Relocating to Brazil
Izabella Klein is a translator and an English and Portuguese teacher based in Teresópolis, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. This is her view about learning a language when being relocated to another country, and in particular, when moving to Brazil:
Moving to another country is somehow challenging. When we go through this experience based on local culture, culture shock as well as other adaptation difficulties, the challenges substantially increase. The relocation experience, even if challenging, broadens the cultural horizons of the relocated and their families, reverberating especially in the children, who are more impacted by the changes, as they are still growing and maturing. But this makes them learn the local language much quicker and consistently than adults, usually giving in to the process of cultural immersion more easily. Children who learn the language also greatly increase the self-confidence of the expatriates' family, helping them adapt to the new country.
It is not just the language that opens doors, cross-cultural training is also very important in communication. Such references are essential factors to ease communication, as they help to produce empathy. The process of cultural immersion also facilitates the interaction between people, the exchange among them, and to establish new friendships, which favors the learning process and increases its consistency.
The empathy produced by communication with cultural references is closely linked to the trust between peoples and individuals. Clarity in communication leads to increased confidence, which accelerates the pace of transactions, increases the number of connections and, to a greater extent, generates a heating up of the economy, produces more economic wealth, and a variety of exchanges and interchanges.
In Brazil people tend to be outgoing, and are famous for being receptive to foreigners. In the country, there is a greater dedication to interpersonal relationships. The Brazilian’s tend to be passionate; they shorten distances through intimacy, they make decisions based on emotion, and not necessarily on reason. They are a people averse to formalities, despite their Portuguese descent, marked by formality. A trend described in the essay, ”Raízes do Brasil”, by the highly respected historian Sergio Buarque de Holanda.
When the local language is not mastered, we run the risk of being easily deceived by unscrupulous people, making us easy prey, more susceptible to scams. This is what happened to Bem Zruel, as he reports in his book “I will teach you how to become rich”, when he moved to Rio de Janeiro, coming from Israel, without speaking a single word of Portuguese.
Take for instance the challenge of the Japanese company Toyo Engineering Corporation, which was trying to venture in Brazil; until they closed partnerships to insert themselves culturally in the country, such is the importance of the cultural aspect in the establishment of trust to close deals. Together with a Brazilian company they created the society Toyo Setal.
Language classes are not just classes on idiom and dialect, but also classes on cultural references. These assist in the language learning process, as the student increases his immersion in a given culture, expanding the vocabulary and comprehension.
Nowadays, fast internet allows simultaneous video communication, an important tool in the learning process of online lessons, allowing the best teachers to train the best students, no matter where they live, even in diametrically opposite parts of the planet, without infrastructure costs, travel, and most importantly: time.
Written by: Conny Van Sluijs, Inigo Lopez e Izabella Klein
