Day 4 – Pick A New Skill and Add It to Your Game This Year
Today’s challenge is a longer-term one. We’ve been asked to a pick a skill and add it to our repertoire in the year ahead. Naturally, I love this challenge, and I can already feel my mind racing with thousands of ideas! Now, which one(s) to choose? Which one(s) to commit to?
I commit myself to honing the skills that allow me to express myself more fully.
Blogging and Creating
By virtue of writing this blog, I commit to daily expression. I am grateful that the Daily Stoic challenge is providing me with such juicy and interesting content to write about. In the last few days, I’ve been so excited to go to sleep at night just so that I can wake up, receive the challenge, and share my thoughts on it 😆 I am waking up fresh with new ideas and a renewed commitment to growth. For the rest of this challenge, it will be easy for me to write, and so the real challenge will begin after the twenty-one days.
Speaking Portuguese
I want to become fluent in Portuguese this year.
In my last semester at Duke many years ago, I took an introductory course in Portuguese designed for speakers of another Romance language. Although I was a senior, had completed all of my credits for my degree, was writing a capstone thesis, and already had a job lined up after graduation, I couldn’t help but take this class which met five days a week (a rarity in two-day-a-week courses!) and consisted mainly of underclassman. At the time, I wanted to see if I could translate my knowledge of Spanish into a faster acquisition of Portuguese.
Our teacher, Magda, was from Rio and injected Brazilian enthusiasm into each class. We worked a lot in groups, and I enjoyed making new friends even as I was set to graduate. It’s one of the few classes I can really remember from my time as an undergrad. In fact, eleven years and five moves later, I have held onto our class workbook!
The following year while kicking off my career in Washington, D.C. I participated in another semester hosted by Global Language Network (GLN) where we met on Saturdays in the morning to learn more Portuguese. I loved giving my final presentation on the Rio Negro in Manuas, Brazil. For me, Portuguese had transformed in my heart and my ears from a bastardized Spanish to colorful way to express myself with far more passion than I can in English.
In the years since, I’ve continued to dabble in Portuguese. In 2015 as I prepared to walk for two weeks on the Camino de Santiago via the Portuguese way from Porto to Santiago de Compostela, I relied on PracticePortuguese.com to transition from Brazilian Portuguese to European Portuguese. The creators – a Portuguese man named Rui and an American named Joel – do an amazing job on their podcast of discussing real-life scenarios in a fun, easy way to learn. I listened and spoke to myself on the way to work each morning and later felt confident during my weeks in Portugal navigating daily life on The Camino.
A year later, I would spend a weekend in Rio de Janeiro during the 2016 Olympics. There I realized my Brazilian Portuguese had degraded to the simplest of phrases in ordering pao de quiejo, acai, and cafe com leite every day! Without consistent practice, my speaking skills had waned.
In reflecting on my journey with Portuguese over the years in this post, I am just now seeing with full clarity how my decision to take an intro class as a senior in college has impacted my life.
I’ve recently proposed to my girlfriend, Renata, who is originally from Goiania, Brazil. By committing to learn Portuguese and learn more about Brazil those years ago, I believe I opened my heart to the intensity of her love and affection.
And so, my real motivation for doubling down on Portuguese in this year of all years is to be able to travel to Brazil with Renata to celebrate our marriage and to communicate openly with her entire family. I want to be able to express myself – who I am, what I do, how I love – and to learn as much as possible about Renata’s family and culture.
To accomplish this goal, I will commit to three actions:
- Renata and I will converse ten minutes per day only in Portuguese.
- I will listen to Brazilian Podclass which is an amazing and comprehensive resource for learning Portuguese.
- I will watch one video or read one article per day from Estadao.
Me deseje sorte! (Wish me luck!)