Linguistic Mysteries

Let's talk linguistic !

   To start my immersion as should be, we make a deal, we ONLY speak portuguese at home.

So obviously my portuguese is absolutely fluent, efficient and perfect as you might know.

So basically, I now have a PHD in universal sign language. I litteraly join the move to the word -French expression, sorry couldn't translate that one better- all the time. Even in English and French (languages that I normally am already fluent in, or so I think).

My portuguese education so far being indeed quite low, I spent the first two weeks speaking only on the present tense using a hand movement above my shoulder or in front of me to say I meant past or future (try it, only present is hard.). Words in relations with the five sense have suddenly taking all their meaning in my hands (I surprended myself saying 'I heard' in english and putting one hand on my ear...). The lack of synonymes to describe a missing word in the absence of a dictionnary has become a mental and immitation art that I now master.

   So all this was before starting school, five days after arrival. Oops no, sorry, I still do it. Except that now I am in a deep phase of learning to conjugate the past and future of the indicative (the easiest kind of tenses, for those who never learned a language with tenses like these). So now, on top of all the movements when talking, I tend to repeat four times the same verb in my sentence before finding the good conugasion, in front of the amused looks of my friends. Aaaaah, the joy of learning for the first time a language with a real difficult conjugaison.

   Appart from that, I'm actually quite at ease, I managed to not get into those bad misunderstandings well known of anyone that has already lived in immersion in a unknown language... Well, no misunderstandings indeed, but a loooooot of badly pronounced words, which does, in times, lead unintentionally to the use of the totally wrong word for another one, which leads to pretty good laughters, as when I wanted to say 'insects' but by changing accidentally one letter actually said 'fags are getting out from the pipes'. Yes, you are allowed to laugh.

                                         

      Because the best Margarita with honey that exists can only help speaking Portuguese ;)

   Here is another strange thing to experience. I have swedish phases. Yes, swedish. Frequently I intervert a portuguese word (that I even know!) and its swedish translation! Most of the times it is the word "samma" instead of "mesma", that means "same". But lately I have known stuff even weirder. Coming back from my run, I was letting my brain occupy himself without paying attention in the elevator. I think that this little guy started to get into the swedish mode without my asking (a mode that I even absolutely can't activate myself these last days with so much portuguese around), and I started talking to Paula in swedish, as if she could understand. I had to shut up for a minute to gather up an inteligeable portuguese before being able to communicate! I also realized that this strange and out of control event was happening again after lapses of time with much french or english (a film or a skype, or me writing, like right now!), after it always take me a while to get my portuguese words back because everything comes in swedish! This is really the ONE thing I didn't expect: to mix up swedish and portuguese !

   But the biggest problem for now, is that the intensive learning is leaving me in a constent stay of deep tiredness, on top of the fact that it is just the end of winter here, which means being dark at 6 pm, so the change and adaptation are quite hard for me!

                                

            End of the day on Copacabana, nothing to do with the subject but it is beautiful !