new language: brazilian portuguese!

today, i wanted to do a short tutoring session on what i've learned thus far about brazilian portuguese... :)


did you know the official language of brazil is not spanish, it's actually portuguese??? wayyy back in the day--in the 1500's--the portuguese began exploring the world in search of new lands to conquer and expand their empire... much like american history with the spanish, the native brazilians were decimated as the portuguese settled and brought over their culture, language, religion, diseases, etc... there's much more to the rich history of the country of brazil, but long story short, they totally took on the european language of portuguese and put their own spin on it somewhat... it sounds very sing-songy and much *cooler* than spanish! lol jk jk in all fairness, i think spanish sounds very romantical when spoken smooth-operator style... but, portuguese is the star of the day, so here goes... ;)


a common misconception is that if you know spanish then you can speak portuguese... wrong! sure, you can understand enough portuguese to get by, but the portuguese/brazilians have sounds that we very rarely have in english and occur only occasionally in spanish... so you have to re-train your brain and face muscles to even make the sounds! it's very hard pronouncing the words correctly and making them sound "natural"... crazy, i know...


one thing that helped me get the hang of brazilian pronounciation was by writing a simple sentence in portuguese then writing underneath the english-y phoenetics:


Example: eu tenho uma familha grande. tenho dois paes, tres irmaos e uma irma...

[i have a big family. i have two parents, three brothers and one sister.]


try sounding it out like this:

ay-ooh teng-yoo ooh-mah fah-meel-yah grahn-gee. teng-yoo doys pies, tray-z eer-mows eeh ooh-mah eer-mah.


that's a mouthful, huh?


my portuguese is very rudimentary right now as i've only been studying it since the beginning of march... 4+ hours of language class per week and 4+ hours of brazilian culture class per week... on top of my 'formation towards christian ministry' class i'm taking with the archdiocese of galveston-houston... my schedule is full every week!


i try to take every opportunity i can to listen to brazilian radio or watch brazilian tv shows online, or visit with any of the brazilian ex-pats i run into here in houston... there's also a handful of former interns that have been so cool to practice with us whenever they're available... its' really helping me get a good grasp on the language... i think so anyway... lol


i'm trying very hard to learn how to use key phrases that might help me communicate with people in the Church, i very much want to be able to participate in the Mass and possibly even get involved with a youth/young adults group... i'd love to eventually be able to give everyone my personal testimony of who i am and how my faith has grown over the years... in portuguese!


anyway, will you please pray for me that i am able to pick up more and more of the language so i can better communicate with the native brasileiros while i'm in their country? :)


until next time...