I had the huge discovery about a month ago that my understanding of Portuguese and Samantha's understanding of language were on about the same level. That's not the case anymore, so I was about 1 month late in sharing this.
It is easier to understand what someone says in another language than it
would be to say that same thing correctly in that language. The reason
is that when I am trying to think of a sentence to say in Portuguese I
need to put so many different things together. First I have to think of
the words, after I know what word to use I need to think of how to
conjugate the verb(s) and then finally I need to know the correct order
to put all of these words in. The goal is to be able to have all of that
come naturally so everything simply rolls off the tongue without
needing to think about it. It's easier to understand than speak because when I hear someone talk in Portuguese all I
need to do is listen to the words, which should already be in the
correct order.
Now, a month after I had realized that my daughter's and my comprehension was at the same level, I think that Samantha's comprehension is well ahead of mine. In situations where there is only one person or conversation to listen to I feel like I understand roughly 60% of what is said. I understand enough to have a good idea of what is being said but not enough to feel like I'm able to contribute to the conversation in any way. It's difficult in Sunday School and small groups where I know the direction of the discussion and it's expected that I contribute, but I have a hard time understanding everything that's being said. I could say something but I always have the fear that I misunderstood the question or what the person before me said. In instances where there are multiple conversations going on at once I am well behind the 60% understanding.
Samantha, when we have her attention (rarely happens) she'll understand what we are asking her. We ask her to go find her chair or a specific toy and she'll go searching for it until she finds it; and she's able to do that in both English and in Portuguese!
I have completed 3 weeks of Portuguese classes now and it has been a good opportunity to ask some dumb questions in a safe atmosphere. I have about 5 hours each week in the classroom studying under the guidance of Raquel. Thank you to Life English School for allowing us to use one of their classrooms. Hopefully it won't take me long until I'm able to effortlessly put sentences and paragraphs together.
