[2022-09-14] Portuguese
As I shared a few weeks ago, I am using the app Duolingo to learn some words and phrases in Portuguese. Today, I reached 30 days of consecutive use.
This morning, I put my fledgling skills to the test by approaching my neighbour's father who is visiting from Brazil with his wife. I had met Eduardo a few months ago, and it was our early ineffective attempts at communication that inspired me to learn even a little bit of his language.
This morning, I greeted Eduardo with a hearty olá (hello), followed by bom dia (good morning). I don't yet know how to say I'm learning Portuguese so I said eu falo português (I speak Portuguese) then pinched my fingers together to suggest a little bit. Through a combination of charades (Eduardo is very good at miming what he wants to convey), Portuguese and Google Translate on my phone, we managed to have a very enjoyable exchange.
In addition to learning through Duolingo, I have been listening to an audiobook from the Ottawa Public Library that teaches Portuguese vocabulary: VocabuLearn® Portuguese Level One. The words or expressions are said in one language followed by the translation in the other language—sometimes English first, sometimes Portuguese first. I try to guess the translation, and manage to get it right about one third of the time. In some cases, the Portuguese word is similar to its English counterpart (e.g., chocolate and chocolate); in other cases, the Portuguese word is similar to its French counterpart (e.g., escrever and écrire, meaning to write). The lexical similarity between Portuguese and French is said to be 75%, meaning three-quarters of the words in each language are similar. By contrast, the lexical similarity with Portuguese and English has not been determined, but is no doubt much less. English is most similar to German, with 60% lexical similarity between the two languages.
While the pronunciation of Brazilian Portuguese words can be quite different from their French counterparts, I found that using Duolingo and listening to Portuguese vocabulary have opened my mind and ears to the language—my mind because learning a language begins with a commitment to not giving up when presented with words I don't immediately understand, and my ears because the more I hear a language, the less foreign it starts to sound.
Today, I learned that Eduardo will return to Brazil on sábado (Saturday), he will have a long flight of 10 horas (hours), the people of Brazil are very simpático (friendly), he knows the English word for cerveja (beer), he drinks 7-8 cups of água (water) a day, he knew that my cachorro (dog) had passed away, he saw many vacas (cows) on the way to Montreal, and he was impressed with the words and expressions I had learned and could remember at the time of our chat: casa (house), homem (man), mulher (woman), menino (boy), menina (girl), leite (milk), carne (meat), boa tarde (good afternoon), boa noite (good evening), desculpe (sorry), com licença (excuse me). He presented new vocabulary: óculus (glasses), olhos (eyes), nariz (nose), ouvidos (ears), boca (mouth), dentes (teeth).
When we separated, I wished him bom dia again and bid him tchau (bye).
Even if I don't continue my pursuit of Portuguese, my exchange today with Eduardo made all the hours I've spent learning the language worth every second.
