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An Important Method for Learning a Foreign Language

Last time I gave a brief overview of how I tackled learning Portuguese, this time I wanted to talk about something more specific.

I used to know this one guy who prided himself of learning Argentinian Spanish.  He spent 6 months there, and his Spanish was decent.
Every time I would ask him something, he would think for a moment and say it, explaining why it is gramatically correct.

Fast forward today and I'm having a conversation with an American about studying Portuguese here in Brazil, and when I ask him how would he say something, he also thought for a moment and gave me the answer and an explanation.

For both of the above cases, my question was how would I say, "If I could do it over, I would do this way" in Spanish and Portuguese.  It's not a simple translation because there're two verb conjugations needed; one for "if I could" and the other for "I would do".  Now, I absolutely have no idea what the name of the verb tenses are, but apparently these tenses have names and as such certain conjugation rules follow from these tenses.

Now, for me it's a complete waste of time to even know the names of these tenses, (e.g., subjunctive, imperfect, etc).  When you were a kid, learning your first language, did you have any idea what tenses were, and why they were used?  Absolutely not.  And you didn't really care.

The best way to learn a language is to associate a speaker's whole phrase with their emotional state.  If someone says, "I used to ride to work alot".  That's obviously different than "I rode to work today".  Different meanings, different emotional state.

If I'm watching a movie, and someone says something, then I memorize his/her emotional state with what they said, and then I can say it the whole phrase next time when I'm in a similar emotional state.  I have no idea if if I'm using gerund, subjunctive or imperfect, etc.

If my gf screams at me, "I don't want you to go out tonight".  And the verb "want" is conjugated differently when used in a negative sense(as it is Spanish, Portuguese, Russian), then I will remember the rule that for negatives, the verb has to change.  I don't know why, but I just go to with the flow.

Another example is that in Portuguese, to say "put", you can say it via "por", "colocar" and "botar"

One time I was getting ready for my jiu jitsu class, when someone screamed to a friend, "bota seu kimono ali" - "put on your kimono there"
That pretty much hardwired "botar" to anything relating with "putting on clothes" in my head.  I have no idea if it's gramatically correct or not, but if a Rio de Janeiro native said it, then I'm sure it's not wrong and I will say it from now on. 

Then I was watching a Brazilian movie, and a speaker mentioned "bota um copo na mesa" (put a cup on the table).  Now I know that "botar"
can also mean to put something on something.

Of course, I can never anticipate all emotional states that I will need to express; I haven't yet been exposed to all of them, so I need to keep building them.

To do this, you must:

  • Interact with native speakers
  • Read books
  • Watch films
  • Watch tele novelas

One must stop trying consciously understand why something is the way it is, and just mimic it when you hear it being said by native speaker. Over time, your brain will subconsciously start picking it up and you will be learning the language like a local.

The Perfect Travel Strategy

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Establish the Base

I was talking to a Belgian a few months back that I met here in Rio and the subject of traveling came up.  A year ago he was working in Kuala Lampur, Malayasia for 6 months and used that opportunity to travel all over South East Asia.  Since Kuala Lampur is smack in the middle of those places, all you need a quick flight to reach any destination: Thailand, Singapore, etc.  I thought he used his time there very wisely and got me thinking to a broader question of an efficient travel strategy.


Less is More

I did some backpacking few years back, and I thought it sucked as a way of travel.  When you backpack, you really don't learn anything about the place you're in.  You barely learn the language, the culture, and plant any kind of roots in the city.  You blitz through many places quickly, and when it's all over you barely remember where you've been and how was it.  For example, many people backpack all over South America and when they cross over to Brazil they complain that nobody here speaks/understands Spanish, and that it's a difficult country to adjust to. But they're all missing the point.


The Strategy

My perfect strategy would be to live in a place for 3-6 months (I define living as being in a place for at least 3 months), while travelling around from time to time.  That way, you plant your roots and learn a bit of language and culture of the place you're at.  Of course, the time period would depend on the place, etc.

This is also a perfect strategy for those who are location independent professionals.  

Some examples:

  • Problem: I would learn to Portuguese and do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  
    Solution: Move to Rio de Janeiro for 6 months while training Jiu Jitsu with the world's best and
    travel to North, South and Northeast of Brazil.

