The Best Learning Can Be Unexpected

Sometimes, the most memorable moments are those that are tucked-in between the planned activities, occurring quietly and spontaneously, like the orchids that grow along the trunks of the palm trees.  It is a characteristic of Brazil that I have come to know and love, even in our short time here.

Cristo Redentor, viewed from Sugarloaf Mountain

To begin with a little context, the morning started off a bit differently than those of the past few days.  Rather than heading over to PUC-Rio for classes right away or touring a local organization, we were going to reward our busy week with a day of enjoying the local sights.  The atmosphere at the hotel breakfast was relaxed and casual, and I greeted a hotel waiter-friend of mine with my typical, “Bom dia!  Tudo bem?”  (Good morning!  How are you?).  When he saw me, his eyes lit up and he pointed to my UNO “Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service” T-shirt, touching a hand to his heart and speaking in rapid Portuguese.  Although I could only understand about 20% of what he had said, I knew the feeling that he was trying to convey.

In response, I tried to express my own admiration for the civil rights leader with similar facial expressions, hand gestures, and a few guidebook phrases that didn’t really do such strong feelings justice.  As I had explained to him in my weak Portuguese, “Posso escuchar melhor que falar” (“escutar,” he kindly corrected) – roughly translating to “I can listen to Portuguese better than I can speak it.”  When I was about to give up on my ability to converse on such a complicated topic, this waiter—who I had really only just met—gently stopped me with a hand, and with the patience and wisdom of a master teacher, spoke to me in Portuguese about the value of attempting conversation with natives of the language, of listening, listening, listening to those around me…and finally, of speaking, of trying to converse with the natives of Brazil.  He spoke to me of having patience and of being willing to make mistakes in the name of learning a language.

Poster advocating racial equality, from Vila Olímpica da Maré favela clinic

For me, as an education undergraduate who wants to teach languages, such incredible yet everyday interactions in Rio are some of the experiences that stand out to me the most.  Communication is so crucial to the human experience, and yet we often underestimate our ability to use a local language—imperfect as our attempts may be—as well as nonverbal means to communicate with others.  However, when placed in a situation in which one has to communicate or speak a non-native language, one finds that she is capable of much more than she ever thought. 

For instance, when asking two local Espaco Criança Esperança volunteers a few days ago about employment in the favela they volunteered in, I found that one volunteer knew only a little English, another knew only a little Spanish, and I knew only about as much Portuguese as I could connect back to Spanish and our PUC-Rio Portuguese lessons.  Using the strengths of one person to adjust for the weaknesses of another, though, we were able to negotiate meaning through a hodge-podge combination of limited Portuguese, Spanish, and English.  It was a miracle of communication, and yet, like the “melting pot” of cultures that make up Brazil, it was something beautiful in its uniqueness.

View of the Copacabana and Ipanema coast from Sugarloaf Mountain

After breakfast, the rest of the day’s learning experiences were a colorful whirl of Rio history, local architecture, and awe-inspiring landscapes, shared with us by a tour guide who also used a combination of Portuguese, Spanish, and some English to adapt to our differences in languages.  We first stopped to climb up to the Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) statue, immortalized in such movies as 2012 and considered one of the New Seven Wonders of the Modern World.  

We then continued through the Lapa neighborhood of Rio, learning about the recent revitalization of the area, its impressive aqueduct, the beautiful churches, and the rich samba culture, and then took our lunch at a restaurant on the outskirts of the area that had some delicious local cuisine.  We finished our city tour with a visit to the famed Sugarloaf Mountain, looking out from the peak over the whole expanse of the Rio coast, until the bus took us—tired but deeply satisfied—back through Copacabana to our hotel in Ipanema.

Like our other days in Rio so far, today has been a combination of learning experiences both planned and unplanned, with each one contributing to a better understanding of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil.  While every experience may not have been part of the “scheduled” activities, each one has nevertheless been enlightening in its insight, with even the most subtle of experiences leaving a huge impression on my perspective of language, culture, and learning.

On our way back from Sugarloaf Mountain