Postby Speakeasy » Tue Jan 07, 2020 12:31 pm
Welcome to the Forum!
SimplyBac, welcome to the forum! I look forward to following your participation in many of the fascinating discussions which take place here on the language forum. Now then, from my own experiences, I foresee a number challenges of operating in a full-immersion situation while still at the lower-intermediate level. None of these are obstacles, they’re merely things to think about prior to your visit.
Mental Translation Mode and Cadence of Speech
You will probably be in the mental translation mode. That is, in conversation, your thought processes will follow the sequence: (1) receive the message in your L2, (2) mentally translate the message’s content into your L1 and digest it, (3) formulate an appropriate response in your L1, (4) mentally translate your response into you L2, (5) deliver your L2 response. All of this takes time and it slows down the conversation. Reactions of your interlocutors will vary according to their level of awareness of the process and their willingness to cooperate. Some will be very patient and helpful whereas others may wish to cut the conversation short. Perhaps the best way of preparing for this is to work with a tutor between now and your visit this summer. Explain your situation and ask your tutor to push you during short (30 minute) sessions. This might help increase your reaction time and, although it will not yield a miraculous transformation, at least it will help you prepare yourself mentally for your full-immersion experience.
Vocabulary and Idiomatic Speech
As you are at the low-intermediate level, you will have already acquired perhaps 2,000-odd high-frequency “transactional” vocabulary items. That is, while you will be equipped to exchange information, expressing nuances of opinion will likely be out of your reach. Expanding your vocabulary will take time and this will be through exposure to genuine intermediate-level instructional materials as well as those directed to native speakers. While you can try to “carb up” with additional vocabulary prior to your visit, I believe that a better use of your time would be to work on the item listed above (reaction time in conversation). Although there is not an enormous cognate benefit between Portuguese and English, one does exist, and this might help you if you simply take a common English term and “Portuguese-ize” it. This works amazingly well between French and English and it just might help in Portuguese. One of the bigger challenges will be the use of idiomatic speech. We all use idiom expressions without even thinking of their almost impenetrable meanings to second-language speakers. Your Portuguese interlocutors will season their speech in a similar fashion and many of these expressions will be difficult to grasp. As picking them up on-the-fly will be difficult and asking for a lengthy explanation will slow down and perhaps even stall the conversation, I wouldn’t bother about them. Just concentrate on the essentials while you’re there. Yes, excellent guides to colloquial expressions exist. However, in my experience, simply reading through lists of colloquial expressions is something of a waste of time. It is far easier to encounter them in context and to absorb them into one’s speech pattern over an extended period of time.
Accents, Regional Pronunciation, Dialects
For a lot of very good reasons, most language courses emphasize the pronunciation of an idealized “standard” language which, from the perspective of a native speaker, is easily recognizable but not necessarily used in practice (viz., standard English versus street-level, highly-inflected/accented speech). However, accents, regional pronunciation, and dialectal speech exist in every spoken language and, for the language-learner, these can represent a barrier to understanding. While preparing for this challenge is not easy, perhaps you could chase down some YouTube videos wherein the speech of the region you will be visiting is represented. Binge watching them might help.
Milk and Sugar (garbled)?
In your dealings with native-speakers in point-of-sale situations (lining up to order, collect, and pay for a coffee and light snack), do not expect the personnel to be in a mood to engage you in stimulating conversation. They are underpaid, stressed, and harassed. If they had options other than serving a demanding, not always pleasant public, they would exercise those options. They are not interested in hearing about your privileged visit to their homeland and they are not interested in teaching you their language. Their speech will be clipped and difficult to understand owing to the ambient noise. Just look at the cash register, dump some money on the counter, pick up your order, and move along. Perhaps another customer would be willing to share their table with you and might be interested in a small chat.
Mental Fatigue, Tension Headaches
Your efforts at conversing with the locals in your low-intermediate Portuguese will require a great deal of mental concentration, rather more than you’re accustomed to. This extended effort will result in mental fatigue and, quite possibly, tension headaches. To a certain extent, this fatigue will depend on the intensity and the duration of your interactions with the locals. An all-day professional meeting during which you must either perform competently and with confidence in your L2 or lose the respect and the support of your boss and your peers can be quite gruelling. Spending an evening with new-found friends in a bar can be less so. Try to achieve some balance in your interactions. Sprint a little and take breaks, don’t go for marathon sessions.
Full-immersion with Whom?
As far as I understand, you will not be attending language classes, you will not be working, and will you not be involved in any other activities which will “force” the locals to engage you in meaningful conversation. They’re not professional tutors or language coaches, they have their own lives to live. So then, what are your plans to get them to converse with you? This is not a question for which I expect a response, it is something for you to think about.
Lastly
Enjoy yourself!
EDITED
Typos.
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