Sofia Lex, Exploration of Energy and Electrification: Brazil Summer 2023
For other students planning on traveling to Brazil, it is important to recognize that language is a barrier. In Brazil, the national language is Portuguese, and the majority of people do not speak Spanish or English as a secondary language, which are the main languages used in the US. From what other locals told us, it seemed that Brazilians may learn English phrases in primary school but may not move beyond basic counting and nouns – much like with foreign languages in US schools. In my experience, I found that few people spoke conversational English, but with the combination of phrases, Google Translate, and pointing at menus or pictures, I was able to eat and shop. It seemed that showing pictures and trying to sound out words was well received and appreciated by most people. If you give it your best shot, I did not encounter anyone that was unfriendly because I did not know the language, which is sometimes a point of contention in other countries. In fact, many people were interested that we spoke English and used speaking with us as an opportunity to practice if they were learning. For example, many of the students of UNISINOS, a university that joined us on many site tours, were learning English and would try to have full conversations to improve their own skills.
If you are conversational in Spanish, it may help you in some capacity, but it is not a substitute for Portuguese. As a tour guide told me, it is common that Americans believe they can speak Spanish everywhere in South America and upon traveling to Brazil, can sometimes be out of their depth. While the languages do share some similar traits, he informed me that most nouns are different so in order to learn each language, one must have a grasp on two totally different vocabularies. In a pinch, we did find that high school Spanish could help, but again, I would recommend trying to learn some basic Portuguese phrases that relate to food, transactions, and questions for directions, etc.
While learning the language of a foreign country seems like an obvious recommendation, I mention language as a barrier for communicating, but also for learning. When our program would visit companies, historical sites, and museums, there was not enough time to translate all the signs and displays that were set up. For me, walking through a museum without reading the signs felt wrong because I was not really learning from the exhibits. For example, we visited the Casa de Cultura Mario Quintana, which was where Mario Quintana, a famous writer once stayed for many years. He was most famous for his poetry, but it was hard to translate the poems and retain the meaning and finesse.
For this reason, particularly if you are going on a shorter-term study abroad where you know all the places you are likely to visit, I think it is important to do research and come with questions. At Casa de Cultura, most of the guides spoke English and if I had more of a background for what I was seeing, I think it would help me ask some pointed questions to help me learn rather than asking the guide to explain everything.
My recommendation is thus, learn a few phrases of the language, but also learn background on the places you will travel to so knowing the language won’t be as critical.
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