If you walk into my house you will hear English, Portuguese, and Greek being spoken by all of us. We use all three languages interchangeably and it's kind of an "amazing crazy" if you ask me. Did you know that only thirteen percent of the global population is trilingual? And if you are multilingual also known as a polyglot (and speak four or more languages), then you're only three percentage of the people in the world! How amazing is that??
My husband says I'm a polyglot and I guess I am! I can fluently speak, read, and write in Portuguese, English, and Spanish. And I can read, and speak simple sentences in Greek. I'm one of the three percent! So exciting, right? But how did I get here? It was a very long process.
I was born in Brazil and lived there for nine years. I was alphabetized there and even had English classes in my Catholic school. When my family and I moved to New York City at the end of that year, I went to school and realized that even the little English I learned in Brazil wasn't going to help me. There were kids from all over the world in my classroom but I was the only one from Brazil who spoke Portuguese. English at the time, seemed way too hard for me to learn so I began to learn Spanish with the kids in my classroom. It was such a relief! I learned Spanish fairly quickly but my teacher wasn't too happy about that. She wanted me to learn English and I just wasn't learning it fast enough.
I moved on to 7th grade and had the most amazing teacher who really invested in my learning. She not only had amazing strategies (like videoing us speaking English and then listening to what we said so that we could learn from our mistakes) but she was funny and made everything not a big deal at all. I finally started to feel comfortable and began to learn English.
Later on in high school, since I needed a language credit, I chose French. I learned it fairly quickly and loved it but if I knew I would marry a Greek man in the future, I would've definitely taken Greek since my school offered it. Unfortunately I no longer speak French because I don't use it. I never really had any use for it to begin with; I took it because I had to but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
In college, I took Spanish courses in order to become a fluent speaker and I'm happy I did because I constantly speak it at work with my student's parents and even with my new to the country students who doesn't speak English.
I met Yianni while I was still in high school and even though we were together all throughout my college years, I never thought about learning Greek. I loved listening to him speak with his parents and it intrigued me but I didn't consider learning it fluently. Not until we got engaged anyway. The church where we eventually got married in, had Greek classes for adults and I figured it would be fun to learn. And that's what I did for a whole year. I regret not continuing the classes after that year was over but life got in the way and I figured I would learn more by speaking with him and his parents. Not to mention I would learn even more by traveling to Greece. And that's what happened. We have traveled to Greece multiple times and I have picked up even more words by speaking and listening to his family who lives in Greece. I must also include that Yianni speaks Portuguese very well. He made a point that since I was learning Greek, that he would learn Portuguese. How nice is that?
However, having children changes everything. I have pride in being Brazilian, and for speaking Portuguese and so when I got pregnant with Sophia we decided that I would speak with her in Portuguese and Yianni would speak with her in Greek. It has been the best decision because today she understands both languages very well. We are now doing the same with Nicholas. But as a result, my Greek skills has decreased as the years went by.
I'm proud of myself for knowing what I know but wished I had continued to keep up with the Greek language a bit more. But never too late, right?!
We are thankfully heading to Greece this summer so you bet I'll be focused in re-learning and learning even more as much as I can!
As for Portuguese, my kids will always hear me speak to them in my native language. It is important for me that they know their roots. All of my extended family live in Brazil and we plan to travel there with the kids in the future anyway, so the more the merrier. Am I right?
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