Journal Post 3 - Spring 2025
Recap: I’m studying Brazilian Portuguese. While before I’ve been studying the São Paulo dialect, I’m now switching to do more with the Rio dialect. This is because I will spend at least 4 months there this year if not 6 (keep reading for details). 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 speaking practice.
I finished watching ‘Invincible’ on Amazon Prime in Portuguese and have now started watching ‘Arcane' on Netflix. Conversations are a bit more complicated but having already watched the show before, I know approximately what’s happening in each scene based on memory alone. Add in my listening skills and context, and I can usually pick up the plot.
The resources I’ve been using include Amazon Prime, Netflix, YouTube, DeepL, Spotify, flashcards, Reddit, Kwai, and the Portuguese Memory Book.
The big news is that I found out I was awarded a Critical Language Scholarship (CLS). If it gets funded, I’ll spend 8 weeks studying Portuguese intensively at PUC-Rio University in Brazil. I’ll then follow this experience up with a semester abroad in Brazil, also at PUC-Rio. The goal for this month has been to swap language partners and, ever since hearing back from XLA and my study abroad, to prepare for my time abroad next fall in Brazil. My original language partner was just too busy this semester with his own schooling and projects, and it felt better to preserve the relationship and find a new language partner than continue trying and failing to align our schedules. My new partner is great, his name is Igor, and he lives maybe 20-30 min away from where in Rio I’ll be spending 4-6 months this year.
Another big event this month was I went to Brasilia, Brazil through Dr. Abreu’s SSIR. Compared with my previous immersive experiences with Portuguese, this one felt a lot better. I was comfortable with the Brazilian accent, and the city was far enough away from Anglophone influences that my Portuguese was useful. In Portugal, it always felt like speaking Portuguese while perhaps polite wasn’t necessary to communicate. You could always get away with speaking English. In Brasilia, though, it’s Portuguese or hand gestures and charades. Every time my cohort went to restaurants, we needed to use Portuguese giving me repeated opportunities to practice. I helped my cohort buy things, travel, work out the local laundromat, and communicate at restaurants. Since they all have smartphones, I didn’t think I was that useful until I missed one of the dinners, and when I showed up the following morning, I was accosted by classmates telling me how confused they were at the meal and how much easier it would be now that I was back.
I brought the Portuguese Memorization book with me and am very grateful I did as my roommate expressed a keen interest in learn the language on the trip. While I’ve already been through the book, going back through it with him was helpful as we created mnemonic devices to learn the trickier vocabulary. Four of my favorites that we created are:
Abafar = to choke or stifle (a bar far away chokes or stifles local competition)
Bruma = mist or fog (the bruxa [witch] brews a potion and out of her pot comes bruma [fog or mist])
Brisa = breeze (I smell something on the breeze, it’s brie cheese!)
Comover = to rouse (come over here)
Overall, I’m doing quite well. I'm thrilled for the opportunity to study in Rio for 4-6 months and -- although it's a more international city than Brasilia -- sincerely hope that English doesn’t dominate there. For the rest of the SDLP, I’d like to discuss with my new language partner and future neighbor more about the city I’ll be calling home this summer and/or fall. Perhaps that could be the final project, something around the new place I'll be calling home.
Recap: I’m studying Brazilian Portuguese. While before I’ve been studying the São Paulo dialect, I’m now switching to do more with the Rio dialect. This is because I will spend at least 4 months there this year if not 6 (keep reading for details). 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 speaking practice.
I finished watching ‘Invincible’ on Amazon Prime in Portuguese and have now started watching ‘Arcane' on Netflix. Conversations are a bit more complicated but having already watched the show before, I know approximately what’s happening in each scene based on memory alone. Add in my listening skills and context, and I can usually pick up the plot.
The resources I’ve been using include Amazon Prime, Netflix, YouTube, DeepL, Spotify, flashcards, Reddit, Kwai, and the Portuguese Memory Book.
The big news is that I found out I was awarded a Critical Language Scholarship (CLS). If it gets funded, I’ll spend 8 weeks studying Portuguese intensively at PUC-Rio University in Brazil. I’ll then follow this experience up with a semester abroad in Brazil, also at PUC-Rio. The goal for this month has been to swap language partners and, ever since hearing back from XLA and my study abroad, to prepare for my time abroad next fall in Brazil. My original language partner was just too busy this semester with his own schooling and projects, and it felt better to preserve the relationship and find a new language partner than continue trying and failing to align our schedules. My new partner is great, his name is Igor, and he lives maybe 20-30 min away from where in Rio I’ll be spending 4-6 months this year.
Another big event this month was I went to Brasilia, Brazil through Dr. Abreu’s SSIR. Compared with my previous immersive experiences with Portuguese, this one felt a lot better. I was comfortable with the Brazilian accent, and the city was far enough away from Anglophone influences that my Portuguese was useful. In Portugal, it always felt like speaking Portuguese while perhaps polite wasn’t necessary to communicate. You could always get away with speaking English. In Brasilia, though, it’s Portuguese or hand gestures and charades. Every time my cohort went to restaurants, we needed to use Portuguese giving me repeated opportunities to practice. I helped my cohort buy things, travel, work out the local laundromat, and communicate at restaurants. Since they all have smartphones, I didn’t think I was that useful until I missed one of the dinners, and when I showed up the following morning, I was accosted by classmates telling me how confused they were at the meal and how much easier it would be now that I was back.
I brought the Portuguese Memorization book with me and am very grateful I did as my roommate expressed a keen interest in learn the language on the trip. While I’ve already been through the book, going back through it with him was helpful as we created mnemonic devices to learn the trickier vocabulary. Four of my favorites that we created are:
Abafar = to choke or stifle (a bar far away chokes or stifles local competition)
Bruma = mist or fog (the bruxa [witch] brews a potion and out of her pot comes bruma [fog or mist])
Brisa = breeze (I smell something on the breeze, it’s brie cheese!)
Comover = to rouse (come over here)
Overall, I’m doing quite well. I'm thrilled for the opportunity to study in Rio for 4-6 months and -- although it's a more international city than Brasilia -- sincerely hope that English doesn’t dominate there. For the rest of the SDLP, I’d like to discuss with my new language partner and future neighbor more about the city I’ll be calling home this summer and/or fall. Perhaps that could be the final project, something around the new place I'll be calling home.
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