It may sound strange, but the thing that improves my Portuguese the most is just hanging out with friends. It’s the only time I get to practice talking for extended stretches of time. I don’t really have to speak much during the day, so if I don’t do anything with friends on a particular day, it’s possible the only Portuguese I’ll use will be to buy food. My classes are lecture-based, so I don’t usually have to talk in them unless I’m called on in Portuguese to give an answer to a grammar exercise. I suppose on some level being in class helps my listening comprehension, but I could understand almost everything my professors said (save for the odd vocabulary word here and there) from the very beginning, so I don’t really feel like I’ve improved much in that regard. I am starting to master the art of listening with only one ear, though, and that’s kind of fun.
What I find to be much more beneficial, though, is the informal conversation that goes on when I’m out with my friends. In general, I think it’s a little harder to understand informal conversation than it is to understand my class lectures. In part I think that is because in my lectures, I always have a sort of base vocabulary to go off. In literature, my mind pulls up its literature vocabulary. In sociology, the sociology vocabulary. I have a frame of reference and can predict roughly where the lectures will go, so I always know what kinds of words to expect. In informal conversation, on the other hand, anything goes. Being able to converse easily in a non-academic setting require a far wider range of vocabulary, and the ability to recognize all those unexpected words instantaneously.
The absolute hardest thing for me when trying to understand Portuguese is when someone asks me a question out of the blue that I’m not expecting. In an ongoing conversation, I can predict what’s coming and if I don’t understand a word, I can use context clues and often figure it out with no problem. In an isolated question, there are no context clues. Even if I know every word in the question on its own, if the words are strung together and said quickly when I’m not paying close attention, there’s a good chance I won’t understand the question the first time it’s asked. When I’m just talking with my friends it’s not a big deal, but I find unanticipated questions slightly stressful when dealing with food vendors.
I know the routine questions. If I order a Coca-Cola, I’ll be asked whether I want a regular or diet one. If I order a salgado, I’ll be asked whether I want to eat there or have it to go. Occasionally I’ll be asked if I want it heated up. If I order juice, I’ll sometimes be asked if I want it with sugar. If I don’t pay with exact change, I’ll usually be asked if I have it (for some reason Brazilian cashiers really don’t like making change). All of these questions I’ve grown very accustomed to, know to anticipate, and can answer without a problem. If, however, I were to be asked if I wanted honey to go with my muffin or sauce to go on my sandwich, I’d probably be lost. I do my best to get away with just a smile and a nod when I don’t understand, but things can get messy when a specific answer is required of me. In the best of situations, I understand the question the second time it is asked. In the worst of situations, the cashier and I are left blinking at each other in an awkward communicational impasse. I feel so helpless when that happens, but I try to get out of it by smiling a lot and just picking an option, even if I don’t understand what I’m picking. I once ended up with the odd combination of salmon ravioli in a chicken sauce when that happened. The cashier must’ve thought I was crazy, but it was surprisingly good.
Smiling and nodding can get a person very far in a foreign culture. Copying body language can, as well. There’s a Brazilian girl that sometimes talks to me in my literature class, and occasionally she’ll lean over and whisper something to me while the professor is talking. My ability to understand quickly-whispered Portuguese is just about zero, but if she’s smiling, I’ll just smile back and act like I understand. Along the same lines, sometimes when I’m in a big group of friends and not participating directly in the conversation, I lose track of what’s being said. However, I just copy the expressions of the other people in the group, and usually everyone is none the wiser. Of course, I sometimes feel silly after laughing at a joke with everyone and then having someone turn and ask me, “Did you understand?” “Uh, no, but I thought I’d laugh anyway so I looked like I had a clue…” Luckily I don’t get caught too often, and it’s far easier to just pretend I understand than to drag the conversation down by making people go back and explain whatever it was that I didn’t catch.
However, more often than not I’m able to follow the conversation just fine, and, when I’m feeling daring, sometimes I’ll even jump in myself. My spoken Portuguese is definitely the worst of out my reading, writing, speaking, and listening abilities. Because I am a perfectionist, that gives me a very good reason to keep my mouth shut. If I can’t say it correctly, I’d rather not say anything at all. Unfortunately, the only way for me to improve my speaking ability is to do just that – speak. When I’m writing I have time to look over my work and make sure everything agrees (verb tenses, gender, whether something is singular or plural), but when I’m speaking, things get jumbled. Portuguese is a lot more complicated than English, and even a little harder than Spanish, in terms of agreement. The hardest thing for me has been learning to just let go of my mistakes and keep talking. I always want to go back and correct everything I’ve said (I tend to realize I’ve made a mistake immediately AFTER I’ve said something), but if I were to do that, I’d end up talking myself in a circle and never get anywhere. So I let it go and move on.
As if making sure things agree weren’t hard enough, there’s also the matter of vocabulary. Let me tell you, a language consists of an awful lot of words. I’ve learned to be very creative in order to make up for my vocabulary deficiencies. Give me a sentence and I’ll find two or three other ways to express that same idea. I have to, since often I can’t translate my original English ideas into my less-than-stellar Portuguese. Synonyms are my best friends. Yesterday I was trying to explain to a friend how something was expanding, but I didn’t know the word for expand. I thought about it for a moment and then decided that the word “grow” would work just as well. I’ve also gotten good at descriptions. While I was staying at the hostel in
