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Brazil’s English Language Challenge | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4714 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 9 of 18 22 January 2013 at 7:33pm | IP Logged | ||
That's true. I live in São Paulo and I had never met a foreigner here until I went to university. There I met some interchange students (mostly from Europe and Latin America, but also from the US and Asia), but now I'm going back to São Paulo and the only foreigners I know there are my wife's girlfriends, which are Russian/Ukrainian/Latvian. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FireViN Diglot Senior Member Brazil missaoitaliano.wordpRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5228 days ago 196 posts - 292 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2 Studies: Italian | Message 10 of 18 23 January 2013 at 12:16am | IP Logged | ||
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I second what Fabricio said. I only had contact with foreigners when I went to university, even though I live in a big city (Campinas is not very touristy anyway). Brazilians are generally comfortable with being monolingual. Almost everything we need is translated to Portuguese, so the general population don't really need to worry about knowing English, and most people just try to learn it (by learn I mean.. understand basic stuff) for better job positions. It's really hard to see foreigners outside the tourist spots, so there's no real need to learn the language.
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| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6492 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 11 of 18 24 January 2013 at 7:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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As any big country, plus remote from Europe, US or Asia, has few contacts with foreign visitors, with exception of RJ. (I wonder why SP is not visited by foreigners for business.)
The only underlying reason is actually lack of motivation. Motivation is not about get-yourself-motivated!!!1111, but just a meaning to learning, an inspiration. If you see no use for that when you have much time on your hands, chances are you won't try hard. But in the adult age, there's still a chance. After I tell my friends that taxi drivers in Brazil took me for a Brazilian and charged normally, and of all funny things I saw and heard, they (the friends) try harder with their learning. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4714 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 12 of 18 24 January 2013 at 8:08pm | IP Logged | ||
It is actually, but I as a kid and teenager wasn't going around in business meetings =P And even so, they probably just go from the office to the hotel, then back to their countries. São Paulo is not that touristy as Rio. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6492 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 13 of 18 24 January 2013 at 11:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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You have huge universities there. Don't they invite foreign students?
I can say what made me start Italian (2nd FL) was that many guys knew 2 or more languages (in Foreign Languages department of the Uni, of course) and were going to foreign culture events and having fun, and I felt outsider. :D So it looked compelling and had some chic. Edited by Siberiano on 24 January 2013 at 11:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4714 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 14 of 18 24 January 2013 at 11:21pm | IP Logged | ||
They do, that's what I said before, that I only met foreign people when I went to university. =) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6492 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 15 of 18 24 January 2013 at 11:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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In my city they usually invite foreign university students to schools to visit English classes. Do they do the same in SP? It's quite a simple source of motivation. Here's a person who speaks, aproveite a possibilidade.
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| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4667 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 16 of 18 25 January 2013 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Learning a language shouldn't be conditioned on meeting foreigners or talking with foreigners.
Do Brazilians listen to popular music in English? Yes, they do. Do Brazilians watch movies in English in movies theaters? Yes, they do. (And unlike in Germany, Spain, Italy, movies in cinemas are not dubbed). Then, what's the problem? I've talked to fewer than five native speakers of English in my whole life, yet I learned English (I'm still learning though)... Movies and popular music should be a good start. So, '' we have no contacts with foreigners'' may be interpreted as a lame excuse. (At the time being, I'm learning Hindi and Malayalam, and except for movies in these languages (and songs), I have no contact with native speakers of these languages, but movies and songs made me like them, so I decided to give them a try; After all, learning is fun, it makes our brain work). Edited by Medulin on 25 January 2013 at 7:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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