Tiff started learning Portugese 4 months before going to Brazil. She went with (or THEY went with her, more accurately) Brad and Jeff, who didn't. Tiff said she was amazed that she could talk to everyone and it made all the difference to their trip. They went (as she always does) to places visitors are instructed are too difficult/dangerous, by methods (bus, walking) that tourists are cut off from. She described how you'd be relegated to the well-worn tourist tracks otherwise (more than in many other places because of the unfamiliarity of Portugese) - you wouldn't be able to do anything more than hire a cab, go to the tourist restaurants, watch Carnival from your hotel.

She said it was much like Japan in that the citizens don't expect tourists to've learned the language and were delighted to find that Tiff had. She said people told her their life's stories and she told hers - and that Brad and Jeff were disgruntled, felt everything took a long time (as they were waiting in incomprehension), and wanted an imediate or simultaneous translation, which Tiff couldn't do. She says she's at the point of being in either Portugese or English but can't cross easily between the two.

Labels: Tiff