Can i survive in Brazil with just English?

Well as both an educator with a teaching career (ESL) spanning over 28 years, and as someone who learned Portuguese at the age of 51 just shortly before coming to Brazil I was well aware of the fact that the more one is exposed to the language in its spoken and written forms, the more one learns it effectively. I also was well aware of the fact that the more one also learns about the society that speaks that language the better their understanding of its use and why it is spoken the way it is spoken. After all culture plays a very important role in the formation of the language of any society.

Having been born and raised in Canada, a country that has two official languages (English and French) and has adopted a system of language education that involved creation of French Immersion schools in the English speaking parts of the country and English immersion schools in the French speaking parts I saw firsthand the benefits of immersion. I taught English immersion in the English provinces, mostly to students who had move recently from Québec and to newcomers to Canada from all around the world.

So when I decided to learn Portuguese I decided to do two very important things to make the most of the learning process. First I sought out a school that could offer me classes with a native speaker. I had a Brazilian teacher who could teach me not only the language, but also a bit about the culture. Second of all I decided that it was essential to create my own kind of immersion program for learning the language. Beside the two classes I was taking each week, I began using computer based learning sytems at home, spent a great deal of time online in Portuguese chat-rooms, reading Portuguese language news reports and watching them on TV, online magazine articles about Brazil and the history and culture of the country. I also started building a whole new social circle made up of Portuguese and Brazilian people in my community in order to learn even more and to practice my newly acquired language skills almost 24/7.

My Canadian friends all thought I had gone crazy, I was studying the language, made a whole new group of friends, listened only to Brazilian music, watched DVDs in Portuguese only, etc., etc., etc. I guess I was.... CRAZY LIKE A FOX as we say, because of the immersion program that I had created for myself I reached a highly advanced level of fluency in Portuguese in 8 months that amazed everyone, but most of all my Portuguese and Brazilian friends who never believed it possible. I even remember attending a cultural event called "Festa Junina" (a June celebration of St. John, St. Peter and St. Anthony) that was put on by the Vancouver Brazilian community and taking my youngest son who was 14 years old with me. I was amazed when a gentleman I had just met there took my son aside and said, "You must be extremely proud of your father." My son looked perplexed and it was clear to see that he thought this guy had to be crazy or was talking about somebody else. "My dad, proud, why???", he said. "Because he's done something that is impossible, he's learned a new language in only a few months and speaks it perfectly even with a Brazilian accent and writes it better than most of us do!", he replied. That was when I fully understood that all my efforts at immersing myself in the language had paid off in big results. It's also when my son started looking at me in a whole different light.

I arrived in Brazil speaking Portuguese fluently and have had absolutely no problems with assimilating completely into Brazilian society. Oddly enough I have made much, much more money by translating complex texts, documents and contracts  and from teaching Portuguese to English speakers than I ever spent on the language lessons I had taken back in Canada.

While nothing beats the complete immersion you get in a new language when you live in the country and are forced to survive with that language every waking moment, but you actually can create something reasonably near that kind of an immersion environment in your own country if you're really serious enough about learning to make the effort to create it. No matter what extent you create the level of immersion it will pay off in surprising results. Trust me, I know because I've been there and I've done it myself.

Regarding one's ability to get by with only English here in Brazil I can tell you that on a day-to-day basis the answer to that question is a resounding NO. Unless you work in a large multi-national company in Brazil that has mostly English speaking employees (rare indeed) you'll have difficulty in communicating with your superiors, co-workers, clients/customers because English is not widely spoken anywhere in Brazil. You will be isolating yourself within the expat community (if you can hook up to one) because of your lack of Portuguese. You will constantly need somebody to translate for you in your day-to-day living for the simplest of things you have always taken for granted before. Imagine going shopping for groceries, do you know all the Portuguese names of all the foods and products in a supermarket? I can guarantee you don't.

The most potentially dangerous part of not having a decent level of fluency in Portuguese is when it comes to your health. Imagine having an accident or the sudden onset of some serious illness. You get to the Emergency Hospital or neighborhood Emergency Care Facility exactly how would you tell doctors and other medical staff what is wrong with you. Chances are one in several millions that you're going to be fortunate enough to find someone there who speaks enough English (or any other language) who could act as your interpreter.

Food for thought!!!

Cheers,
James   Expat-blog Experts Team

The best thing of becoming fluent in portuguese , is that people stop making all the time the same questions  of way we left our country, how come you can speak portuguese and many other questions that you have to unser educatitly
every single time even after many years living in Brazil , and believe me it becomes annoying after ten years 

Thank you James for your sincere reply. 

Dear ClaudioD, you guys are right.  Learn Portuguese!

Also when you speak Portuguese fluently, you stop getting charged GRINGO prices. Even though you may speak Portuguese with a horrible gringo accent, if you speak the language well they figure you've been here for ages and they won't try to price gouge. If you speak English or need somebody to translate for you to negotiate everything automatically costs TWICE as much. Speaking Portuguese and learning the fine art of haggling over prices (which is a big part of Brazilian culture) you start getting the best deals.

