Living not at home

How do two multilingual people choose which language to use? If they both speak the same pair of languages, how do they choose which one to hold their conversation in? What are the social conventions? The choice of language may be based on the dominant language of the place: they use whichever language most other people around them are speaking.  It may be based on facility: their levels of proficiency in the two languages will be different. This means that one of them will have to speak in a language at which they are less adept than the other person. They use the language in which the gap between their respective levels is the smallest.  It may be based on precedence: they’ve always used only one of their two available languages. Their relationship exists in one language, but not in the other.  I live in Portugal and most of the people I speak with have Portuguese as a first language. When I begin talking, it’s obvious I’m not fluent in Portuguese: my accent is a bit of...

On Thursday night, at the free Portuguese lessons provided by our local council, the teacher has launched us upon o conjuntivo . Oh conjunctive, you fearsome thing; you sound like an eye infection, you slide over the linguistic border into English shape-shifting into the subjunctive or simply vanishing. Our teacher is good and we understand the broad meaning - present wishes, desires, intentions which may translate into future actions. Here’s three examples:    E melhor que consultes um medico. (It would be better if you saw a doctor.)    Vá de taxi para que não se atrase. (Take a taxi so you’re not late.)    Mesmo que chova, vamos ao futebol. (We’re going to the football even if it rains.) As you can see, there’s no catch-all structure in English which translates the conjuntivo .  In unknown territory, and without a map, it's best to stick to the path. Learn  the model sentences, learn  the phrases that trigger the conjuntivo : hard gr...

Os manuais escolares de PLNM são escritos para o que precisam um turista ou um estudante Erasmus. Enquanto isso, os explicadores do Youtube estão a organizar o português em nacos gramáticos de 4 minutos. Tudo isto é funcional, não fluido. Ensina-nos a comunicar necessidades específicas ( Onde fica a farmácia mais próxima? ) e emoções fixas ( Estou tão feliz que veio à festa ). Não quero apenas a linguagem de nomear e pedir, quero uma linguagem que traga as coisas à existência, uma linguagem de conversação,  uma linguagem que pendure uma frase na outra para criar um novo espaço, um espaço que implora ser respondido. Uma linguagem como as formas de tangram .  A lingua pode ser generativa sem ter frases longas ou conjugações complexas no condicional (o quer que isso fosse). O que importa é o ritmo e os ângulos.  No verão passado, encontrei este tipo de linguagem no livro Aqui E Um Bom Lugar (Ana Pessoa & Joana Estrela). Gostei do livro mesmo antes de ler; os desenh...

~  Warning: this post is 1,300 words which is longer than usual for this blog. Get comfortable before you start reading. Livraria Velhotes is a 15-minute walk from where I live: turn left at the top of our street, go past the ruined house with the goats in the garden, past the kindergarten, the football field, the jujitsu studio, the water reservoir and just before you reach the high school the bookstore is on your left.  One of the partners, Pedro Carvalho, told me about the history, spirit and practice of the bookstore. In this edited transcript of the interview, Pedro talks about financial survival, publication in Portugal and the relationship between a bookstore and its community.  Lawrence: How can an independent bookshop survive in this era of multinational publishers and online bookselling? Pedro: Over time the bookshops in Vila Nova de Gaia have been disappearing, and the same with secondhand bookshops.  Vila Nova de Gaia, as you may have noticed, is one of ...

This text was written in May 2021. I had a basic level of Portuguese, but understanding speech was still a big challenge for me. We were living in a small town and most days we would meet the same people in the street. This helped us to form relationships. But as the text explains, it also added to the anxiety.  Leaving the house makes me anxious.  Almost every time I go outside I see someone; in the square, or by the greengrocers, or sitting at the lone table on the pavement by the café. And if I see someone it’s most likely someone I’ve seen before. And if it’s someone who I’ve seen before then we’ll exchange greetings appropriate to the time of day. I can prepare for this; there’s a pattern.  Sometimes the moment closes there, with a nod and a smile (visible despite our face masks); both parties can move on. Other times the moment extends. My interlocutor says something else, perhaps a comment on the day, the sky, the narky dog, a common formula. I’m listening for a wo...