Immersion Ups and Downs

The ugly truth about immersion. Depending on the person- you cry, feel exhausted, want to stay curled up safe in your room, wish to be back in the country where you can hear your native language everywhere, and maybe even feel mad or frustrated that once again your language level is that of a five year old. For me, it is all of these. I leave Portuguese class crying some days. I feel inept when I can’t understand the cashier at a supermarket. I can tell that people are looking at me and talking about me, but I can’t understand everything they’re saying. I wish more than anything somedays that I could fast forward a few months to when I could hopefully recognize more verbs and words in a conversation. People keep telling me that I’m doing really well for only studying Portuguese for one month, but it feels like a defeat to not know more. As of this week, I start my second Portuguese class. This means that I will have an overlap of three weeks where I’m taking classes Monday through Thursday for Portuguese. My brain is frazzled and I don’t know how many more times I can ask a Brasilian person to speak slower. Here is to hoping that within this month I’ll hit the magical “clicking” point that everyone tells me will come eventually.