My Spanish (Brazilian) Lovers: Mark the Panamerican Peripatetic

I’m starting to believe that writing online (blogging, posting…whatever) can be a cultural activity. I don’t think it’s a genre—there’s too much garbage out there—but there are a number of writers who want to tell their stories, provoke dialogue, and star-gaze from wherever they stand.

I’m already feeling a little lost! Let’s talk about something that hopefully my thick self can handle. Now you first travelled to Brazil from the USA. Why did you initially decide to make such a big leap? Leaving my zones of comfort keeps me shaken-up, life-struck and delivers me the raw material for “literary blogging.”

My wife and I first got a job in Colombia at a school in Quindío (the indigenous word for Paradise). I am not sure why we made the leap, but we both felt a stirring that kindled into a desire to live intentionally. Language was another reason. Colombia is so poorly treated by the press–and we actually found this “CNN effect” to be advantageous: the cost was low, and travelling in Colombia was wonderful.

After two years there, we went to a job fair at the University of Northern Iowa–in Waterloo and met Craig Johnson, who was, then, the headmaster of our school. He had this fire about living and working abroad that was palpable and he seemed to articulate the very things that seem to connect us–whether or not we have defined occupations or, like you and Niall, have chosen to opt out of lives of quiet desperation.

Life is short; much of life is sad–there is too little time to be comfortable. I spent the first 24 years of my life in SoCal–it was wonderful. All surfing and burritos and friends. But after I’ve seen new fringes of human experience—both the beauty and the horror—a “quiet, unagitated life” was/is no longer an option.

I get that but what about the initial trials and tribulations that you faced when you first arrived there? How did you overcome them? 

At first, there’s this honeymoon experience, where you see everything with freshness and lightness. In Colombia we were in an idyllic setting–the so-called “land of the eternal spring.” But after a couple of months, the insects come out, as it were, out of the beautiful flower-forests: you get frustrated with foreign bureaucracy; you crave things you once eschewed–Starbucks Coffee and some mindless television–you miss your parents’ dog.

And then there’s a homesickness that cuts far deeper than your first semester at college. It led me to think of my life–and human experience–as something more nomadic. We’re bedouins, not immortals. Once you get comfortable with this idea–the Brazilians call it saudade–there is some melancholy, but there is a deeper peace. I had to face questions that you can ignore when I had family and friends and comforts whirling about.

The homesickness is a complex thing that comes and goes intermittently. What about Portuguese then? Did you know much before heading out here? 

I only knew Spanish. Both are Romance languages, but they were shockingly different. There are actually laws that protect the Colombian people from making changes in their language. This makes it one of the purest, elegant, and easy-to-learn Spanish derivatives in the world. They are extremely proud of their language, and speak with clarity.

Portuguese–and more specifically Brazilian Portuguese–is highly dialectical, and it has this nasalized sound that is hard to define. I thought everyone was arguing at first–it turns out that (a), they are a very passionate people, and (b), there’s this samba-like swing in their speech that evades textbook learning. I had to immerse myself in conversation. Sometimes I’d swim; more often I’d sink. The trick is to keep plunging undaunted. Anxiety and self-awareness kills language acquisition: many claim “I’m just not good at languages,” but this is like the guy who claims he’s not good at dancing, when he has never stepped out.

With Portuguese, as with all language, acquisition calls for a great deal of listening and imagination. I soak up the sound and the meaning as best I can, then I deconstruct it so as to imagine how it may be phrased in the US. When a Brazilian is speaking to a group, for example, they will end a sentence with a phrase like “‘ta bom com a gente?” Literally this means “is that okay with the people?” In my vernacular, of course “is that okay with you guys?”, so it takes a kind of leap to “put on” their phrasal choices. It’s fun and a little mind-bending.

It’s these types of nuances about languages that I love too. What would you say are your favourite things about the Portuguese language? Any favourite words? 

Even though it’s difficult to imitate, I truly love the sound of the language. It dances; it swings–it makes American English seem so sterile and flat. I love that word, saudade, and think about it constantly. I like the sound of words like coração and vialão—the ownnng is kind of irritating at first, but now they sound like guitar strings. I like the idea of conscientização: this is like “consciousness,” but it’s more. It involves being aware, and plugged into life. I also like dirigir (to drive, driving): to the untrained English-minded ear it sounds like jee-dee-jeeh.

The sterilization and flatness. I sometimes think that about British English compared with castellano too. Let’s talk about your highlights. What have been some of the biggest ones from your past year living and working in Brazil? What places would you recommend people seeing?

The whole state of Rio is spectacular. From the hills of Teresópolis, to the glitzy beachtown Buzios, to the rain forest islands near Paraty–the emerald seas and the mata atlântica (the Atlantic rain forests), the locals and the glitterati of the city.

Rio de Janeiro has extreme social inequalities: there are shantytowns that literally rub up against the Leblon (the most chique-chique beach in Zona Sul). And yet, there is this amazing cultural equality–in fact, I think many of the most celebrated artists and musicians and models have come from the favelas. I used to want to make the places I went to look absurd, hip, or sexy; now I want to tell stories and provoke cultural thought. Geeky, I know, but I don’t have to write for money.

I feel like Brazil is producing a lion’s share of the world’s cultural oxygen now—with the World Cup and the Olympics in ’14 and ’16, respectively, the people seem motivated to improve the infrastructure. They have also taken measures to battle crime and corruption—lots of the bad cops and crooked politicians have been driven out, and there is more of an incentive to do the right thing. I’ve also enjoyed the pervading sense of optimism that flies in the face of the depressed economic visage of the US and the Eurozone.

It certainly seems the place to be. I have a dream to be out there and speaking by then! Maybe you can help me by suggesting some of the things one should know about moving to Brazil. What advice would you give?

While things are improving, I’ve heard of people arriving and getting mugged on the first day, then returning the next. It’s not the American suburbs; a bit of animal instinct caution, a general vigilance (and responsible drinking) is necessary. Most people have massive issues getting their papers. If you want to stay for an extended time there are many more of these obstacles. If you’re coming from the Northern hemisphere, you’ll be introduced to all kinds of opportunities to learn patience and flexibility. There is a kind of “swing time” here that makes it easy to sit on the beach for hours, but can make you lose your mind when you need to get things done. But as you probably are finding these are the obstacles that you climb to get to new levels of experience–and I know I wouldn’t trade my world-broadening experiences in Colombia and Brazil for a McMansion in the Hamptons.

Spot on. Big thanks to Mark for sharing his experiences of immersion and language acquisition in South America. He’s made me feel all the more desperate.

More on Mark:

After 25 years living in or around North County San Diego, Mark Robertson moved to Colombia to teach in The Land of The Eternal Spring. After two years, he and his wife, Vanessa, took a new teaching position in Brazil. He spends his time educating internationals in Brasília, re-upping at “home” (Encinitas), or traveling throughout Latin America. He is a book-eater, Panamerican peripatetic, mythmaker, “lover-liar and magic-bean-buyer.” In 2012 he plans to relocate permanently to North County and finish his graduate work in California. You can read his blog here.

Don’t forget to get in contact if you’d like to be my next Spanish lover!