I was bored. Nothing interesting to post here, even though many things happened during this time.
Yeah… I’ll be teaching Portuguese in two places now. At Rahva Ülikool and at the Language Centre.
My plan is to teach during these two years, so the students can have a continuous process for learning the language and the culture in a fun way. Unfortunately for now at RÜ the classes will be only once a week – damn crisis! – unless the students ask for more and are able to afford it. But this is causing me some problems. I’ll have to divide the first level in two, which means that in two years the students at the LC will have two times the knowledge of the students at RÜ. So, if you are planning to take any of these two and can take it at the Language Centre, do so!
At the LC the prospects are better. I’ll be teaching twice a week, and considering that all Romance languages have waiting lists, I hope that Portuguese will follow the same path. I can find a way to teach to everyone interested. We just need a classroom.
About my language courses, I cannot take any of the Estonian language courses. I was planning to take the first level again, but it collides with one of my mandatory courses. I should take the second, but it also collides with another mandatory course.
I considered Russian, but it is already full and my husband didn’t think that it would be a good idea: a foreigner, black, in Estonia and learning Russian?!That’s out of the line… I like Japanese, but it is also full…
Ja vel, nothing much to do then. I guess the Master’s course and the teaching are enough anyways.
Oh, I met another Brazilian here… very nice. It’s great to speak Portuguese “normally”. With slangs, my accent and hear a different accent, but that I’m so used to. It’s really good. Except when I mix some English or Norwegian words… yeah, that happens a lot! In Linguistics this is called “Code-switching*”, and it’s very interesting to experience what we read in books.
When I was preparing the teaching plan, in English, I could only remember the words in Norwegian. So, I was thinking in Portuguese, and trying to translate it to English, but getting stuck in the Norwegian that is in the middle of the way. In a way, I like that. Norwegian is taking my head by itself. That’s fun!
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Code-switching*: is a linguistics term denoting the concurrent use of more than one language, or language variety, in conversation. Multilinguals, people who speak more than one language, sometimes use elements of multiple languages in conversing with each other. Thus, code-switching is the syntactically and phonologically appropriate use of more than one linguistic variety.
Code-switching is distinct from other language contact phenomena, such as borrowing, pidgins and creoles, loan translation (calques), and language transfer (language interference). Speakers form and establish a pidgin language when two or more speakers who do not speak a common language form an intermediate, third language; but speakers practice code-switching when they are each fluent in both languages. (From Wikipedia)
Daily life in Estonia 