Nome: não autorizado

Idade: 59 anos

País de origem: Estados Unidos

Tempo de aprendizagem de português: 4 meses

Narrativa coletada por Fernanda Sousa Carvalho em 11 de outubro de 2005

Just talk about how I am learning the language? Well, I ... my wife is Brazilian, from Belo Horizonte, so that’s why we moved here, that’s why I’m trying to learn Portuguese. So I have a lot of experience listening to Portuguese. I can understand a lot, but I have difficulty in speaking Portuguese. That’s why I’m taking this class. It’s helping quite a bit, specially doing the exercises. I have no experience writing Portuguese, so it’s important to me to do the exercises to do the writing. So what else do you want to know?

- Have you started leaning Portuguese here in Brazil or ...?

Yeah, I’ve started it here. I ... we [...] here once before, many years ago. So that’s when I started learning. That was about 25 years ago, so I don’t remember very much.

- So you have started learning 25 years ago, then you stopped and ...

Right. We lived in the United States for 25 years.

- And what do you think is more helpful for your learning?

I think exercises are the most helpful, it’s the most difficult. I think I learn the most doing those exercises.

- Do you speak in Portuguese with your wife or somebody else?

No. With her family I try to. I speak a little bit, not very much.

- Is there something else you want to add?

What?

- Is there something else you want to add to your narrative?

No. All I can think is just it’s very difficult to learn, it takes a long time.

- And how do you use to study, I mean at home, outside the classroom?

How do I study?

- Yeah.