When I decided to study abroad in Portugal, I discovered that many Americans know very little about the country. While stereotypes of other Europeans like the French, British, Italians and Germans have been present in American films and television for years, the Portuguese are almost unknown by comparison. Given that Brazil is the largest Portuguese-speaking nation, some people in America asked me if Portugal was in South America. Others didn't even know about the Portuguese language, assuming that Portugal was a Spanish-speaking nation! I realized my trip abroad to Portugal was not only an opportunity to educate myself, but also a chance to bring back new perspectives to my community at home.
While studying Portuguese in college, I learned that multiple varieties of the Portuguese language exist. Just like Americans have different English accents than British people or Australians, Brazilian Portuguese was different from the Portuguese spoken in Portugal. European Portuguese, as it is called, sounded a lot different than the variety of Brazilian Portuguese I was learning. I had heard that even native Brazilian speakers of Portuguese had trouble understanding European Portuguese. Imagine how nervous I was as just a student! I didn't know if I would be able to understand anything.
