Learning I

Learning Portuguese: the perfect excuse to fly several thousand miles and come to Brazil. Sorry Portugal, you just can't compete with the home of o jogo bonito, girls from Ipanema, and the Amazon rainforest. And all the fun would be more than justified by the addition of another language to my increasingly eclectic CV.

Knowing Spanish certainly gave me a headstart. The two languages are so similar that speakers of one can sometimes understand speakers of the other. Many words are the same, or at least nearly the same, and lots of the grammar is also very similar. Reading is much less of a problem than speaking, where the big differences in pronunciation make you realise that you are dealing with two different languages. And different they are, despite the similarities. Although you can communicate in a basic way speaking Spanish with a lusophone, to have a real conversation you need to know Portuguese.

This was made abundantly clear to me when I arrived in Portugal, en route to Lisbon for my flight to Salvador. I asked for directions at the bus station and understood about 1 word in 10, in the end relying on their final hand gesture as a guide towards my destination. This was rather disheartening, especially as I'd done at least a quarter of my Teach Yourself Portuguese book (so I should have understood 2.5 words in 10). However, after a couple of weeks in lusophone countries, my ears became accustomed to the strange sounds and it got a lot easier.

I'd enrolled in Portuguese classes for four weeks in Salvador in northeastern Brazil. My first day I was placed in the intermediate class due to my ability in Spanish and the self-study I'd done. It was a bit of a challenge at first, especially joining in the class discussions, as I had a far lower level of vocabulary than my classmates. However, I much prefer being stretched when I'm learning, rather than slowly going over the basics, so it was ideal for me!

There were both positive and negative aspects of my Portuguese course. Perhaps the most important advantage of taking classes was that it forced me to study. For three hours every morning I had to learn the language and the knowledge that I was paying for lessons encouraged me to practise outside the classroom (mainly by making me feel guilty if I didn't!) I find it's always nicer to study in a group than alone. Most importantly, you can speak and have conversations, but sharing the learning experience also helps to motivate you and makes the process more enjoyable. The teachers at the school were knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and always willing to answer any questions. After four weeks, I certainly felt my Portuguese had improved significantly, and I think a lot of that was down to my classes.

Nevertheless, some parts of the course could have been improved. As a language teacher myself, perhaps it's not surprising that I'm particularly critical of the teaching. In my opinion, this was a little old-fashioned. There was quite a lot of copying from the whiteboard, content was heavy on grammar, and there was little pair- or group work. Frustratingly, our spoken Portuguese often wasn't corrected, making it more difficult to improve. However, these criticisms shouldn't take away from the fact that my experience at my Portuguese school was a largely positive and useful one.

The big advantage of studying a language in the country where it's spoken is that you have unlimited opportunities to practise. Outside the classroom in Salvador, I was exposed to Portuguese all the time and could absorb a lot of the language. Additionally, I actively tried to improve by speaking to people, reading books and magazines, going to the cinema. Most of my life was conducted in Portuguese while I was in Salvador, which greatly increased my confidence and ability in the language and allowed me to progress far more quickly than if I had taken classes in the UK.

It's been a few weeks now since I left Salvador and started travelling in Brazil. Perhaps I've forgotten some of the more complicated grammar I learned (future subjunctive, anyone?) but I still communicate every day and I feel my level is continuing to improve. I can even switch between Spanish and Portuguese without confusing them too much, something I found impossible a couple of weeks ago! And my knowledge of Portuguese has been invaluable while I've been travelling. Talking to locals and Brazilian travellers is really interesting, and organising my trip would have been a lot more difficult without an decent level of Portuguese. The only problem is, I've been having so much fun I haven't had time to update my CV!