Learning português

I've completed my first two weeks of português lessons here in Maceió. Its actually been nine days of class as the first Friday was a holiday.

I'd already learnt a little bit through using the Rosetta Stone software I've been using and talking to Brazilian friends. So I was hoping I might sneak in the the class just above the absolute beginners. They gave us a test when were first arrived - it was a written test all in Portuguese (as might be expected). It was pretty hard - we were all put in the beginners class except Karla who is from Mexico. She hadn't studied Portuguese at all, but her Spanish was enough to get her in the intermediate class (both languages are both Latin based and have similarities). Although she was finding the intermediate class a bit tough and in the second week moved down to our class.

Of the other new people in my class there's an American couple Jeff and Susanna from San Francisco who are studying for three weeks before going to Sao Paulo to work on some sort of hotel venture. Zach from Miami - a lawyer from Miami who has decided to study inter-American law and thought the another language spoken in the Americas would be good before he commences his law study in June. There was also a French lady who was just doing one week of one on one classes.

Anyway, its a good thing I was put in the beginners class as I'm finding it quite hard. Its all in portuguese - the teacher (although we get a new teacher ever second week or so) we've had speaks no English which means if when we don't know a word the teacher "acts it out" to try and demonstrate what it means. Thats fine with me as the software I've been using is based on "immersion" with no translation. But I've felt like I'm a bit behind the other students. It turns out Zach has previously studied both French and Japanese - not to mention Portugues a few years ago - so a lot of it seem to be coming back to him. Jeff and Susanna took some tutorials before coming here and are also doing some extra classes in the afternoons. There's a lot of information to take in and it can be hard to learn new words from the context if I don't understand some of the other words which other students do. In my first week I didn't really use a English-Portuguese dictionary at all, but in my second week I've felt the need to sucumb to doing so. I'd rather not, but the other students are and I feel I may need to.

I find it very draining too. The classes are just from 8-11:50, although I've been doing homework as well as my Rosetta Stone software study to accompany what I've been learning. Then in the evening I talk communicate in Portuguese (and sign language :) Ive felt a certain level of "mental toughness" has been required to "stick with it" and not get frustrated.

In the first week, I was getting really tired by 7pm and going to bed between 8 and 9. Then I was waking up about 5-5:30 in the morning - most unlike me! This week I've been staying up a little later and been getting up a bit later. I haven't studied this hard since I studied for my Cisco CCIE in 2008! Speaking of study, thinking back to when I was in high school I don't think I had much of a work ethic or knew how to knuckle down and study back then.

Anyway, despite finding things hard I'm feeling good and really enjoying the experiences. I feel I've learnt a lot and after two weeks can speak some Portuguese (certainly more than I've been able to in the past :)