary through mnemonic devices, song, and television. I pick up collocations and grammar through context but haven’t made a significant study of it in about a month. I meet with my language partner twice a week, listen to Portuguese music, and read about Brasilia as part of Dixon Abreu’s Building Brasilia CLAC. Though, for I believe 2 of the past 4 weeks we actually haven’t met due to Thanksgiving break and then finals. I suppose that’s just the natural pace of the fall semester.
For learning vocabulary, I'd like to highlight how television (specifically Hazbin Hotel) has helped me pick up words in an engaging way.
WORDS: docinha, mulherão, senhor, fura.
When one character says to the other: "oh sweetie/sweetheart," they use the word docinha (literally means small sweet). Another word is mulherão. When one of the characters gains a new special ability, the other says "oh wow/how impressive;" but the way she says it is using the word mulherão (literally translates to great or impressive woman). Another word is "oh jeez" which is colloquially "senhor" (literally translates to sir). A final word I’ve learned via this tv show is "fura." It literally translates to “pierce or poke,” though it means “stab” in the show's context. All of these words I now know and still better associate with iconic scenes from the show.
The resources I used the most since last check-in have been in order: Amazon Prime (where I finished Hazbin Hotel), Netflix (where I finished Baki), DeepL, Spotify, Flashcards, Reddit, and Portuguese Memory Book.
The goal this past month has been more to hold onto what I’ve already learned. Granted, I’ve learned new things but with the pace of academics with final projects + my CLS application, it’s been busy and I haven’t had the time to spend hours actively studying brand-new material. Instead, I’ve focused on keeping day-to-day immersion high and reviewing what I’ve already learned. Pedro edited the settings on my phone and computer to make them Portuguese which has been a big help on this. This has auto-updated the default language settings on probably ⅔ of my apps which further enhances my immersion.
After the first day or two, very rarely do I now feel stressed or annoyed by my phone settings change (honestly, I thought it would be more difficult). Context is very useful when dealing with notifications and messages from my phone. The only app I'm not comfortable having in Portuguese is Google Maps. When the stakes are high and a turn needs to be made or a toll avoided; I don’t want to be also thinking about translating… at least not yet.
While my original goal was to read Jane Austen and learn tax vocabulary, it evolved to a desire to improve my communicative flow and then became a desire to improve my listening skills enough that I can handle regular conversational pace in Portuguese. My goal has since changed this past month/month and a half to increase my passive contact with the language as much as possible. I can’t change the country I’m in, the homework I’m assigned, or the amount of free time I have, but I can change my social media feeds, my web surfing, and the content I stream to be Portuguese.
Reciprocal goals have been winding down. My language partner is also busy doing finals and enjoying his Thanksgiving break meanwhile my girlfriend has gone out of town back to Brazil for a few weeks, and the Sacred Heart program has been winding down in attendance as the semester comes to a close. My class started with about 30 people and gradually declined to about 8 regulars.
No large new learning ideas for this semester. Over break, though, I’d like to see if there are any Portuguese speakers in the countries I’m going to travel to (Thailand, China, Australia). If there is a Lusophone diaspora community there, I’d love to chat with them and I'm sure they'd love to host a guest who can speak their mother tongue.
My motivation declined significantly until I adjusted my goals. When I still had the goal of sitting down for several hours every day to only think about studying the language, I started to feel unmotivated and unhappy when I couldn't find the time to do so. Now with the new goal, though, I feel better. I can relax by scrolling through social media or watching reruns of shows I love while also getting intensive Portuguese immersion. Talking to friends in Portuguese about my day is another example of in-depth immersion that better aligns with my time and energy constraints in these last few weeks of the semester.
Overall, I had a good semester learning Portuguese and I’m glad I signed up for SDLP. I’m hoping to do it again, although I’m not sure whether I’d like to use it to study Portuguese or Indonesian. I imagine probably Portuguese since life circumstances continue to make this academic year an auspicious time for me to learn the language (girlfriend from Brazil, friends from Brazil, Brazil trip in Spring, volunteer work that involves Portuguese), but I'm not sure.
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