That's what the guy at orientation told me about Portuguese. It's true. It's such a beautiful language, but they speak so fast that it's hard to understand. But I'm getting there. A lot of the time I understand what the conversation is about, but not really exactly what they're saying.
My host family is great! My host siblings are so nice and are always trying out their English on me. Last night at dinner, Pedro randomly said "good morning Katie!" to the amusement of everyone at the table. (:
I keep waking up in the middle of the night! It's annoying but I think it might be because we eat dinner so late and I always have to go to the bathroom. Also, I'm pretty sure I had sheep for dinner last night.
I start school tomorrow. I'll post my schedule later, but they put me in the Science track. I have things like math, PE, physics, etc. But I have an English class! Woohoo (; My host mom is so sweet, she took part of the day off work to take me to my school and get my classes all figured out. We ended up waiting around at the school for like 2 hours though.
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I wrote that yesterday. Today was... interesting. I woke up at 8 or so and my host mom took me to my school. We talked to the principal (well, she talked, I just tried to look like I wasn't completely clueless). I met Bruno, who is in my host mom's scout group (like girl scouts or boy scouts) and he introduced me to my class (11°B). The girls in the class were very nice, and Inês, Marta and Juliana helped show me around. They ate lunch with me and helped me find my bus, and explain to the bus driver where I needed to go. Bruno also helped with all this too, and he rode the bus with me to my stop so he could show me where it is. But I'm almost certain that tomorrow I will not get off at the right place, but my host parents got me a cell phone today so my mom said she would come get me if I got lost.
My schedule is like this:
Monday:
10:30-12:00 Philosophy
12:05-13:45 Lunch
13:50-15:20 English (haha)
15:30-17:00 Class meeting thing with parents
Tuesday
8:45-10:15 Religion (I think)
10:30-12:00 Portuguese
12:05-13:45 Lunch
13:50-15:20 PE
15:30-17:00 Math
Wednesday
My host family is great! My host siblings are so nice and are always trying out their English on me. Last night at dinner, Pedro randomly said "good morning Katie!" to the amusement of everyone at the table. (:
I keep waking up in the middle of the night! It's annoying but I think it might be because we eat dinner so late and I always have to go to the bathroom. Also, I'm pretty sure I had sheep for dinner last night.
I start school tomorrow. I'll post my schedule later, but they put me in the Science track. I have things like math, PE, physics, etc. But I have an English class! Woohoo (; My host mom is so sweet, she took part of the day off work to take me to my school and get my classes all figured out. We ended up waiting around at the school for like 2 hours though.
__________
I wrote that yesterday. Today was... interesting. I woke up at 8 or so and my host mom took me to my school. We talked to the principal (well, she talked, I just tried to look like I wasn't completely clueless). I met Bruno, who is in my host mom's scout group (like girl scouts or boy scouts) and he introduced me to my class (11°B). The girls in the class were very nice, and Inês, Marta and Juliana helped show me around. They ate lunch with me and helped me find my bus, and explain to the bus driver where I needed to go. Bruno also helped with all this too, and he rode the bus with me to my stop so he could show me where it is. But I'm almost certain that tomorrow I will not get off at the right place, but my host parents got me a cell phone today so my mom said she would come get me if I got lost.
My schedule is like this:
Monday:
10:30-12:00 Philosophy
12:05-13:45 Lunch
13:50-15:20 English (haha)
15:30-17:00 Class meeting thing with parents
Tuesday
8:45-10:15 Religion (I think)
10:30-12:00 Portuguese
12:05-13:45 Lunch
13:50-15:20 PE
15:30-17:00 Math
Wednesday
8:45-10:15 Math
10:30-12:00 English
12:05-13:45 Lunch
13:50-15:20 nothing
15:30-17:00 nothing
Thursday
8:45-10:15 Biology
10:30-12:00 Portuguese
12:05-13:45 Lunch
13:50-15:20 Philosophy
15:30-17:00 PE
Friday
8:45-10:15 Math
10:30-12:00 Biology
12:05-13:45 Lunch
13:50-15:20 nothing
15:30-17:00 nothing
I was put in the Sciences track, and all the people in my class are in all my classes. The teachers change classrooms, not the students.
I had 3 informal Portuguese lessons today, from my class, Bruno, and my host parents. I learned the most from the last one, but I have trouble saying all the nasal-y words. I also think I'm getting an accent in English! I don't have time to reply to everyone's emails, but I hope everyone's doing well. Even if I don't reply, I read the email, so keep sending news.
Bruno: "What can you say in Portuguese?"
Me: "Eu não falo Português." (I can't speak Portuguese). :D
Bruno: "What can you say in Portuguese?"
Me: "Eu não falo Português." (I can't speak Portuguese). :D
It's so funny reading how things are different in different parts of Portugal. In both of my schools, students AND teachers changed classrooms. I'm also surprised they put you in the sciences track. A lot of times that's the track that all the really academically serious kids are in.
ReplyDeleteOh-- with the nasal words-- if a word ends with ã or ão, the sound is like ahng or owng, but you cut it off JUST before you finish saying the "g" sound, if that makes any sense. Once you get it, you'll never go back. The hardest sound for me was the "lh" sound because it's like nothing in English and it's not even the same as the "ll" in Spanish so I had a lot of trouble with it, but eventually I got it. As long as you keep trying, it will probably all sink in.
Boa sorte!