It has been a very interesting and exciting first week in Brazil. A few months ago at a gas station I asked the sales man something in English and he replied to me in Spanish. I asked him how he knew I spoke Spanish and he said, “because one knows.” Another time some months ago, a 7 year old asked me if I spoke Spanish after I had about half hour speaking to him in English. When I asked him how he knew, he said, “your face.” These have been experiences that have made me more aware of how we Hispanics are able to recognize each other. However, I have been asked many times if I’m Brazilian, a question that my sister, my mom and I get a lot. It is interesting to me how many people identify me as Hispanic but don’t necessarily identify my nationality, except when they ask about me being Brazilian.
All those experiences have already shaped my short time in Brazil. It has definitely been an interesting first week of emerging myself in the Brazilian culture from the moment I was in line to board the plane. When I traveled in Southeast Asia last summer I wasn’t able to understand any of the complex languages of the places I visited. However, it is interesting to me that I never felt uncomfortable or scared due to the lack of communication. Interestingly, I felt really out of place when I got in line to board my plane to Brazil and everyone was speaking in Portuguese. This time I felt the need to be able to communicate, maybe because I’m aware that this time I’m actually traveling to learn a language and it’s my goal to go back being able to speak it.
The challenging thing was… that again, people thought I was Brazilian. The flight attendants started speaking to me in Portuguese and my heart started racing of nervousness. I was so surprised that my reaction was to reply in English, even though my first language is Spanish that is even more like Portuguese. I came to realize that after spending some months in Southeast Asia were I relied on English to communicate, I unconsciously created the idea in my head that English is the language of the foreigner. When one of the flight attendants was passing out the entrance slips she said, “Brasileira?” and when I said no she asked me again. Later at the airport in São Paulo, a lady came up to me confused asking me for help about something I wasn’t able to understand, to whom I had to reply with one of the very few things I knew, “Não falo Portuguese” (I don’t speak Portuguese). Days after, another lady approached me at a bus stop to ask me about the bus and there went my phrase again, “Não falo Portugues.”
It has definitely been one interesting experience to think about this idea of nationality, language, and identity. I’m hoping that my months here are full of learning and that soon I will be able to engage in meaningful conversations with native Portuguese speakers! Here’s to hoping I can say, “Sim, eu falo Portugues!”