Almost a
year after writing an article for Brazzil on living and
working in Brazil, I am still receiving e-mails from readers
seeking advice. I have made the point incessantly that, if you
do not know Portuguese or are not prepared to learn it, then
do not waste your time coming here. Otherwise you will be as
isolated as an expatriate executive on a two-year contract who
speaks English all day and lives in a walled enclave far from
local people.
Since very
few people here speak English and few are interested in learning
to it is, therefore, incumbent on you to learn their language.
One frustrated reader told me that he had spent a fruitless
two weeks in Rio de Janeiro, during which he was unable to communicate.
He compared this with a three-month stay in China where he met
a large number of people who spoke English.
Learning
Portuguese should not be a problem for two reasons: Brazilians
are a friendly, talkative lot so you will have plenty of opportunities
to listen and learn, and Portuguese is not a particularly difficult
language. Let's take a brief look at these two points.
During the
days of the British Empire, the unofficial advice to soldiers,
administrators, planters etc was to find what was called a "sleeping
dictionary." Although the term sounds rather coarse, it
just meant that a personal relationship with a local person
was a good way of learning a language.
If the other
person does not speak your language, this is even better since
you are on your own. This will enable you to become used to
talking the language and pick up the accent. If you come to
Brazil with some knowledge of Portuguese and get to know someone
then you are already on your way. Not only will your new-found
friend talk to you but will almost certainly introduce you to
other people and to another excellent way of learning a language,
which is through music.
I have never
become friendly with a Brazilian who has not introduced me to
a singer or style of music I had never heard before. Listening
to music will help you with the language and introduce you to
Brazilian culture at the same time. The first word you will
learn will probably be "coração" because
I doubt if there exists a Brazilian song without some sentimental
reference to the heart. Brazilians will be pleased and flattered
and you will become acquainted with some of the greatest music
in the world.
Your friend
will also be extremely proud of the region from which he or
she comes and this will give you an added insight to the culture
and language. Regionalism in Brazil is much stronger than in
the United States, I believe, and the differences are much wider.
The lives of an Amazonian river dweller, who depends on catching
fish and forest gathering, and a gaucho cowboy herding cattle
on the Argentinean border are so different that it is difficult
to believe that these people share the same nationality.
The people
of São Paulo are of such a broad ethnic mixture that
getting to know one of them means becoming acquainted, not only
with Brazilian and São Paulo cultures, but with the cultures
of their forefathers who could have originated in places as
far apart as Lithuania, Japan, Italy or Syria. Learning Portuguese
will not only give you an entry to Brazilian culture but to
many others, whether Indian in the Amazon, African in Bahia
or German in the south.
Portuguese,
Brazilian Way
One essential
piece of advice is to concentrate on Brazilian Portuguese. If
you have any guides or grammars from Portugal then throw them
away. They are of academic value only and if you try and talk
like a Portuguese, Brazilians will laugh at you. I know this
from personal experience since I learned much of my grammar
from a book called Portuguese in Three Months written
by a Portuguese author and published by Hugo's Language Books
of London.
I found
it almost useless in Brazil where the grammar is simplified
to an extreme. Almost 20 years later I still have my copy of
this book, which has been annotated and changed by Brazilians
who have had had a good laugh at it. (I know Portuguese readers
will be annoyed at that blanket statement but, as I keep telling
them, Brazil is not Portugal and has not been its colony for
almost 200 years, so keep your Lusitanian shirts on.) A good
Brazilian book is Falando, Lendo, Escrevendo.Português:
Um Curso para Estrangeiros, published by EPU of São
Paulo.
Brazilian
Portuguese is much easier to understand and pronounce than the
version found in Portugal. The nasal sounds, in words like "não",
"verão", "pão"
etc are not normally pronounced as strongly in Brazil as in
Portugal. You won't need to pinch your nose before speaking.
The slurring "s" of the Portuguese from Portugal,
which makes a name like "dos Santos" sound like "dosh
Santosh", is only really found in the Rio de Janeiro area,
probably because so many Portuguese emigrated there.