  • Problem: I want to learn Spanish
    Solution: Move to Medellin, Colombia for 6 months and travel all over Colombia and/or neighboring Andes countries.  
    Colombia is said to have the clearest Spanish of all countries.

  • Problem: I want to explore South East Asia and do Muay Thai Kick boxing.
    Solution: Move to Bangkok for 6 months and travel around all of SE Asia.

  • Problem: I want to explore Europe but don't want to spend a lot of money.
    Solution: Move to Budapest, Hungary for 6 months (maybe less as winter sucks there) and travel around Eastern Europe and Central Europe.

It's important to pick a base city carefully since that's the city where the bulk of your studying and living will be.

The key is to pick a relatively central and affordable base city from where to branch out from.  That way you achieve two objects: 

  • Establish your roots in the main city, while learning some new skill, be it art or a language.
  • Travel around an entire region or a large country.

So next time you find yourself in a company with some backpackers, test them on the depth of their knowledge of any place they've been.  I guarantee that conversation won't last very long.


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Rio de Janeiro Nightlife Guide

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I've been living in Rio de Janeiro for a little bit more than a year now.  When I initially arrived it was frustrating
to get a grip on the nightlife because the areas are very spread out, and certain clubs are better on certain nights than others.  

However, after a while you begin to realize which clubs are better on certain nights, and which places to avoid.


Where to go

The nightlife areas in Rio are intrinsically spread out into three areas.  There's the "lower" Zona Sul (South Zone) which consists of 
Gavea, Leblon, Ipanema and Copacabana neighborhoods.  The "upper" Zona Sul consisting of Botafogo, Laranjeiras, Flamengo.  Then there's the Centro (downtown) consisting of Lapa and Centro.  

The Lower Zona Sul is the most affluent of three and attracts well-do crowd.  Covers range anywhere from $30 reals to $120 reals (some of the drinks are included as consumable, more on that later).  Some of the recommended clubs are Nossa Semhora in Copacabana, Conversa Fiada, Books and Baronetti in Ipanema, Melt in Leblon, and 00 in Gavea.

The Upper Zona Sul is less affluent than its Lower sibling but has some great gems to discover.  The main ones are Casa Rosa in Laranjairas, Casa do Matriz in Botafogo.  Covers range from $10 to about $30.  The places listed above have a house party type feel and are pretty informal.

Then there's Lapa which is considered by many the heart of Rio's nightlife.  It's basically a large street party that takes place on Friday and Saturday where people can hang out, drink cheap beers and mingle.  Since it's outside and attracts all kinds of people, it's better to be vigilant
and aware of your surroundings, however it's not dangerous by any means.

In Lapa, you have your option of a street party, or some of the clubs that play Samba, Baile Funk, etc.  The recommended clubs are Democraticos, 40 Graus and Rio Scenarium.  The covers range from about $15 to $30.  


Consumação

When you enter a semi-decent club (all clubs in Lower Zona Sul fall into this category), you will be given a piece of paper.  Don't lose it, because when you order a drink, the barman marks of the drink on this paper, and you pay everything (including the cover) when you exit. 

Also, sometimes when you pay the cover, some of it or all over it can be simply consumed by drinks (consumação).  So if the club charges $20 to enter, in some clubs, you can drink that $20, and only pay $20 on exit (including cover+drinks).


When to go

Because Rio de Janeiro is a beach city and its inhabitants, cariocas, are beach creatures, the night usually starts pretty early.  
It's normal to be inline to a club at like 10:00-10:30pm.  

The typical schedule can be like this.

  • Monday - Rest
  • Tuesday - Conversa Fiada (in Ipanema)
  • Wednesday - Casa do Matriz (in Botafogo)
  • Thursday - Democraticos (in Lapa)
  • Friday - Lapa street party (or any other club listed above)
  • Saturday - Rio Scenarium (in Lapa or any other club)
  • Sunday - Casa Rosa (in Laranjeiras or check out the Feijoada here)
     

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My Strategy For Learning Portuguese

Rio

When I first came to Brazil, I knew about two words in Portuguese, but now, after a year of living here, I've came a long way.

This means that I can keep a basic conversation for as long as possible, watch TV and understand about 75-80% of dialogue w/o subtitles and about 90% w/subtitles.

