Last saturday, me and my flatmates Cristina and Anahit made a big desicion:
From now on we will only speak Portuguese at home! But wait, we have some short-term volunteers that probably don`t speak the language…
So once again the question: How do we communicate if we are somewhere between English, French, Italian, Armenian, German, Bulgarian, Georgian and try to learn Portuguese at the same time? The more time we are here, the more we get used to some basics :
- Use as much body language as possible.
- Nobody needs grammar.
- It is okay to use different languages within one sentence 🙂
And finally: It is all about being courageous and just speak out, even if you are not totally fond of the language! In this way we use all the confusion, also as a way to learn and exercise new idioms. Last sunday was the International Day of Motherlanguage, for us it is not only one, but 7!
Voluntários do Bairro 