A teacher abroad: a testimonial

I chose the country of my internship abroad because of the language (among other things), my mother tongue is Spanish and I wanted to learn different languages, my choice was among French and Portuguese, the two I love. I finally chose to go to Brazil.

While being there, on my first day at work I didn’t understand anything of what my boss was speaking. The first two weeks the mental effort to understand and talk Portuguese ended up exhausting me at the end of the day. I was language lost for some weeks.

I had traveled before, but in this exchange I understood what it means to be an intern who works in another country without speaking the native language (In an ONG, not Spanish at all).The effort made to interact with local people, understand new ways, to adapt to them, do a good job in this new culture. At times I thought these exchanges were part of a 'Master Plan' for the interns to see things they wouldn't see in their home town because being inside, you're part of it, immersed in the same things and the usual routine …everything is normal. But running to another country, challenges people to go further, to question yourself, to self-establish new habits you to take away others, etc.

In my day to day in Brazil, I realized that it was sometimes difficult to carry on a conversation not knowing the linguistic conventions to answer a simple conversation in Brazil, I used to linger, to edit, etc... Many times I saw some european friends fighting this and I tried to help. For some reason they didn’t want to take Portuguese lessons.

Being abroad you can make many friends. Speaking the language plays an important role in reaching out to local people, but sometimes the language can also get away from the culture. Not speaking properly or feeling insecure makes the communication not flowing and ends up in a switch to English (the most common language) or a switch to be with those who do speak the same language. This, in the short term, will push away foreigner from the riches that the exchange experience offers.

When I had to leave, I already had a better Portuguese, but I wasn't going to use it much. I was eager to return to start a new experience having my new learnt language as an advantage on my side.

For me, the significance of the exchange is the apprenticeship and what you do with it, the more it hits others, the better. I write this post and I will continue to help my students making an incredible experience of their own in my country, Peru.