While visiting Pato Branco (Southwest Paraná) I was invited
to visit a local school that has a bilingual project. For many of the students, it was their first
contact with a native English speaker and gave them a great opportunity to
practise what they had learned and ask questions about my culture. It was a fun day and one that I won’t forget
any time soon!
When each class arrived, they were shy and nervous; I guess
embarrassed about potentially making mistakes in front of their classmates
(we’ve all been there…) I briefly introduced
myself and invited them to ask me questions.
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| "Teacher" for the day! |
There were several questions I expected; do you like
Brazil? What do you like about Brazil?
What’s your favourite food? And so
on. Then there were some questions that
really made me think about why they were being asked. “Have you ever been robbed in Brazil?” The answer, thankfully, is no, and that goes
for other countries. I’ve become
accustomed to people in the US saying “oh, but isn’t Brazil dangerous?”, “isn’t
there a lot of crime?” (Walk through some ‘interesting’ parts of Oakland, CA,
then ask me that) but it was surprising to be asked the question in Pato
Branco, which is a small city in the countryside. It appears to point to a general pessimism
that’s can be seen around Brazil – a misguided belief that Brazil cannot
compare to other countries such as the USA and countries in Europe. It would be wrong to say that crime does not
exist in Brazil, but as a country as a whole, I don’t think it should be known
as a dangerous country and I really hope to see this negative opinion change in
my lifetime.
A similar question was “what were you scared of when you
first came to Brazil?” Again, I thought
of the motive behind the question; did it reflect the fear of the unknown, the
doubts some people always feel when I first go to a new place? Or was it another slightly downbeat opinion
of the country? I can’t be sure, but I
know they didn’t expect my answer. My
first trip to Brazil was in December 2007; I left a cold, wet, rainy England,
stopped in Amsterdam (umm, cold? Maybe,
I was in the airport an hour or so, so I can’t say) then had a 9 hour flight to
São Paulo. I knew that December was
summer time in Brazil and I was expecting nothing but blue skies and
sunshine. As the plan descended towards
São Paulo, all I could see was thick cloud cover. What was I scared of when I first came to
Brazil? That I’d just taken a 9 hour
flight and arrived back in England!
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| Some of the subjects; my favourite film, which team I support in England... |
Football was a popular theme, which came as no surprise, and
invited controversy. I wore a white
Atlético Paranaense shirt, which was already enough to attract comments from
the Fanaticos (nickname for the fans of Atlético) and the Coxa fans (some other
team from Curitiba…) Of course, not everyone noticed – it doesn’t stand out as
much as the red and white striped home shirt would – so the inevitable question
of what team I support in Brazil. My
answer tended to drive the class wild! A
large proportion threw their arms up and cheered; a minority put their head in
their hands. If there is anywhere in the
world that the term “it’s just a game” does not apply, it’s Brazil!
In the afternoon, came the turn of the younger
students. As they were only about 8 or
9, their English was very basic, so I gave my answers in English and Portuguese
(thus making it educational for me too!)
After the nervous, slow pace of questions from the teenagers in the
morning, the excited energy of the younger kids came as a surprise!
What struck me most was the reaction to my answers. “What’s your favourite colour?” one asked
me. I pointed to the blue sky of the Big
Ben mural on the wall and responded “Blue, azul.” The response was a cheer from the questioner! I got even bigger cheers when I answered
“sweets” when asked if I preferred sweets, fruit or savoury food. I admit it, I have a sweet tooth!
But one question bowled me over. Do I prefer apples or tomatoes? What possessed them to ask such an obscure
question? Ok… I’ve never liked tomatoes (except when cooked
in a dish, in a sauce etc) so I answered “apples.”
Well…
You’d have thought Brazil had won the world cup, Disney had
announced a new resort in Pato Branco and each of them had won the
lottery! I guess it was the right
answer! I asked the teachers if they
knew how anything about it and the answer is a journey into child
psychology! Being children, they of
course do not like to eat salad and healthy stuff like that; they’d rather eat
the good stuff, like meat, pão de queijo and so on. So parents hit back by tell them that it’s a
fruit; you like apples, bananas and pineapples, why not tomatoes? Well of course, the kids are too smart to
fall for the old tomatoe-is-a-fruit-so-you-must-like-it trick and decided to
get the opinion of the visiting Englishman.
Sorry parents, I hope I haven’t set back your efforts too much! (But I really don’t like tomatoes!!)
When discussing the day with the teachers, they expressed
surprise at the questions that were asked.
In the normal lessons, the students overflow with questions about
culture and life in the UK and USA and were surprised at how restrained they
were. Our conclusion was that in the hot
seat, with the foreigner in front of them and classmates all around, the nerves
got to them. Or maybe they just forgot.
Which brings me to this question: “what are teenagers like
in the UK?” Answer: “pretty much the
same as here.” Faced with a real live
German in my German classes at school, I’m sure we’d have come up with the same
questions, with the same nerves and the same shy refusals to ask questions to
begin with.
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| Vice director Fabricio, teacher Elisa and myself |
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