This month, I've felt the urge to do an exchange program!
But, after 5 seconds of impulsivity, seeing all the money I'd have to spend, my working hours/format and the fact that it will take me a long time to go on vacation, I thought that it would be a dream for future Carol to fulfill.
Even after rationalizing, the urge didn't go away. I thought about it a lot and realized that, as well as experiencing other cultures and getting to know new places, I wanted to transfer the immersions I do at TALKNTALK to other areas of my life.
So I decided that I was going to do an exchange.
But in a different way: I decided that I would translate everything I could into English.
I started this experiment on November 1st. November 30th was the last official day.
I started with the easiest thing I hadn't done before: changing the language on my cell phone, computer and all my social networks. Some of the settings were difficult and it did give me a brain bug for the first few days. But now I'm used to it! I'm thinking of leaving it in English for longer and, in the future, switching to another language.
The next action was to listen to more music in English.
Brazilian songs are my favorite, but part of the experiment was to venture further. I listened to international artists I already like and discovered so many others. In a quick search on Spotify, I found this playlist, with songs already selected for the practice.
And to complete the "easy" tasks, of course I had to get the topic of "series and movies" in English and/or with subtitles into the game! This was a very tiring month mentally, so I only allowed myself to watch light movies (that I already knew the story of), with the sole aim of practicing the language. I watched everything from Disney animations to Harry Potter. The animations I was able to watch relatively well without subtitles. As for the others, I needed subtitles, but I tried my best to make sure they were only in English.
However, despite being excellent activities, I didn't feel like I was actively practicing them, since listening/watching end up being more "passive" activities. With this discomfort, I decided to look for other strategies, involving writing and speaking, in different areas of life.
AT WORK
Every evening, I write my activities for the next day on a whiteboard to help me get organized. As it's a personal note, I decided to do it in English.
Here I'm sharing photos of the organization of 2 days in the month (one of which was a national holiday when I went on a business trip).
As well as the whiteboard, I have notes on the tasks I have to do that day/week, which I do in my notebook. Here are a few that happened this month.
IN MY PERSONAL LIFE
Here, the sky was the limit!
I went from a grocery list to a packing list to jotting down random thoughts in my notebook... Even Pongo, my puppy, got in on the game!
Grocery list
It was interesting to realize how I had forgotten such everyday words, like some of the foods I eat all the time. Others (like arugula / cilantro / chickpeas), I learned and even had to write the translation next to them, otherwise I'd get lost when shopping.
Packing list
This one was a bit easier. I think it's from the many times I've had to talk about/write down items of clothing at school, and it doesn't have as many different words as fruits, vegetables, grains and spices. It was great because I was able to use this list on more than one trip I took that month.
Annotations in the notebook
This was the most challenging because most of the time I was on the road, with little access to translation tools. I wrote down what came into my head and that's it! Caring more about practice than right/wrong.
Pongo's medication
Whenever my puppy (who is very old) needs a treatment, I make a note of the medicines and the instructions for each one.
This time, I did it in English! To make it easier, I've named the medicines by color (because the real name is very difficult to speak/write!). I have the Portuguese version because I can't get confused with the medicines and timetables. But as I wrote it after 10 days of living the challenge and the words are simple, I can understand it perfectly.
So, was it really a good exchange?
After a month of doing my "exchange with myself", I've come to the conclusion of the experience!
First of all, it's important to say that it was a lot of fun transforming everyday life into another language.
I sometimes resorted to ChatGTP or Google Translate to help or correct me. And yes, I had a lot of mistakes! Mainly in connectives (on, the, at, in) and some spelling mistakes in words that are not fully present in my daily life.
Is the experience worthwhile? Very much so!
Has it replaced living/exchanging with other human beings and can I only improve my English with it? Never!
This further proved the importance of continuing to actively participate in the TALKNTALK immersions, as well as the other grammar studies, which was the difficulty that appeared most in the experiment.
For the next one, I'm going to make some changes, mainly to get more people to take part in the experiment with me, whether it's with day-to-day activities, writing in whatsapp messages/audios, or jotting down tasks or thoughts on life.
Human beings are social animals and we only learn together!