OK, we got busted. Let me declare right here, right now, my involvement with the Portugal Resident April Fool’s article this year, which warned foreigners of an upcoming initiative that would have them not only speak but eat Portuguese too, every Sunday, both in public and even at home.
Some in this readership, and others across social media, twigged within a few paragraphs, others cried foul, feeling the injustice and imposition a little too severe for their liking and current level of linguistic skill. The lasting sensation however, I suspect, was that of the Portuguese language pang that has most incomers knowing they should be speaking more of the local lingo but doing next to nothing about the predicament.
Is that you? I openly admit it’s me. So how about we do something about it?
What exactly is standing in our way when it comes to speaking the language of our hosts? If you want the short answer, it’s always the one asking the question, the one looking in the mirror, who must take responsibility for the language lack, the cultural constipation.
Of course, there are mitigating factors. It is, as teachers will tell you, a hard language to learn. Portuguese people themselves are engaged in lifelong learning, it seems, with their own language, which may come as some comfort to the struggling foreigner.
English is spoken freely and widely too, and with no obvious offence taken as one might experience elsewhere, should no effort be made to master the mother tongue. This courtesy, offered often by a native who usually apologises for their poor English – in the most fluent and able way – offers little incentive to the expat, who as the months and years roll by, makes less and less effort.
According to DeepL, let’s just call: “desculpas, desculpas!” (or should that be “pretextos, pretextos!”? I’ll let you research that as a bit of homework). “Lack of time” can also be added to our list of excuses, as can an early bad experience of engaging, where either an embarrassing situation or tyrannical teacher killed any confidence or goodwill the aspiring lusophone once had.
If you need time to plan your first foray or re-entry into Portuguese language engagement, or a bit of a run-up, ‘World Portuguese Language Day’ is approaching. My favourite Portuguese blogger, Cátia ‘Beyond Lisbon’ Lima, tells us that: “The date of May 5 was officially established in 2009 by the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) – in official partnership with UNESCO since 2000, and which brings together peoples with the Portuguese language as one of the foundations of their specific identity – to celebrate the Portuguese language and Lusophone cultures.”
UNESCO continues: “The Portuguese language is not only one of the most widespread languages in the world, with more than 265 million speakers spread through all continents, but it is also the most widely spoken language in the southern hemisphere. Portuguese remains, today, a major language of international communication and a language with a strong geographical projection, destined to increase.”
So, whilst we’ve already acknowledged it’s not the easiest language to grasp, you’re not alone, and you’ll be able, once on your way, to not only connect and converse on the mainland, but also in Madeira and The Azores, as well as Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, and East Timor.
Portuguese, as Cátia reminds us, evolved from Latin, like many other Romance languages, and has been influenced by Arabic, African languages, and indigenous languages of the Americas. This is why no day goes by without the appearance of a familiar word or sound. Build on those familiarities, and trust you probably already know more Portuguese than you give yourself credit for.
If you are blocked, it might help to look at the challenge in a different way: what if you see yourself as connecting and communicating instead of ‘learning a new language’? It will have taken you many months of observation and encouragement to utter a simple line of barely coherent gobbledy-gook in your native tongue, no doubt to rapturous applause and adult adoration. After that, several more years to sound competent and earn the right to say you are fluent, with further years of applied study should you have taken your hard-earned vernacular into specialist niches.
Clearly, children take years to learn a language, which is, after all, a journey and not a destination, so why shouldn’t you? Granted, your grey matter may not be as absorbent as it once was, but, more importantly, you may have lost the carefree attitude that children bring to learning, as soon as the harsh light of self-consciousness sets in.
But you are a child in cultural terms, and believe me, you will be forgiven by our kind hosts for being so. They may stop short of rapturous applause and open displays of adoration (although not necessarily, speaking from experience). Rekindle a juvenile sense of playfulness and adventure as you approach each linguistic interaction, and learn from your mistakes, rather than not making any by staying silent.
Make the time. Try 15 minutes a day of applied learning, using resources that suit your learning style. Nothing kills the will to learn more than ill-fitting teaching methods, as endless hours of boredom in classrooms proved to us. Thankfully, things have moved on and there’s a superb range of Portuguese teachers and teaching programmes, from which you can find a good, personal fit.
Augment your applied learning with the many apps that are available, bearing in mind the distinction between European and Brazilian Portuguese, that can be confusing and counterproductive. Put on Portuguese radio or TV to give yourself that sense of immersion that babies experience, soaking up the sounds and inferences that will inform your actual utterances.
And, above all, have fun with it! Although ending up with a plate of fish instead of the buttered toast you thought you ordered can be awkward (the difference between ‘dourada’ and ‘torrada’), laughing about such experiences will help grow your confidence and enrich your vocabulary.
More importantly, the quiet glow of pride that comes from a meaningful or successful interaction in a foreign language is priceless. Each of those little ‘doing-it-in-Portuguese’ victories will boost your sense of belonging in a society that actually asks for so little, whilst giving so much in return.
So, how about it? Let’s you and me “vamos embora”, and open our mouths, unblock our minds and start speaking more Portuguese, not just on Sunday, but every day.
Get all the help, inspiration and support you might need at www.domingoportuguese.com
Carl Munson is host of the Good Morning Portugal! show every weekday on YouTube and creator of www.learnaboutportugal.com, where you can learn something new about Portugal every day!
