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Oi, pessoal!
I had the pleasure of interviewing my student Cathy Barker for my YouTube channel, and I’m thrilled to share this interview with you.
Cathy is a member of the Speaking Brazilian Academy, my program for intermediate and advanced students.
I invited her to talk with us a little about her love for Samba and her language-learning routine.
Here are some takeaways from this interview:
1 – What inspired you to study Portuguese?
Cathy was inspired to learn Portuguese after taking samba lessons in Australia with a Brazilian teacher.
“Eu queria fazer uma nova atividade. Eu encontrei um panfleto que falava “aprende a sambar, e desfile no Carnaval”. Eu achei… “Nossa! Que incrível, aprender a sambar na Austrália!” (…) Então, eu comecei a aprender a sambar com a academia Rio Rhythmics, e eu encontrei o meu mestre, Tarcísio. Ele é um brasileiro, um mestre da capoeira, e ele me ensinou todas as danças brasileiras e todas as coisas sobre cultura brasileira.”
“I wanted to try something new. I found a pamphlet that said, “learn to Samba, and participate in Carnaval parade.” I thought… “What! That’s amazing, learn to samba in Australia!” (…)So, I started learning samba with Rio Rhythmics gym, and I met my teacher, Tarcísio. He is Brazilian, a capoeira master, and he taught me all of the Brazilian dances and everything about Brazilian culture.”
2 – Tell us a little about your experience with samba.
“Você conhece essa canção da Maria Rita? “Eu não nasci no samba, mas o samba nasceu em mim”. Pra mim, é verdade. Então, eu dançava samba, e depois eu ensinei samba também. E eu desfilei no Carnaval em 2000, com a Vila Isabel, e em 2020 eu desfilei com a Portela, no Rio de Janeiro.”
“Do you know this song by Maria Rita? “I wasn’t born in samba, but samba was born in me.” For me, it’s so true. I danced samba, and afterwards I taught samba as well. I marched in the parade at Carnaval in 2000, with Vila Isabel, and in 2020 I marched with Portela in Rio de Janeiro.”
3 – Tell us a little about your study routine.
Cathy likes to have a weekly commitment and different tools to expose herself to the language regularly.
“Pra mim, foi muito importante ter esse compromisso semanal com aulas. É muito importante. (…) sou um pouquinho distraída, e eu preciso ter muitos recursos para estudar, como podcasts, Netflix, livros e muitas coisas para estudar, né? Eu acho que é muito importante ter esses recursos, porque você consegue fazer alguma coisa a cada dia.”
“ For me, it was really important to have a weekly commitment to classes. It’s very important. (…) I get a little distracted, and I need to have a lot of resources to study, like podcasts, Netflix, books, and lots of other things to study, right? I think it’s really important to have these resources, so you can do something every day.”
4 – Can you talk a little about your experience with the school? How has it helped with your learning?
“Sim. No início eu descobri seu podcast, e depois os cursos. E eu amo que cada semana, ou cada mês, nós temos um tópico, e nós falamos sobre vocabulário, gramática e nossas experiências também. E é muito natural. (…) Eu acho que aprender uma língua não é somente palavras. A cultura é mais importante para entender o jeitinho brasileiro.”
“Yes. At first, I found your podcast, and the classes afterwards. And I love that, every week, or every month, we have a theme, and we talk about vocabulary, grammar, and our experiences as well. It’s very natural. (…)I think learning a language is not just words. The culture is more important for understanding the way Brazilians speak.”
5 – Do you have any tips for other Portuguese learners?
“Sim, eu descobri um site chamado verbugata.com. É um site para praticar conjugações do verbo. É muito legal. E nunca desista! Você vai melhorar a cada dia. No início, você vai pensar em sua língua nativa e depois traduzir ao português, mas você vai pensar em português no final.”
“Sure, I found a site called verbugata.com. It’s a site to practice verb conjugations. It’s really great. And never give up! You’re going to get better every day. At first, you’re going to think in your native language and then translate to Portuguese, but in the end, you’re going to think in Portuguese.”
I hope you enjoyed this interview as much as we did!
Até a próxima!
Speaking Brazilian School Team
Speaking Brazilian Academy
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