When I review the videos of our show in Jaraguá, Brazil, I feel very dissatisfied with the standard of my Portuguese. At the time, I was pleased with myself, but now it sounds terrible. Fair enough, I'd I had less than two years of lessons. How difficult it was to formulate sentences between songs! In that show I remember being fuelled by adrenaline and cold pills.
When I perform in Rio (and it could be soon, because our plans are firming up) I'd like to have a better command of the language - to address the audience, and to communicate with my friends and others involved in the show.
Unexpectedly, Enéias calls me on FaceTime. It's lovely to see him, to recognise his apartment, and to say "Hi" to his mother when she appears. But it's so hard to speak and to understand; such an effort to swap languages at the flick of a switch.
In Brazil I was constantly "on" - in a heightened state of concentration - keen to communicate. Back home here, I'm lazy.
Even in my Portuguese lessons I'm lazy, I realise. I often default to English - when I can't understand what is being said - or to ask questions. I'm getting better with the written language, but I'm avoiding conversation.
I borrow a children's comic book. During the next few weeks, I manage to finish it - then I discover that it was written by two boys aged eight and ten. Great - I have the reading age of about a five-year-old.
One day, I notice that one of my class-mates, Arnold, is speaking only in Portuguese. His first language is Spanish, but I don't think that makes it any easier for him - the two languages are confusingly similar and surprisingly different. The thing is, Arnold is making an effort. And he's improving week by week.
I resolve to try this, too. It's not easy, first thing on a Saturday morning. There's no necessity driving me - except that I need conversation practice, and this is the place where I can get it. I make the effort.
Another class-mate, Andrew, now joins in the "game", though we have not discussed it. He has a big vocabulary and is good at grammatical constructions. It feels very enjoyable to share this journey with talented fellow-students.
We spend the final lesson of Term 2 discussing grammatical concepts in Portuguese. I'm understanding everything my teacher says. Instead of defaulting to English, I cast around for the Portuguese word, and I often find it. Even if I didn't think I knew it, I've heard it before or seen it somewhere, or it just sounds right.
Maybe I've cracked the code?
When I perform in Rio (and it could be soon, because our plans are firming up) I'd like to have a better command of the language - to address the audience, and to communicate with my friends and others involved in the show.
Unexpectedly, Enéias calls me on FaceTime. It's lovely to see him, to recognise his apartment, and to say "Hi" to his mother when she appears. But it's so hard to speak and to understand; such an effort to swap languages at the flick of a switch.
In Brazil I was constantly "on" - in a heightened state of concentration - keen to communicate. Back home here, I'm lazy.
Even in my Portuguese lessons I'm lazy, I realise. I often default to English - when I can't understand what is being said - or to ask questions. I'm getting better with the written language, but I'm avoiding conversation.
I borrow a children's comic book. During the next few weeks, I manage to finish it - then I discover that it was written by two boys aged eight and ten. Great - I have the reading age of about a five-year-old.
One day, I notice that one of my class-mates, Arnold, is speaking only in Portuguese. His first language is Spanish, but I don't think that makes it any easier for him - the two languages are confusingly similar and surprisingly different. The thing is, Arnold is making an effort. And he's improving week by week.
I resolve to try this, too. It's not easy, first thing on a Saturday morning. There's no necessity driving me - except that I need conversation practice, and this is the place where I can get it. I make the effort.
Another class-mate, Andrew, now joins in the "game", though we have not discussed it. He has a big vocabulary and is good at grammatical constructions. It feels very enjoyable to share this journey with talented fellow-students.
We spend the final lesson of Term 2 discussing grammatical concepts in Portuguese. I'm understanding everything my teacher says. Instead of defaulting to English, I cast around for the Portuguese word, and I often find it. Even if I didn't think I knew it, I've heard it before or seen it somewhere, or it just sounds right.
Maybe I've cracked the code?
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