Before we moved here, Luke would say ‘Pork-n-cheese’ instead of Portuguese. I think he heard someone else say it as a joke and thought it was pretty funny 🙂 I think he also thought he was going to be fluent once the plane touched down on Brazilian soil, because so many people told him how quickly he would pick up the language and that he’d be speaking it quicker than his parents–he & his sisters could talk and we wouldn’t understand–and he thought that was great! He is not yet fluent, which has been the subject of more than one discussion, but he’s learning. He knows how to ask to go to the bathroom and get a drink of water anyway 🙂 Actually I think he knows a lot more than that.
Thought I would share a little of what we’ve been learning. In high school I remember the kids who took Spanish talking about conjugating verbs. I took German, so I never figured out what they were talking about. Now I know. I think ignorance was bliss 🙂 A simple explanation is that the way you say the verb changes (the ending), depending on who is talking, or who you are talking to. And it changes depending on what tense you are using (past, present, future). So for those of you who did not care for grammar in school and are already nodding off, I’ll give you a practical example, how to say it in English on the left, and in Portuguese on the right, with the part that changes highlighted:
For the verb ORAR, which means to pray:
Past
I prayed Eu orei
You/He/She prayed Vocês/Ele/Ela orou
We prayed Nós oramos
You (plural)/They (male or female) prayed Vocês/Eles/Elas oraram
******************************************
Present
I pray Eu oro
You/He/She pray Você/Ele/Ela ora
We pray Nós oramos
You (plural)/They (male or female) pray Vocês/Eles/Elas oram
*******************************************
Future
I will pray Eu vou orar
You/He/She will pray Você/Ele/Ela vai orar
We will pray Nós vamos orar
You (plural)/ They (male or female) pray Vocês/Eles/Elas vão orar
*******************************************
Present continuing
I am praying Eu estou orando
You are/He is/She is praying Você/Ele/Ela está orando
We are praying Nós estamos orando
You are (plural)/They are (male or female) praying Vocês/Eles/Elas estão orando
*******************************************
Past continuing
I was praying Eu estava orando
You were/ He was/ She was praying Você/Ele/Ela estava orando
We were praying Nós estávamos orando
You were (plural)/They (male or female) were praying Vocês/Eles/Elas estavam orando
*******************************************
Imperative
Pray! Ore!
*******************************************
Imperfect
(a LONG time ago, used when you are describing, and in a few other situations)
I prayed Eu orava
You/He/She prayed Você/Ele/Ela orava
We prayed Nós orávamos
You (plural)/They (male or female) prayed Vocês/Eles/Elas oravam
Anndddd… actually that’s not all,that’s just what we’ve learned so far. I think there are a few more indicative forms to learn (future present & future past–seriously), and then subjunctive forms, which I can’t think of an example for right now. And this example was for verbs that end in -ar. Verbs that end in -er and -ir have different endings, except for the irregular verbs of course, and there are more than a few of those.
But I have commented more than once to Matt that I appreciate that we are learning this language, that has many similarities to English (I’m not a linguist, but they are from the same family/similar origins?), because it could be much more difficult. We have friends from our missionary training learning Japanese, some Eastern European languages, Thai, etc., a missionary friend from language school here that is going to also need to learn an African tribal dialect…….none of those, in my limited understanding, have much or any relation to English. So when someone here uses the word ‘frequentar’ or ‘funcionar’, I can pretty well guess what they mean, and I remember to pray for my friends learning other languages. Actually just trying to have a conversation here prompts me to pray for ALL our friends in language school, whatever country they’re in!
And I know English is no treat to learn either. I’ve heard that a time or two from Brazilians trying to learn 🙂 Actually I had a funny conversation at church one night with a lady, she was saying that English words are hard to say because they’re SO short–and Portuguese words are longer. I agreed with her, but I think the Portuguese is HARDER because it’s longer! Add ‘mente’ or ‘dade’ or some other 3 or 4 letter extension to many English words and (in my limited vocabulary), you have the Portuguese word!
Tuesday will mark 3 months since we started studying Portuguese. Many times I have thought of the Tower of Babel and the way that God changed the languages so the people would not be able to understand each other–He didn’t do it halfway (and honestly, sometimes this is encouraging, and sometimes I get really annoyed with those people). There was a purpose behind it, and for most people another language is not easy to learn, by design. HOWEVER, God’s desire is for all people to know Him and serve Him, and I believe He is hearing and answering the prayers of the many amazing people praying for us– helping us to learn, so that we can go and share, and help others go and share His gospel.