Language tips - Brazil Video Transcripts
Video 1 Transcript
Probably my biggest language tip is to just confront the fact that you're going to feel kind of really stupid. When you learn a new language, you can't express yourself the same way that you're used to, and a lot of the times people will assume that you don't know very much if you can't say very much, and that was really frustrating for me when I felt like I was really appreciated in America for my intelligence, and then all of a sudden I was looked on as dumb. So it was really humbling, and I'm really grateful for the experience because I learned so much, but patience is so important, and diligence, but mostly patience through all of those things. It takes time.
Video 2 Transcript
Try to learn how to express yourself and people around you, they'll be supportive of you. They may tease you every once in a while, but don't be afraid to mess up and don't be afraid of how your accent sounds. Just try your best and have fun with it. I think one of the things that helped me the most was just trying to tell stories about my life, trying to tell stories that I thought were funny or just crazy stories from growing up in Portuguese. And along the way, ask people to correct you with the way you use your verbs and certain vocabulary. And as long as you're having fun with it, making it conversational, you'll pick it up really fast. And I was surprised at how fast I picked it up. I thought it was going to take me a really long time, but it's easy if you just have fun with it and you invest yourself.
Video 3 Transcript
Listen to how the people speak. That way you will pick it up quicker. You'll learn how to enunciate and pronunciate the words correctly, and your learning curve will will shorten very quickly if you just put in the time to listen and try to copy.
Video 4 Transcript
It was actually really hard for me to learn the language, mostly because I have a hearing problem. But one thing is that you kind of just have to talk to people. Once you talk more, then you practice more, and eventually I was able to get it down pretty well.
Video 5 Transcript
What helped me the most for learning the language was definitely just talking a ton with the Brazilians. Really trying to imitate the accent really helps a lot. It's really funny to watch an American struggle with the accents, but it really does help. I feel like it gets you a better grasp on what people are actually trying to say when they do say it.
Video 6 Transcript
Be patient with yourself. That's the most important thing is no one learns it in a day. No one learns Portuguese in a day. It's a difficult language to learn. It's a lot different grammar and a lot of different rules and pronunciations. You have to speak a lot more through your nose. So get used to kind of speaking through your nose and getting used to that feeling. Just take every opportunity to speak the language. Even if you're gonna mess up, don't be afraid to. Just keep trying.
Video 7 Transcript
If you're anything like me, you'll have a little bit of problem pronouncing s-o-n-g-b-a-l-l-o. The best tip I think I ever got for any words with n in it, as you practice it, is to hold your nose. S-o-n-g-b-a-l-l-o. It is really effective, looks really dumb, but you'll feel more comfortable in the end being able to use it and not feel as funny trying to sound like you've got a cold.
Video 8 Transcript
Portuguese is a beautiful language. I absolutely love it. I use it, I don't know if it's every day, but I run into people all the time, and I'm always practicing and using it. It's not the easiest language, especially if you're used to Spanish, there's some things that are really funky about it. But my tip is to always pay close attention to what you are hearing people say and be really honest with yourself about whether you are actually sounding like them.
Video 9 Transcript
I think there are three things that you guys can do to improve your language, to master the language. So first, you have to love the culture. You get to that point that you love the culture, it will be easier for you to understand people. Second, you have to understand the why behind the way they speak, Brazilian for instance. So try to understand the grammar rules and that will make things easier for you because you will be able to talk more properly. And finally, pay attention to all the details, like pay attention to how people move their mouth, how they move their faces, because language is not only about talking, but it's also about like facial expressions, I guess, and intonation.
Video 10 Transcript
Learning a language is pretty difficult at times, but there are two things that I would say that are pretty essential to your language learning. First is to just speak, speak, speak. We all have taken a language class in high school probably, but why can't we all speak the languages that we studied? Because we never spoke it. And so don't be afraid to make mistakes, put your pride aside, and just speak. And two, I would say to listen. Just remember to just pay attention, listen attentively, and try to figure it out, and that will help you a lot. And write down the words you don't know, and then once you learn them, write them down again. And keep asking questions, speak as much Portuguese as possible.
Video 11 Transcript
I would just recommend be really really humble and be willing to laugh at yourself, be willing to make a fool of yourself and look dumb and just speak as much as possible because that's the best way you're going to learn. It's really really hard to learn a language when you don't open your mouth. So I'd say just open your mouth as much as you can, talk as much as you can, ask people questions. When you start to notice things, ask people about them and people are really really willing to help, especially if they can see that you're trying and you're sincere and you want to learn. Portuguese is really difficult at first because of the accent. The nasalization is really hard to grasp but it is the most rewarding experience to learn a language.
