After fourteen hours of air travel, including a layover spent entirely in Charlotte's security checkpoint, I finally arrived in Philadelphia Sunday morning. There really is no place like home, even if you have to travel through customs, immigration, and security to get there.
I truly enjoyed my six months in Brazil. It wasn't always easy to adapt to the culture or to take care of things at home while abroad, but with every challenge, I grew wiser, more resourceful, and usually more flexible. Six months was just the right amount of time to complete a fair bit of my dissertation research, delve into the Portuguese language, and begin to understand Brazilian culture.
Now it is time for me to finish my dissertation in Pittsburgh. I will miss all the friends I made during my stay in Rio, but I know that many of us will stay in touch. I will also miss walking to the beach, taste-testing all the different tropical fruits, and of course, I will miss the tropical sun. (Pittsburgh could use some of that sun!) I will not miss Rio's public transit, or lack thereof, nor the 4am street-sweepers or 10pm trash-collectors. It all balances out in the end.
This blog is now finished. You can page through old entries by clicking the "Older Posts" link at the bottom of the screen. You can also view my photos from Brazil (and other trips I've taken) on my Picasa homepage. Feel free to leave comments on both sites.
Thank you all for joining me along this journey.
Até a próxima vez. Until next time.
Briana
Showing posts with label Portuguese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Portuguese. Show all posts
I know my Portuguese is getting better because my German is getting worse.
May 26, 2011
Nothing has happened to my English. Yet.
I was riding the bus home tonight and standing next to me was a German couple, trying to figure out which bus stop they should get off at. In German: "How many stops?" the woman asks. "Two or three," answers the man. "If you're not sure, we should probably ask someone," the woman prods. The man opens his guidebook and studies it for a moment. "Two," he replies. "Are you sure? I can ask someone." "It's two." "Are you sure?" At this point, probably against my better judgment, I ask the woman: "Wohin geht ihr?" "Where are you going?" The woman looks at me surprised for a moment, and then tells me the name of the stop. It's the next one. We talk for a few minutes. It turns out the two are husband and wife and they are on their honeymoon. "Herzlichen Glückwunsch!" I congratulate them. They'll spend a few days in Rio, continue on to the "Green Coast" of Paraty, and finish on a beach resort further south in Brazil. The woman is from Frankfurt and I can hear the vocal sweetness of her Frankfurt vowels. She asks me how I learned German, and as I tell her the 15-second version of my story, I realize that the German words feel strange on my tongue. The words are reduced to vocabulary and grammar, choppy and separated. Their flow is interrupted by Portuguese phrases that insist they can tell the story better than their German counterparts ever could. English isn't anywhere in the mix.
The newlyweds get off at what we all hope is the correct stop and I am left with my own thoughts of the conversation. While it was great to speak German for a few minutes--or rather speak a language in which I have more than a 50 percent chance of having what I mean match what I actually say--it was even more rewarding to confirm that my Portuguese really is improving, and is slowly becoming my brain's first "go-to" language in any given conversation. Of course, tonight's linguistic progress could just be a sign of some language-based predicament yet to come. Whatever the case, I'll be sure to write about it here.
I was riding the bus home tonight and standing next to me was a German couple, trying to figure out which bus stop they should get off at. In German: "How many stops?" the woman asks. "Two or three," answers the man. "If you're not sure, we should probably ask someone," the woman prods. The man opens his guidebook and studies it for a moment. "Two," he replies. "Are you sure? I can ask someone." "It's two." "Are you sure?" At this point, probably against my better judgment, I ask the woman: "Wohin geht ihr?" "Where are you going?" The woman looks at me surprised for a moment, and then tells me the name of the stop. It's the next one. We talk for a few minutes. It turns out the two are husband and wife and they are on their honeymoon. "Herzlichen Glückwunsch!" I congratulate them. They'll spend a few days in Rio, continue on to the "Green Coast" of Paraty, and finish on a beach resort further south in Brazil. The woman is from Frankfurt and I can hear the vocal sweetness of her Frankfurt vowels. She asks me how I learned German, and as I tell her the 15-second version of my story, I realize that the German words feel strange on my tongue. The words are reduced to vocabulary and grammar, choppy and separated. Their flow is interrupted by Portuguese phrases that insist they can tell the story better than their German counterparts ever could. English isn't anywhere in the mix.
The newlyweds get off at what we all hope is the correct stop and I am left with my own thoughts of the conversation. While it was great to speak German for a few minutes--or rather speak a language in which I have more than a 50 percent chance of having what I mean match what I actually say--it was even more rewarding to confirm that my Portuguese really is improving, and is slowly becoming my brain's first "go-to" language in any given conversation. Of course, tonight's linguistic progress could just be a sign of some language-based predicament yet to come. Whatever the case, I'll be sure to write about it here.
Learning Portuguese through Immersion
February 12, 2011
It's been a week since I've written here -- mainly because I've been "in class" all day at BridgeBrazil. BridgeBrazil is an immersion-based Portuguese-language school. The classes emphasize conversation as opposed to reading and writing, though the latter are also included. This is a challenge for me. While I can read and write reasonably well, it takes me a lot longer to learn to speak with any degree of spontaneity. For many people, the situation is reversed: they can pick up speaking right away, but have trouble with the finer points of grammar or reading comprehension. (Case in point: we had an hour-and-a-half question and answer session yesterday on various forms of present and past tense. People who are normally fabulous at speaking just couldn't comprehend which tense to use in which time scenario. I was ready to tune out after the first five minutes -- just follow the rules! [Yes, I know it's more difficult than that.] And I digress ...)
So this week I've had four hours of Portuguese each day, sometimes lunch with friends afterwards, and an hour commute each way, from Gávea to Centro (where BridgeBrazil is located) and back again. This is approximately the same length of a typical school day in Pittsburgh, but the heat, coupled with insane busdrivers who occasionally race one another on pothole-ridden roads, and of course the energy it takes to learn a new language, make most days completely exhausting. If my Portuguese improves considerably, though, it's all worth it. Next week is my final week at BridgeBrazil and then I am on my own to pick up the language through daily interactions and from the textbooks I brought with me. The race is on!
So this week I've had four hours of Portuguese each day, sometimes lunch with friends afterwards, and an hour commute each way, from Gávea to Centro (where BridgeBrazil is located) and back again. This is approximately the same length of a typical school day in Pittsburgh, but the heat, coupled with insane busdrivers who occasionally race one another on pothole-ridden roads, and of course the energy it takes to learn a new language, make most days completely exhausting. If my Portuguese improves considerably, though, it's all worth it. Next week is my final week at BridgeBrazil and then I am on my own to pick up the language through daily interactions and from the textbooks I brought with me. The race is on!