Somebody once told me that even the dumbest person in a country speaks the language.
I found that encouraging! Surely I could get there too. It was just a matter of time.
I’ve never been much of a glass-half-empty person, so I didn’t arrive in Brazil wondering whether learning Portuguese was possible. I assumed I could do it. What I didn’t understand was how much time it would take, or how to spend that time well.
Looking back, there are several things I wish I had understood earlier.
Let your ears start learning before you arrive
If you’re on deputation, language learning can feel like something waiting for you at the other end of a plane ride. Right now you have meetings, miles to drive, support to raise, and preparations to make.
But you can begin listening now.
Find short conversations, simple stories, or videos where you can see what is happening. Give the language a regular place in your day. Listen in the car. Revisit a short video when you have a few minutes.
At first, you may understand very little. I remember hearing Portuguese and struggling to tell where one word ended and the next began. It sounded like one continuous stream.
You’re beginning to get acquainted with sounds, rhythms, and patterns that are unfamiliar to you. You don’t have to understand everything on the first listen.
Starting early gives you more time to become familiar with what you’re hearing.
I spent too much time memorizing lists
I spent a lot of time memorizing vocabulary lists and grammar charts.
The trouble was that the information seemed to go into my brain and right back out again. I might remember a translation without knowing how to use the word when I actually needed it.
Eventually, I started watching videos from polyglots who talked about learning words in sentences and in context. That helped me recognize what was missing from my approach.
A sentence gives a word somewhere to live.
You hear who says it, what is happening, and how the other person responds. Instead of learning an isolated translation, you begin learning something you could actually say in a similar situation.
Grammar and vocabulary study have their place. But I would spend much less time treating them as material to memorize in isolation, and much more time connecting them to language I was hearing and using.
Watch something short, then watch it again
One practical change I made was watching more short conversations on YouTube.
I would go over the same conversation a handful of times. As I listened, I repeated what they were saying and compared my voice with theirs.
Was the tone of my voice similar? Was I saying the sentence at the same speed? Were their sounds more nasal than mine, or more open? What was my mouth doing differently?
I was trying to copy how they said the sentence.
That brought several things together: hearing the words in context, hearing them repeatedly, and practicing their pronunciation.
You don’t need a complicated system to try this:
- Find a short conversation you can follow reasonably well, using the situation or subtitles to help.
- Listen to it several times.
- Repeat along with the speakers.
- Pay attention to how your voice differs.
- Choose a useful phrase to try in an actual conversation.
Give yourself permission to spend time with the same material. Finishing another video isn’t the point. Getting something useful from it is.
Work on pronunciation early
I put a lot of effort into pronunciation when I arrived in Brazil.
I wanted to understand how Portuguese was supposed to sound. Where did my tongue need to go? What was my mouth doing? What sound was I hearing that my English-speaking brain wanted to replace with something familiar?
Sometimes I was practicing words before I even knew what they meant.
That approach had its limitations! Google Translate helped me prepare things to say, but it also got me into a few awkward situations. A translated word doesn’t come with a complete explanation of how people around you use it.
Still, working on pronunciation helped me begin communicating.
After about three months in Brazil, I was preaching in Portuguese. Before that sounds more impressive than it was, let me explain: I had a carefully prepared manuscript, and I read it.
I didn’t look at anybody. It was like reading a book to them.
I certainly wasn’t fluent. But people could understand me, and that allowed me to begin serving while I still had a tremendous amount to learn.
That was my experience, not a timetable everybody else needs to match. The encouraging part is that useful communication can begin while you’re still very much a learner.
Learn something useful, then use it
One book that helped shape my thinking was Language Acquisition Made Practical, by Brewster and Brewster, often called LAMP.
The idea I took from it was simple: learn something useful, then get out among people and use it.
Learn how to ask a question. Buy something. Talk to a neighbor. Ask someone to repeat what they said. Learn how to say something about your family.
Then go use it, even if it comes out badly.
You can spend a long time waiting until you feel ready to speak. Meanwhile, there are small conversations you could be having with the language you already know.
Embarrassment comes with the territory. So do mistakes, corrections, and moments when you have absolutely no idea what somebody just said.
Those experiences give you something concrete to work on next.
Make sure your study serves communication
Whatever tools you use, ask yourself what they are helping you do.
Can you understand something you couldn’t understand before? Can you ask a useful question? Can you recognize a phrase when someone says it to you? Can you use what you practiced outside the exercise?
I would be careful about allowing an app such as Duolingo to become your entire language-learning plan. Completing lessons and keeping a streak can give you a sense of accomplishment, but your goal is to communicate with people.
The same caution applies to books, charts, flashcards, and even watching videos. It’s possible to spend time on an activity without giving enough attention to what you’re getting from it.
Keep bringing your study back to the conversations you want to have.
Give yourself time to become comfortable
One of the biggest things I wish someone had told me clearly is that language learning takes years.
That doesn’t mean years have to pass before you can do anything useful. My experience preaching from a manuscript is one example of that.
But becoming comfortable across everyday conversations, unfamiliar situations, and ministry takes sustained work. I would mentally prepare for a process measured in years and be thankful for the progress along the way.
Don’t turn a difficult week into a verdict on your ability to learn.
There will be things you need explained again. There will be words you thought you knew until somebody used them differently. There will be conversations that leave you feeling much less capable than you felt that morning.
Keep listening. Keep practicing. Keep using what you know.
You can begin before you arrive. You can work carefully on pronunciation. You can learn useful sentences and take them into real conversations.
You can become useful surprisingly early.
Becoming natural takes time.
And that time can start now.
