After 6 weeks in Brazil my portuguese was put to the test, when I had to do my first presentation in my Rotary club. A big part of the Rotary youth exchange program is the cultural exchange, and every exchange student has a responsibility to that. We’re hosted by amazing families and clubs that show us their country and culture, and in return we represent and tell them about ours. That comes in many forms but a big part of it is presentations we have to do in the Rotary clubs, in the schools or to other exchange students and rotarians like in Aracaju. Usually it starts out with shorter ones and evolves along with our language skills, confidence and knowledge. When we return to our own country, we also have to do presentations about our exchange year and what we learned to rotarians, future exchange students and any curious listeners.
This, along with us being “representatives of our country”, is one of the reason there at time can be a long application process with interviews and assessments, but it’s also one of the reasons, the Rotary program is so rewarding. Everyone is really interested in giving you the best experience but also in learning about you and your country, and the encouragement you get really makes you grow as a person. You also get the opportunity to not only learn about your host country but also learn about the culture and countries of the other exchange students, and you make lasting friendships from the whole world.
In regards to the portuguese mine is still far from perfect, but by now I’m starting to be able to have conversations without turning to google translate or my sister for help every 5 seconds. It’s really freeing for someone like me, who likes to talk a lot.
Of course it’s easier and faster to learn here, where your’e surrounded by the language than in a classroom back in Denmark. In fact it’s quite hard not to pick up on anything, when all your friends, family etc. speaks in that language and especially when they don’t speak english, so you’re forced to just give it a try. It means you learn a little bit everyday from everywhere around you, and then I’ve been lucky enough to have classes too with amazing teachers.
Rotary offers shared portuguese classes online to all of the exchange students in the district two times a week. Most of us are only able to go one, because we have long school days the other time, but it’s still nice to get some help and keep in contact with the other students.
In these classes there are more focus on teaching us about brazilian culture and using the language in everyday situations. That means the classes often have a theme, that could be brazilian music, food or holidays. Then the teacher do a presentation about this and asks us about our experiences with this, and how it is in our country and just makes us have a conversation about it in general. That also means we not only get to learn about Brazil, but also about each others countries and for example the difference between how you celebrate christmas in Germany and Canada or the food in France vs. USA.
I also have portuguese lessons once a week in my home with a portuguese teacher my parents found. We started about two weeks after I arrived and will have these for two month. The teacher is super sweet, and in these classes there is more focus on grammar and vocabulary, which is a great supplement to other ones.
Now back to the presentation. As you might have imagined, I was a little bit (very) nervous for it. It was my first time in the Rotary club too, and even though I knew a few people already from other meetings, it was still a bit nerve wrecking to stand up in front of a bunch of strangers and talk about myself and my country in their native language. It’s inevitable that you make mistakes, when your’e learning a new language, and while this annoyed me a bit in the beginning, I’ve come to accept it a bit more and even being grateful that I’m surrounded by people who can and are kind enough to correct me and teach me more.
Tina, the daughter from my host family who is currently an exchange student in France, did a similar presentation just a couple days before, that her parents showed me. It was really nice to have an example as inspiration, but while I don’t speak french, I could see her having the audience engaged and understanding, and I was bit nervous about, whether I could achieve this as well.
The night of the meeting me and my family got dressed up in our fine clothes, me in my rotary blazer with newly added pins from my teacher and family. As always I was stressing about being five minutes late, until I realised my dad was at least 10-15 min later. I love Brazilian time.
Rotary here is a lot more formal, which means everyone was wearing fine clothes, the president and other important people were sitting at their own table and we sang the national anthem. And then it was time, for my presentation. Below you can see the video, translation and the pictures of me, my family and the club members.
“Hello! My name is Karoline. I’m from Denmark and I’m seventeen years old. I don’t speak portuguese perfect yet, but I’m gonna try my best.
Denmark is a very small country with only around 5 million people. It’s very cold too. In the summer it’s only about 20 degrees, and in the winter we have snow. Denmark is known for H.C. Andersen, a very famous author, the vikings and the royal family. The danish people are known for riding their bikes a lot and always being on time – very different from Brazil.
I live on a farm outside a small town with one thousand people. I live with my parents, my brother Anton, who is 14 years old, a turtle and seven cats. I go to a school in a bigger city, and my school is 482 years old. My grandfather went to the same school just after the second world war.
I like theater, music, reading and writing. I like sports too, especially martial arts and archery. Here I do volley, which I really like, even though I’m not that good, because I’ve never played before, but I’m learning.
I like politics too, and it’s very interesting for me to see the election here, and I went with my sister, when she went to vote. In Denmark we have election this year too, but in Denmark you need to be 18 years old to vote, so unfortunately I can’t.
I’ve always loved to travel, and I applied for the Rotary exchange program in 2020 more than two years ago, but because of Covid I only got to go this year. I chose Brazil, because I really like the nature and the culture, and I want to learn the language, because I think, it’s very beautiful.
Here I live with Daniella, Paulo and Catharina, and they’re very nice. I go to Colegio Antonio Vieira, which is also really nice. It’s very different from my school in Denmark, but all the teachers and students are really nice.
I also went to Aracaju with the other exchange students, and it was really nice to get to know them. We went on a boat trip too.
Here in Salvador I’ve been to many different places around the city with my family. At the school i’ve also been to a science fair and theater, dance and music shows. After new year I will also apply to the theater and art club. I’ve also been to a lot of partys and birthdays with my friends and family.
I still have a lot to see and learn, but I’ve already had six amazing weeks here, and I’m exited for the rest of my time here.
Thank you.”
Little Wanderer 
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