Video 12 Transcript
I think the most important tip, you know, if you're learning a Latin language, you're learning, you know, any Romance language, you'll be able to do it with high proficiency. You know, within six months you'll be speaking to people and you won't have to stop and ask them what words mean or what they're trying to say or if they could slow down. The most important thing is to not plateau your language skills. You need to continue to continue to get better, continue working on it, and if you don't you'll come back and you will lose your language skills. So I think it's something I strove to do is every time, you know, I could, I would write down words in English that I didn't know in Portuguese and try to find them out, try to find out the names of as many things as possible.
Video 13 Transcript
I would just, like, not be afraid to make mistakes and just dive in. Just do your best to try to talk.
Video 14 Transcript
So your first six months are going to be rough because no one speaks English. I mean, they know things like, what's my name, but that's all. And it's complete immersion into Portuguese. And you're going to be very humbled because a three-year-old toddler is going to understand and speak this language better than you are at the very beginning. But the key is, don't be too embarrassed or ashamed to make the weird sounds. Just make them. Just make mistakes. You got to crack some eggs to make an omelet. And you're going to make lots of mistakes. The more mistakes you make, the faster you learn. And people will appreciate you for trying to learn their language and trying to make the sounds correctly. If you feel too embarrassed to make some of the weird sounds, then they'll know right away that you're American and that you're not fully embracing their culture. But just give it a shot and they'll love you for it.
Video 15 Transcript
Practice, practice, practice, practice. Just talk to people. Make conversation about things. You know, talk when you don't want to talk. That's what I would say. The moment I open my mouth and started talking, in the settings that I didn't need to talk, is when I really learned the language. I would tell a lot of stories to practice like my past tense conjugations, you know, and have him correct me, you know. You can make little flashcards to learn the vocabulary. But yeah, just practice, practice, practice. Open your mouth.
Video 16 Transcript
So for most people the hardest words to say are filho and ilja which are son or daughter if you did filja and ilja is island and so an lh makes the lj sound so it's like it's like you're gonna just make a normal l sound and then you put a ya after it or a yo so you're like filja, filjo. A lot of people shorten words they don't say like is michael there they won't say miguel esta ahi they'll say miguel ta ahi and also m's at the end of words do not make an m sound so it's not tambem it's tambem or bom so it's like you're making an n sound but you don't close your mouth as much as it like bain bain.
Video 17 Transcript
Do not be afraid to make mistakes while speaking the language, just because that's how you learn the quickest. And so I think at the beginning I was pretty scared to make mistakes, but after a little bit of that I just realized that I needed to just make mistakes because that's how I learned and I remembered how to speak correctly and different vocab words. I remembered those and so just being able to not be afraid of making mistakes is really important in learning a new language.
Video 18 Transcript
The more errors you make, the more you'll better grasp the language, and you'll be better at it. So don't be afraid to make mistakes. Like, people will laugh at you. That's just, that's just part of it. But you just laugh with it, bounce off, and keep going. It'll be okay. But get your dictionary and write the names of everything. Like, oh, this is a fridge, geladera, and stuff like that. That'll help. Never be afraid to ask, like, what is this? Como se dice? Whatever that is.
Video 19 Transcript
For the language, don't give up and don't become discouraged so quickly because it takes time and it takes effort and it's tricky and you just have to give it your all and you have to talk all the time because that way you'll make mistakes and then you'll learn from those mistakes and then you'll just get better from there. So it's really all about your effort and how much you want to learn it and how well you want to learn it because I know that you can do it and I know that when you study and you practice and you ask questions and you try and you do everything in your power that it'll come and that you'll figure it out and that it all makes sense. They'll be so grateful and they'll be more than willing to help you out with pronunciation or with different phrases or whatever it is you need so just give it your best.
Video 20 Transcript
I guess tip number one for learning Portuguese would be to get your conjugations down as soon as possible. Make yourself a little, like, index card with all the conjugations on it, and go through them. Use them every day. And don't stop using them. When you get to Brazil, you are going to be so upset with yourself because you're not going to be able to understand anyone or to speak to anyone except in short, small phrases that you know. Don't let that deter you from studying your language.
Video 21 Transcript
Focus on the verbs. Verbs, verbs, verbs, verbs, verbs. If you can get those down, that's just a game changer, and it'll be super helpful. You know, just pick five to ten verbs each day that you want to memorize, and then memorize the verbs, and then after that you can start working on the different types of conjugations, because there's so many different kinds, so many different conjugations of each verb, obviously, but you'll get the pattern down pretty quick, so it's just adding verbs to your vocabulary to make it easier.
Video 22 Transcript
Just be careful with Portuguese slangs because there are some that are really really offensive and there are some that we shouldn't quite use so pay really close attention to that and always ask your companions the meaning of the things especially if they are Brazilians. Ask them the meaning of all things because there will be a lot of people shouting things at you sometimes that are not good and I had companions that they would start repeating it because they didn't know what it meant but I had to explain to them and as soon as they learned they all realized that they shouldn't be saying that.
