Nao Falo Portuguese- the Frustration of Not Knowing the Language

Frustration and tears- the two words to describe my experience moving to a new country without knowing the language. I’ve found that some Spanish words have cogantes, but it still varies. I’ve never had the experience of traveling somewhere that I was exhausted all day trying to decipher what people are saying. My knowledge of five present tense verbs has not helped me as much as I hoped. For example, I bought a pre-pay phone chip and it was giving me troubles, so I went to the phone store. This field trip led to sitting in the store with four employees in a room talking at me to try and figure out my phone, and in the and being told that I needed to return with someone that could lend me their CPF (The Brasilian’s version of a social security number that they use everywhere) and sign for it, and to buy a monthly plan. As per my knee jerk reaction, I started tearing up, and the worker looked to my friend and said in Portuguese, “ela esta nervosa”. This is one phrase I do know, which I don’t think she expected, and I looked up and just responded back “sim- yes”. Eventually, we did get the data working and calls to come through! A small victory, even if it’s temporary and took a while.

This week I also began a Portuguese class taught at UEL. It’s a mix of people from- Hungary, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, and the USA, and the teacher only speaks in Portuguese. I figured that the course would hopefully be taught in a mixture, but we jumped right in. I sat at my desk feeling lost, and confused, and helpless. My face showed it, as I always do without a poker face, and the teacher tried to ask what I was confused about. I was choked up from being upset about not understanding, and I just shook my head. I’m accustomed to understanding things when I work hard for them, but being thrown into situation like that, or the cashier at a store speaking very quickly, I just stare and freeze up. I’m hoping that the next Portuguese class will be a little bit easier to pick up on everything.

The moral of the story- if you’re going to travel abroad then try to get a good grasp on the basics before going. I’m sure by the end of the nine months I will feel very accomplished having come so far with my Portuguese, but right now it feels like a defeat. Also, happy international women’s day, especially to all those crazy ladies also taking a huge chance like I am to pursue your dreams, even if it means facing new challenges and going outside your comfort zone!