It Took me Two Weeks to Really Learn These Three Words

For those of you who follow the blog, you might have seen a recent post where I talked about my progress in learning Portuguese. The video in that post shows me talking with my friend Rodolfo about a trip I was about to take to Brazil.

Well I’m back! For the past two weeks I’ve been hopping buses around Brazil, stopping in a few cities to see Brazilian friends. The trip was incredible, and besides learning a lot more Portuguese, I walked away with a deeper understanding of three important language-related pieces of Brazil’s culture.

A Linguistic Tour of Brazil’s Sotaques

The word in Portuguese for “accent” (being the regional differences in verbal pronunciation) is Sotaque. Note for Spanish speakers: “acento” in Portuguese only refers to the actual diacritic marks used when writing words to indicate syllable stress.

Throughout the trip, we passed through four different regions, each containing different accents. At first, we traveled southward to Paraná. Partially due to the proximity to the “Gaucho” capital of Santa Catarina, the accent of the south features a strongly stressed “R” that sounds very much like an English “R.”

From there, we went to Rio de Janeiro, which is famous for its suave “Carioca” accent, featuring almost silent “R’s” and “S’s” that are pushed into an “SH” sound.

Next, we went to the state of Minas Gerais where “R’s” in the middle and ends of words are spoken with a slight throat aspiration, much like a French “R.” This is known as the “Miniero” sotaque.

Finally, our trip ended in Sao Paulo state, which is home to what’s often considered to be the most “standard” Brazilian Portuguese accent, featuring an “R” much like English, though not as strong as that which is spoken in Southern Brazil.

Who knew that Brazil was home to so many different variations of accents? And there are others that I didn’t even get to hear while on this trip!

The Warmth of the Word Amizade

Brazil is known for its open and hospitable culture. But what I experienced while I was there went well beyond friendliness – it was much more accurately described as friendship. I had already considered the people I was visiting to be my friends, but I hadn’t been ready for the level of openness they extended to me.

Being a strongly independent person from a very individualistic culture, I was blown away by the sense that my Brazilian friends not only were willing to readily consider me to be their friend, but that they offered me a level of friendship that seemed akin to “best friend” status here in the States. It’s hard to describe, but needless to say, it was both really refreshing and really challenging.

The Depth of the Word Saudades

Given all of that talk of friendship, I was bound to inevitably learn the real meaning of the Portuguese word Saudades.

Saudades really has no equivalent in English, and it forms a very central part of the cultures of both Brazil and Portugal. The best way that it can be described, I think, is as a sense of loss or absence of something very dear to you.

It follows, then, that to say “I miss you” in Portuguese, you say “Tenho Saudades de você” (literally, “I have Saudades of you”).

There were several times when I boarded a bus and waved goodbye to very dear friends, watching them tear up and wave back at me until they disappeared from view. The resulting silence in the bus ride with the countryside gliding by was enough, I think, for me to really begin to grasp the beginning of what it means to really feel Saudades. It’s one of those things you can read about in a book, but I think you might just have to live to really get it.

What’s Next?

So there you have it – those are some of the things I learned while I was on vacation! I’m so, so grateful to have had the chance to go and visit these friends and to have this experience. I know I learned a lot –about sotaques, amizade and, most of all saudades. I also improved my Portuguese quite a bit!

Though I was thrilled at my ability to talk with my friends, I also know that I have a long way to go before I’d be completely comfortable in the language, especially in a business setting. Nonetheless. I’ve decided to move on to tackle the challenge of learning something totally new.

What’s next? Stay tuned for the next post, where I’ll share my next language learning challenge!