One must haggle even at the pharmacy and must not forget to ask for the " preco a vista " After saying this magic words, the real price will be revealed    . They always do this game smiling like it's the most natural thing to do , charging gringo prices .

It's funny! They do have the most beautiful smile. I would never have guessed that is gringo pricing! I am determined to speak native portuguese. And the smile thing right back at them too! 

ClaudioD wrote:

One must haggle even at the pharmacy and must not forget to ask for the " preco a vista " After saying this magic words, the real price will be revealed    . They always do this game smiling like it's the most natural thing to do , charging gringo prices .

It is the most natural thing for them to do! And they all do it. Regarding haggling over prices it's become so woven into the Brazilian culture right since Cabral discovered this place that Brazilians even have their own proverb about it...

"Quem não chora não mama!" = He who doesn't cry doesn't suckle!

James wrote:

"Quem não chora não mama!" = He who doesn't cry doesn't suckle!

About the same in Spanish:

El que no llora, no mama.

I'm going to reco my own program ;-) semantica-potuguese.com  (made by a gringo - FOR gringos)

Short answer? NO. Have you considered learning the songs of Brasil? Singing them and learning what the lyrics translate to in english will give you phrases that you can use to communicate. Once you start practicing you will expand your vocabulary and confidence.

I do not know where in Brasil you live, but my stepson has a few schools in Recife where he is teaching conversational english to students. I am sure that they would be willing to teach conversational portugese to you as well. His schools are called English is easy. My wife and both my stepsons are there to help people.

You may be able to find some limited kinds of work to do via internet, principally working for your foreign company out of Brazil, but it isn't something one could rely on. Finding traditional work here in Brazil really requires a decent grasp of Portuguese.

You better learn at least a few basic things.  Not many people speak any English where I live.  I couldn't make it here without my Brazilian wife.

jhall_3rd wrote:

I'm going to reco my own program ;-) www.semantica-potuguese.com  (made by a gringo - FOR gringos)

That's great if you can master the Brazilian "sotaque" (accent), which is extremely difficult for gringos, especially since each of the 27 states has their very own accent. I've lived in 5 different states and spent time in two others, each time having to adapt my "sotaque", and I'm more fluent in Portuguese than about 75% of born Brazilians. My Portuguese is perfect, but the "sotaque".... people here think I'm from PORTUGAL because the Brazilian accent is so hard to master. 

As an educator with a teaching career spanning over 28 years (ESL) what I can say without any hesitation, if you want to learn English you'd better learn it with a native speaker, and if you want to learn Brazilian Portuguese you'd better learn it with a Brazilian.

James, despite your age (my apologizes but I am not far from yours when you arrive) , the fact that your learnt a second language earlier helped you certainly to learn a third one. Especially portuguese after french (perhaps you speak other language too). A lot of expats from US speak only english and learning a new language is much more diffucult. I continue to work to improve my portuguese but I was much easier than learning english, I think about learning Spanish now.
My main issue with Brazilian sotaque is accentuation. My pronunciation of each sound/syllable is correct  but I continue to make mistake with accentuation (french accentuation is generally on last syllabas, portuguese is generally on second to last syllable). Then you have some exceptions like I remember saying 10 times to a Brazilian: "maraCUjá", who looked at me bemused.... Not helping either that Brazilians generally do not grasp any other language and have got even difficulties to understand accent from other states.

Just adding a remark about portuguese fluency.
You cannot arrive in Brazil with approximative portuguese. You will be lost, you will have to be supported by your conjoint/familly, pay much more for everything and more important : miss opportunity to meet Braziians and integrate. I speak here especially for the large communauty of english speakers (native or as second language) who have been expats in Europe, Asia, middle-east and who think that it would be easy to move in Brazil. Your professional skills and experience won't be properly considered if you cannot speak portuguese at fluent level.
I moved in London working in IT/finance with a average level of english; 80% of people arround me where not UK native, a lot of our clients and providers were not UK native (and we were working with foreign companies too). I found a job because of my professional skills and experience, so it gave me time to improve my english to good level.
Be aware, here you won't enter in a company without speaking portuguese fluently.

You're absolutely correct that my past experience with French (even though I had lost almost all of my language skills) helped me greatly in learning Portuguese quickly. It all sort of fell into place because I was able to grasp the conjugation of verbs and verb tenses much more easily as a result. For anyone learning the language cold it really can be a daunting task.

US citizens do have a difficult time with the language. Those US expats who have some experience with Spanish, seem to pick up the vocabulary and grammar of Portuguese more readilly, but I think they have more problems trying to pick up the Brazilian pronunciation because it is significantly different than Spanish.

Cheers,
James

Hello James,

Am Michael by name, by the end of this month 'March' I will be a year older in Brazil with my family.

Please, I need your help to proofread and if possible to edit my storybook. I put together my experience so far as someone who was favoured and glad by moving to Brazil.

I see the need for sharing this to many out there who have been discouraged by the news (media) either to visit like a tourist or for business purpose.

Your support will ever be in my life story memory.

Cheers,

Michael T. Adesanwo

Unfortunately, James was killed a couple of years ago and is sorely missed by this community.