Familiar Words in Unexpected Places

When we first moved to Maringá I was overwhelmed with the fact that no one spoke English. I was expecting this, but expecting it and experiencing it are two completely different things. It is quite amazing how humans can communicate with very little language involved. It can be frustrating, but laughter is definitely a shared voice.

After being here for about 6th months now, I’ve found that I’m wrong. There are lots of people here who speak English. The thing is, I keep finding them in unexpected places. It is still a regular thing to go to a restaurant or the grocery store and encounter no one who speaks English, including many who look at me very strangely when I try my best to speak Portuguese. Even though I go days without hearing English (except from my husband and on the web) people keep popping up everywhere who do speak my native tongue.

One afternoon, while in line for the concession at the movie theatre my husband was sporting a Kentucky shirt. By the way, they show most US movies here in English with Portuguese subtitles – bonus for us! The girl behind the counter asked him if he was from the states. It is always surprising when you encounter this because it takes a while for your brain to register that you are listening to English again. She had spent time in Texas and knew he was probably American because she doesn’t see many Kentucky shirts down here. Yeah, we go through phases of trying to fit in clothing-wise and then give up and just wear our US college gear. This type of thing happened again in line at the grocery store and at the bed store (no KY shirt involved).

Actually what prompted me to write about this was my experience at the gym today. We joined earlier this week and of course we don’t have our membership swipe card yet. I stumbled through trying to explain this to the new faces I encountered this morning and made it in okay. As I was leaving the same girl I talked to said, “bye” instead of “tchau.” Now this kind of thing is a little common once they find out we aren’t from Brazil. People are usually pretty willing to offer you the few words of English they do know as I do with my Portuguese. Then she proceeded to tell me (in English) that if it would help, she spoke English. Help, I thought it was wonderful!

What continues to baffle me is that people apologize to us that they don’t speak English. This happened when we went to visit the gym before joining. Once again, communication with few words prevailed and we were successful, but the girl apologized. Um, the last time I checked I was in your country. I should be speaking Portuguese, not English. No need to apologize. In fact, I think I need to make a formal apology to Brazil. I want so badly to speak and understand the language, but it still isn’t clicking for me. I can speak some, but understanding is no better, so I’m sorry. Hopefully, I’ll continue to stumble upon familiar words in all these interesting places to help me along the way.