The Brazilian
grammar is much simpler and at times similar to English. For
example, there are differences in conjugating the present or
imperfect tense. The equivalent of "I eat" is "Eu
como" in Brazil and Portugal. However, if you want
to say "I am eating", then in Brazil the present participle
is used, as in English, giving a literal translation: "Eu
estou comendo."
In Portugal,
though, the infinitive is used: "Eu estou a comer".
"I was eating" would be "Eu estava comendo"
in Brazil and "Eu estava a comer" in Portugal.
The Portuguese are also more formal than the Brazilians and
use various forms for "you", such as "tu"
(familiar) "senhor/a" (formal, singular), senhores/as
(formal, plural). Brazilians, on the other hand, generally use
"você" for everyone, reserving "senhor/a"
for occasions when they are being extremely polite or talking
to an older person who deserves respect.
Brazilians
are also a bit lazy with grammar and at times their version
of Portuguese sounds like the "Amos `n Andy"-style
of speech used by black Americans in pre-politically correct
days, such as "I is" for "I am". A good
example is with pronouns. If you were to say "I see him"
in Portugal you would use "Eu o vejo" but in
Brazil people say "Eu vejo ele," which translates
literally as "I see he".
This is
not necessarily a bad thing because the Portuguese way is often
ambiguous and, in some cases, you don't know immediately to
what the pronoun refers. The same occurs with the possessive
where "seu amigo", for example, can mean "his
friend", "her friend", "your friend"
or "its friend". In these cases Brazilians will generally
specify and say "amigo dele" (his friend) or
"amigo dela" (her friend) etc.
To be fair,
the Portuguese also use this format to avoid ambiguity but Brazilians
will generally simplify or take shortcuts. Another example is
seen in how Brazilians throw out the rules with indirect objects
in personal pronouns. To say "I want to give him a book"
would be "Eu quero lhe dar um livro" in Portugal
but a Brazilian would say "Eu quero dar o livro para
ele," which translated literally is "I want to
give the book to he".
This casual
approach might enrage a language professor in Lisbon but it
is the norm here and, since it simplifies the language, makes
it easier for a foreigner. Brazilians always find ways to overcome
problems in their daily lives so it is not surprising that they
do so with language as well.
Vowels
Beat Consonants
These are
just a few points which I hope will show that Brazilian Portuguese
need not be approached with fear. If you know another Romance
language like Spanish, French or Italian you will already have
the basic grammatical structure in your head and it will be
much easier. Do not, however, think that a knowledge of Spanish
means you can speak Portuguese.
Whereas
the written languages are similar there is no similarity when
spoken. A Brazilian might understand a Spaniard speaking Spanish
but he will not understand the Brazilian speaking Portuguese.
A hideous, bastardized so-called language known as "portunhol"
is generally used on these occasions. However not only is it
painful on the ear but inefficient and business meetings will
generally be held in English.
Whereas
Spanish is truncated and abrupt, Portuguese is more mellifluous
and sinuous. Compare similar-looking words like "coração"
and "corazon", "mulher" and
"mujer" or names like "Gonçalves"
and "Gonzalez" and you will see what I mean. The softness
of Brazilian Portuguese, where consonants are stressed only
lightly, can pose a problem to the beginner who finds it difficult
to separate words. This was one of my main problems at the beginning,
simply because Brazilians talk so much. However, if you train
your ear you will eventually pick it up.
This is
no more than a brief canter through a highly complicated area
but I hope it might give a bit of encouragement to those who
are serious about coming here to visit or stay. One final comment
which I hope proves my point is that, of all the foreigners
I know who live here and are fluent in Portuguese, not one has
learned the language formally. They have all picked it just
by talking to people, listening to the radio, reading the papers
and being forced to speak every time they meet someone. Learning
a language is like cooking—the proof is in the eating.
John Fitzpatrick
is a Scottish journalist who first visited Brazil in 1987 and has lived
in São Paulo since 1995. He writes on politics and finance and runs
his own company, Celtic Comunicações - www.celt.com.br,
which specializes in editorial and translation services for Brazilian
and foreign clients. You can reach him at jf@celt.com.br
© John Fitzpatrick
2003
