Hello world! Today marks exactly 2 years since I first jumped into the Portuguese language. With it being my very first Romance/Latin language, it was certainly exciting. Since Portuguese belongs to a language family I had never familiarised myself with before, it really felt like a whole new world!
Many years ago, I remember one of my aunts exclaiming what a weird journey it has been with me. She explained that when she met me the very first time, I spoke Chinese (Cantonese) as my mother tongue. Then it transitioned to Swedish, which is also her mother tongue. And after me and my family moved to the Netherlands, English became second nature, since I went to an English-speaking international school (IB). That was officially the third time my aunt had heard me converse naturally in yet another language. And now we arrive at the fourth transition. My aunt hasn’t yet heard me converse in this language, but Portuguese is, nonetheless, the fourth time in my life I’m adapting another language, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this made it even weirder for her!
The other day, I also did some quick maths about my language learning. In my life, I’ve spoken or studied a total of seven languages, making it, on average, one new language every four years during my life so far. Naturally, it hasn’t been that regular, since I’ve learned multiple languages at the same time, but it’s still something to contemplate!
Alright, so back to Portuguese. On the 24th of November 2013, I had just finished sending in my first application documents to a university (UFES) in Brazil. This was the trigger for preparations, in case I were to be accepted for the first half of 2014. I went online and looked up language courses in the cities nearby (Amsterdam, Utrecht…), and found one, “Tupiniquim”, that gave a pretty special type of language course. It was a private course held by a Brazilian couple living in Amsterdam, where lessons consisted of small groups of people, not a big class. That was perfect for me, as crashing into the language was pretty crucial, aided by a small number of people and a lot of attention by the teacher(s). I went there for one trial lesson to see if I liked it, and I was immediately hooked. Sure, it was more expensive than other course I had found, but it was worth it because I quickly fell in love with the language and the way I was taught.
As I said before, the language was like a whole new world. It was a real challenge to try to wrap my head around a number of pronunciations, spellings and grammar forms. Especially grammar was something that I had to just try to accept at that point, without really understanding. Languages are awesome paradigms, because the way people think can be very different just because of grammar. For example, the concept of time in the grammar of Portuguese (and other Romance languages) is vastly different from English, having all sorts of subjunctive moods and past forms that are either only present as exceptions, or plainly don’t exist in English (or other languages I know, for that matter).
Of course, theory only gets you so far, and once I actually got to Brazil, it wasn’t like I was able to understand anything anybody said. Basically, the entire first semester, I got by, by the leniency of professors (as well as some lectures being translated for me, giving my professors additional headache!), since I understood virtually zero, let alone being able to discuss or ask anything. But hey, what are adventures if not nearly impossible! As someone (probably) famous once said: You feel more alive than ever on unknown paths!
Fun fact: When I wrote this blog post, internet was down, so I translated 98% of it to Portuguese without internet, dictionary or help from someone.
Olá mundo! Hoje marca, exatamente, 2 anos desde eu me pulei na língua portuguesa. Sendo o primeiro idioma latino para mim, foi, com certeza, muito emocionante. Já que português pertence a uma família das línguas que eu nunca conheci antes, sentiu mesmo como um novo mundo!
Há muitos anos, eu me lembro uma das minhas tias contando que viajem estranho já foi comigo. Ela explicou que quando ela me encontrou pela primeira vez, eu falava chinês (cantonês) como língua nativa. Aí, mudou-se para sueco, o que também é o idioma nativo dela. E depois de eu e minha família mudamos à Holanda, inglês tornou-se a língua primária, pois eu estudava em uma escola internacional (IB) onde falaram inglês. Isso foi, oficialmente, a 3ª vez que a minha tia me ouviu falar, naturalmente, em mais uma língua, ainda. E agora chegamos para a 4ª transição. A minha tia ainda não me ouviu falar neste idioma, mas português é, entretanto, a 4ª vez na minha vida que eu adoto mais um outro idioma, aí, não ficaria surpresa se isso fizesse tudo ainda mais estranho para ela!
Há alguns dias, eu também fiz um cálculo rápido sobre a minha aprendizagem dos idiomas. Na minha vida já falei ou estudei sete línguas no total, ou seja, no médio, um novo idioma cada quatro anos, por enquanto. É claro, não foi regular assim, já que aprendi várias línguas ao mesmo tempo, mas ainda assim, pense nisso!
