Wednesday, July 26, 2006
The Good, The Bad and The Beautiful
Gosh, it's been a while since I came back to this thing... millions of thoughts and don't know where to start. First defining the title... 'The Good' things in my internship are the vacation I had in my job and overcoming some problems with work and culture shock, which are 'The Bad' part of my experience. 'The Beautiful' definitely describes Brazil...
During the last month of June, I was unexpectedly hit by culture shock. Yes, the thing we all know about and have come to fear since people are always trying to prepare themselves for it. There were many factors for my experience of culture shock, some of which included (and still include):
- me não falo português, especially since I don't understand most of what were being spoken around me
-going to work was becoming dreaded, largely due to the above as well as the lack of communication between me, the coordinator and other collegues
-big changes happening back in Canada
-lack of support from various people, including my own family!
-the crazy Brazilians (and dog...)
-trying to figure out what's next
The list goes on just a bit more.
The whole last month I felt irritated and asked myself why the hell I choose to put myself in this discomforting position (i.e. going off to live and work in a country far from the familiar and where I don't even speak the language). Hehe, I guess the answer came in recognizing what I was feeling was culture shock. From there on I thought since I was going through this, why not do an activity with the kids at school about this. The freedom I have from work is the principal driver of all my miseries as well as the joy and perks. To sum few things in short, I started to flip through my English-Portuguese dictionary and Como Dizer Tudo em Português book; sat down with the coordinator and talked to her about my proposals for a workshop and other tasks for me to do in the new school semester which starts in August. Another thing I realized was that I needed to stop feeling so frustrated and helpless with everything that has to do with Portuguese.. I needed to gain independence and what better ways to do so than try to do everything myself first without the help of the Brazilians and also do the things I'd like to do regardless of language constraints.
First week of July was damn boring when my vacation started. I stayed home most days as I am an extremely lazy person.. hehe.. but after one week of much idleness, I packed my bags and went off to the Northeast to escape the harsh Brazilian winter in São José... to be cont'd...
During the last month of June, I was unexpectedly hit by culture shock. Yes, the thing we all know about and have come to fear since people are always trying to prepare themselves for it. There were many factors for my experience of culture shock, some of which included (and still include):
- me não falo português, especially since I don't understand most of what were being spoken around me
-going to work was becoming dreaded, largely due to the above as well as the lack of communication between me, the coordinator and other collegues
-big changes happening back in Canada
-lack of support from various people, including my own family!
-the crazy Brazilians (and dog...)
-trying to figure out what's next
The list goes on just a bit more.
The whole last month I felt irritated and asked myself why the hell I choose to put myself in this discomforting position (i.e. going off to live and work in a country far from the familiar and where I don't even speak the language). Hehe, I guess the answer came in recognizing what I was feeling was culture shock. From there on I thought since I was going through this, why not do an activity with the kids at school about this. The freedom I have from work is the principal driver of all my miseries as well as the joy and perks. To sum few things in short, I started to flip through my English-Portuguese dictionary and Como Dizer Tudo em Português book; sat down with the coordinator and talked to her about my proposals for a workshop and other tasks for me to do in the new school semester which starts in August. Another thing I realized was that I needed to stop feeling so frustrated and helpless with everything that has to do with Portuguese.. I needed to gain independence and what better ways to do so than try to do everything myself first without the help of the Brazilians and also do the things I'd like to do regardless of language constraints.
First week of July was damn boring when my vacation started. I stayed home most days as I am an extremely lazy person.. hehe.. but after one week of much idleness, I packed my bags and went off to the Northeast to escape the harsh Brazilian winter in São José... to be cont'd...
Labels: Door #1: The Brazil Experience
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