My experience with the Portuguese Language is not typical of most Potuguese-Americans. I was born on a farm (literally in the farmhouse) in the Central Valley of California, son of Azorean immigrants from the Island of Flores. My father had immigrated in 1908 and my mother in 1928 about 5 years before I was born. Our everyday language was Portuguese so, in effect, Portuguese was my first language. My nearest playmate was a girl a few months older who lived about a quarter mile away whose father was Portuguese-American. I started picking up a little English with her but spoke little when I started school. By the time I finished high school, I spoke little Portuguese, My parents spoke to me in Portuguese, I replied in English or "Portuglish". Then, a family of cousins immigrated from Flores. For the first time in years I had to speak Portuguese and it re-ignited my interest in the Portuguese Language. including the acquired ability to read and write simple letters. Then after finishing grad school, I was offered a position in Brazil by an International Environmental Engineering firm. That was my introduction to Brazilian Portuguese. It was difficult at first but I eventually I got it aided by the fact that I met and married a "Brasileira". I now speak Portuguese with an undefined accent. When I am in Portugal, people ask what part of Brazil I'm from and when in Brazil, they may ask where I'm from. Early on, a Brazilian friend identified my accent as being an "Island" accent. John Vasconcelos
On Tue, Sep 19, 2017 at 4:45 AM, MaryAnn Santos <m...@nyu.edu> wrote: > In preparation for my first trip to Azores and Lisbon in 1994 I took a > semester of intensive elementary Brazilian Portuguese at NYU. I didn't > realize there would be a big difference between the languages of Brazil and > Portugal but there are. > > For one, the use of second person singular você but not tu is used in > Brazil whereas both are used in Portugal with specific rules about when to > use the familiar tu and when to use você. Also, pronunciation is very > different. For example the word for aunt - tia - is pronounced "chia" in > Brazil - not so in Portugal. On my first trip to Portugal everyone thought > I was Brazilian - I didn't know how to conjugate verbs using tu so I just > added an "ess" to the end of the verb for você. Instead of saying você > quere (do you want) I'd say tu queres (but only to someone I was very > familiar with) - it sometimes worked but irregular verbs in Portuguese are > a real challenge. I certainly made a lot of mistakes! > > Two years later I learned about a month-long culture and language summer > program for "estrangeiros" at the University of Lisbon. Here's the link. > > http://www.fcsh.unl.pt/clcp/verao/cursos.html > > It wasn't that expensive and I was able to get funding from Instituto > Camões. Here's the link. > > (www.instituto-camoes.pt/activity/o-que-fazemos/ > aprender-portugues/bolsas-de-estudo) > > If you can spend a month in Lisbon in July I would highly recommend this > program. > > MaryAnn > > > On Tue, Sep 19, 2017 at 12:19 AM, Cheri Mello <gfsche...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Good morning is "Bom dia." In European Portuguese, it's "Bom dia." In >> Brazilian, it's "Bom G-ah." You say "G" then "ah." That's how you pronounce >> the leading "D" in Brazilian Portuguese. Cheri >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Azores Genealogy" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores. >> > > > > -- > *MaryAnn Santos* > Senior Advisement and Student Affairs Administrator > Department of Art and Art Professions > NYU/Steinhardt > 212.998.5702 <(212)%20998-5702> > m...@nyu.edu > > Follow us at > > *Twitter / @NYUart <https://twitter.com/NYUart>Instagram / @nyuart > <http://instagram.com/nyuart>* > *Facebook / NYU Art Department > <https://www.facebook.com/pages/NYU-Art-Department/53833145389>* > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Azores Genealogy" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to azores+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/azores.
