Euopean Identity
L’auberge portugaise
“Pardal pardo, porque palras – Grey sparrow, why do you chatter away?”, Vanise Amaral reads out and looks expectantly at the faces of her students. “Pardal pardo, porgue palras”, they dutifully repeat the tongue twister. Amaral’s students however are not kindergarten kids but grown up students who decided to spend one or two Erasmus semesters in Lisbon.
In room F1 of the “Universidade Lusíada de Lisbon” about ten pairs of eyes look more or less attentively at Portuguese teacher Vanise Amaral. Ewa from Poland sits next to Elena from Italy, and while in the last row, Riina from Finland looks fresh and well-rested, Daniel from Germany has to fight his tiredness. It is eight o’clock on a Friday morning, time for the new Erasmus students of the Lusíada University to begin their Portuguese class for beginners. For three weeks the students have been following the lectures, one more week lies ahead. Still, it is not easy for them to talk to the inhabitants of their new hometown.
Sibilant suffering
“Yesterday I tried to speak Portuguese with a taxi driver. He did not really understand me and I did not really understand him, but nevertheless it was nice”, Smaranda Alexandrescu laughs. She was born in Romania, grew up in Luxembourg and now studies in Brussels. Since all the university classes of the 23-year-old are held in Portuguese she is very confident that it will improve soon: “I just have to get through it”. Riina Kaartamo (27) from Finland also believes that she will make progress: “I live together with a Portuguese woman. Until now we actually talk in English, but we will start to speak in Portuguese soon.”
Although all students of Vanise Amaral’s class agree that Portuguese is not an easy language to learn, their problems differ. “For me the ‘sh, sh, sh’ is the most difficult”, says Elena Bartolozzo from Italy as she grimaces and makes sibilant sounds. Her neighbour Ewa Pol from Poland disagrees: “That is easy for me because we have that in Polish as well. I think it’s hard that one word can have so many meanings.”
Shy northerners
Although she admits that her students would get along fine with English in Lisbon, Amaral nevertheless thinks that it is good that they learn it. “I don’t think it is so important, because English is a great way to communicate. But Portuguese people like it when people speak their language.” For student Ewa Pol, there was no question that she would take Portugese classes. “I am staying here for one year and for me it would be a shame, if I didn’t speak a word of Portuguese after that”, the 23-year-old architecture student says.
In her twelve years of teaching students from different European countries, Vanise Amaral has noticed that there are differences between different countries. “People from the North are often shyer than people from the South, Italians for example are more open”, she says. After all, no matter where the students come from, to learn Portuguese they all have to work hard. Asked for the secret of how to learn the language as fast as possible, Amaral says says: “The best way is to try to speak to Portuguese, to try to communicate with people and read the news. But of course you have to learn the grammar too”, she says almost a bit apologetically.
Sabine Stang