Mas enfim, de volta ao português. No dia 24 de november, 2013, acabei de enviar os primeiros documentos de matricular para uma universidade (UFES). Este foi a começa para as preparações, caso eu fosse aceitado ao primeiro semestre do 2014. Eu pesquisei online para cursos de línguas nas cidades pertas (Amsterdã, Utrecht…), e achei um, chamado de “Tupiniquim”, que ofereceu cursos bem especiais. Foi um curso privado, ensinado de uma casal brasileira que moram em Amsterdã, onde deram aulas em grupos pequenos, evitando turmas grandes. Era perfeito para mim, pois pular em uma língua foi bem crítico, assistida pelas poucas pessoas e muito atenção do/a(s) professor(es). Fui lá para experimentar e descobrir se eu ia gostar, e eu, imediatamente, fui cativado. Certo, era mais caro do que ofereceram nos outros cursos, mas valeu toda a pena, porque eu rapidamente me apaixonei na língua e do jeito no que fomos ensinados.
Como falei antes, o idioma era como um novo mundo. Foi um grande desafio entender todos as pronúncias, soletrações e formas gramáticas. Em particular, a gramática era uma coisa que eu simplesmente tive que aceitar naquela época, sem realmente entender. Idiomas são paradigmas bacanas, pois o jeito no que as pessoas pensam poderiam ser muito diferente meramente por causa da gramática. Por exemplo, o conceito de tempo na gramática portuguesa (e outras línguas latinas) e bem diferente do que em inglês, tendo bastante tipos de modos subjuntivos e pretéritas que existem somente como exceções, ou simplesmente não existem em inglês (ou, de fato, nas outras línguas que conheço).
É claro, a teoria tem limites, e quando eu cheguei ao Brasil, entendia muito pouco do que gente falaram. O primeiro semestre inteiro eu, basicamente, sobrevivi por causa dos uns professores legais, que traduziram aulas e me ajudaram, já que entendia quase nada, nem conseguia conversar ou perguntar nada. Mas, o que são aventuras senão forem quase impossíveis! Como uma pessoa famosa (provavelmente) falou uma vez: Você se sente mais vivo do que nunca em passos desconhecidos!
Fato interessante: Traduzi 98% deste post de blog sem a internet, dicionário e sem ajuda de ninguém, já que caiu a internet quando escrevi o post.
November 29, 2015 at 8:19 am
I have learned Portuguese two years. I keep my language skills by watching Brazilian television here in Finland – TV Atalaio ao Vivo.
Tenha um dia maravilhoso!
November 30, 2015 at 1:11 am
Did you learn other Romance/Latin languages before that? I think I could learn Spanish pretty quickly now that I speak Portuguese quite well.
Você também!
November 30, 2015 at 6:56 am
I have learned French and Spanish before Portuguese. Probably You did not check my blog, because then You could have seen that my blog is in 4 languages. I started my blogs in English, Spanish, French and since two years, I added Portuguese.
My teacher was Brazilian Lady. 🙂
November 30, 2015 at 7:31 pm
I do know that your blog is in 4 languages 😉 I was just wondering which Romance language you learned first, since that matters for the rest of those languages!
Howcome you wanted to learn so many Romance languages in Finland?
December 1, 2015 at 11:53 am
Finland is small country and thus we have to learn many languages. Visitors always ask if I speak English, they never ask, if Spanish, French, Portuguese.
Which Roman language I learned first. Well, it is difficult to day, because I was bad in school. In school, I learned Swedish, English, German and French. Badly, not well! My English teacher loved British English and I American English. When school boy I ordered such magazines like Arizona Highway, Popular Science and the New Yorker. So when we had language test in English, I used every time when possible American English. The fact was, that my teacher did not knew those words I answered, and then she did not accept my answers.
Next day I took one of these magazines with me and showed that I was right and she was wrong. It did not meant that accepted my answers, because did not ever made corrections. Probably she thought that Pupil couldn’t be “wiser” than teacher. Inspiring? No.
My German and French teacher was married with my English teacher. I had bad numbers logically in these languages also. What about Swedish? No problems, I was living dictionary, because I read newspapers, magazines and listened to Swedish radio stations.
Years passed and I “forgot” languages. Next time when working for Finnair, I was sent to Canary Island by my company and it was there I learnt Spanish in four and half months as a child learns. Six years after this, my children went to French school in Helsinki. Then I thought that, I must be better than they. This meant that I visited in Paris with my children many times and I bought to me French books. After having bought them about 1500, I stopped to buy them. Now much later, I have read them thrice!
In autumn 2013, we decided with my wife to learn a new language. In my hometown, there were Portuguese courses during wintertime once a week. Luckily, our teacher was Brazilian Lady who thought us Brazilian Portuguese. My Portuguese teacher leave comments occasionally on my blog. She also let her mother to see my blog and thus information about Finland grows in Brazil.
Therefore, I never learned languages in universities which means that I means that I do not know them. Anyway, when adding a new post, I have to struggle to translations, grammars verbs etc. Doing is learning!
This was my story simply. More You can read in my:
About me.