Of course, my particular living situation can be different than someone else's.  I work from home, and do not live with Portuguese native speakers.  Furthermore, Portuguese is not really the language of the house; English is.


So here's some of the ways in which I attacked learning Portuguese:

  • Build a base
    You can't build a house without a solid foundation underneath it.
    For instance, you need to be able to read/write/speak letters in the language in order to even start learning basic impressions.
    Being an English speaker, I already knew the Latin alphabet, so this is not really a problem.  Of course, with a language like Chinese or Arabic this would take more time. 

    Upon my arrival I began speaking Spanish and hoping the similarities would be enough to get by.  Unfortunately, as I learned quickly, not only are Portuguese words completely different, the pronunciation is also completely different.  Soon, I quickly learned the basic phrases such as: Hello, Good Bye, How are you? etc.


  • Surround yourself with people who speak the language
    To pickup a language quickly and efficiently you need to be constantly immersed in it.
    There's active learning such as studying it in school and taking tests, and then there's passive learning where the subconscious picks up phrases with events without you being aware.

    I actually believe I learned alot of it passively which would be next to impossible without being in the country and interacting with people. In addition to living in the country, it's important to join groups and do various activities as well, however since I work from home and don't live with Portuguese-speaking people, I had to venture out.

    I started taking Brazilian Jiu Jitsu which forced me to use more and more Portuguese, since few people knew English well.  That accelerated my progress to a conversational level, with a funny side effect: I learned nouns such as body parts and verbs that reflect movements of body parts such as pull, push, throw, hit, get hurt, etc.  

    At this point I started to like Portuguese a lot and taking it more seriously.  My motivation was increasing. 

    I also started seeing a Brazilian girlfriend which allowed me to constantly speak Portuguese, have my Portuguese corrected in Portuguese and create a different set of vocabulary apart from jiu jitsu.


  • Change your daily habits to incorporate the language

    I set my browser homepage to a Brazilian newspaper so that I forced myself to read it and pick up new words.     I started to watch Brazilian movies with Portuguese subtitles.  I also watched non-Brazilian movies with Portuguese subtitles.

    I began to change my habits of doing English searches to including Portuguese searches in Google.  For example, my Google search is set to Brazilian Portuguese so alot of search results are Brazilian Portuguese pages.  This allowed me to enhance my so called "knowledge zones" by reading Portuguese forums with regards to computer programming and such.  My "knowledge zones" became Jiu Jitsu knowledge, personal relationship and what I was looking for in google.


  • Develop a good discovery/learning mechanism

    I felt my motivation reached a "tipping point" in a sense that I wanted to become very, very fluent in Portuguese and not just conversationally fluent.  I wanted to be very close to a native speaker.  I started to talk Portuguese with my friends with whom I previously spoke English, and then when I didn't know how to explain something I would write it down and ask a native Portuguese speaker later.  I did the same with various expressions in movies as well.

    I bought my first Portuguese book and began to circle every word I didn't understand and looking it up in the dictionary.  Or if it was a phrase, I would ask a native speaker the next day.


  • Work on the pronunciation 
    Some languages are easier to speak than others.  For instance Spanish is very phonetic, while English is much less so.  Portuguese is deceiving because initially I thought it's actually like Spanish with not alot of prononciation variation but I was wrong.

    When I realized my spoken Portuguese sucks because I was not pronouncing the vowels correctly.  While I eventually got the nasalation down through repeated practice, I learned that Portuguese also has open and closed vowels which differentiate the words.  There're different rules for constantant pronounciation that I studied as well, and started paying more attention to how people pronounce various words.  Patterns became to appear and things started to make more sense.


Some additional notes:

  • Forget grammar and correctness of the language.  
    Learn how babies learn it: by mimicking other adults i.e., their parents.  I learn fast because I mimick other people's expressions and sentences and worry about the grammatical constructs later.  So if some book says you need to say something a certain way, but everyone I meet says it another way, chances are the second way is something that would be understood better by most people.

  • Progress
    Initially your progress will be swift to basic conversational level.  Then you might hit plateau, and things might pickup again.  The typical 80/20 rule applies: It takes 20% of the effort to learn 80% of the language, and 80% of the effort for the remaining 20%.  So after the initial few years, things will improve slower.


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