Yes, I went to America. And I made friends with a Brazilian
My name is Gabriel Henrique, 19 years of age, and I’m from Brazil. Writing about the people I meet and the experiences I have is one of my hobbies. I have recently written about six things I learned from six campers, who changed my life, and today I’m writing about one of the most awesome people I met in one of the craziest and unforgettable moments of my life, which was in the United States.
As a language learner, I had been learning English for four years before I went to the US. So, in the first semester of 2015, all I wanted was to get packed to take off to any English-speaking country. Then, in June 2015, I went to a different land, called The United States Of America, to have the most unforgettable experience of my life, where I became a camp counselor and had the best summer ever!
Every language learner wants to have an opportunity to go abroad. But more often than not, every language learner wants to have opportunities to live for a good amount of time in another country. It is vitally important for any language lover/learner to live abroad so that they can improve the language they’ve been learning, and learn new and important cultural aspects that they wouldn’t be able to learn if they depended only on movies or on what language schools provide them!
However, the #1 fear of any language learner is to go abroad and meet people from their native country. Their #1 fear is, without a shadow of a doubt, to go abroad and spend their precious and unique time speaking their native language with the people from their native country! If you’re from Brazil, you know what I’m talking about. You know that this is considered a “sin” by so many of us! If any Brazilian goes abroad and makes friends with any other Brazilian, they will be the most mocked people of the entire nation!
When I applied for a summer job in America, I was beyond the moon excited for my very first international/American experience where I’d only be with people from the US and from other countries. I was very happy that no other Brazilian was applying to the same camp I applied to!
But about a month before taking off to this awesome adventure, I found out that another Brazilian had been hired as well by the camp I was going to. I got really shocked and, being really honest, I got very disappointed because I was going to be working in the US with another Brazilian!
Well, to tell you the truth, I didn’t tell anybody at work that another Brazilian was going to be my workmate in my very first international experience because I was afraid of getting mocked by my workmates in Brazil or by any friend of mine who also speaks English.
When I arrived at camp, I realized that I had arrived a week earlier than she was going to. I made friends with the other counselors and when she arrived, I took that big breath and happily said to her the WELCOME she deserved to hear! I don’t know why, but I felt like she was going to ruin my time there! As if all that feeling wasn’t enough, I felt like she was going to make my first summer in America miserable whenever she started talking to me in Portuguese.
Well, this may sound that Karol is the ugliest, the most terrible and, the worst person someone could ever meet, but the truth is, I had all these feelings because of the kind of mindset that most Brazilians have when going abroad. They REALLY don’t want to see other Brazilians where they are going to be! Something tells me that Karol probably felt and thought the exactly same thing, because of the fact she was going to share her first international experience with another Brazilian!
So, I introduce to you Karol and Gabriel. Two Brazilians who had many expectations. Two Brazilians who thought that they were going to come back to Brazil with a thousand of “American Experiences”. Two Brazilians who had no idea that they were going to be running into one another in a different land. Two Brazilians who thought that they were going to meet only Americans in the US. But many unexpected things happened! Things that weren’t planned by any of them! But one thing is sure, these moments are in their hearts and they will never forget!
As I talked to Karol, I realized how wonderful she is. She is older than me, she is engaged, and she has a completely different background than I do. We had so many awesome and life-changing conversations. We talked about so many plans and dreams.
I also got to know her better. She majors chemistry in the best university in Brazil. I was amazed by her story about how she got accepted by this university, how long she waited for that scholarship. Karol is a country girl, but she lives in the city. We also talked about the moment she decided to leave her family and how hard it was for her to leave them and move to the city to chase after her dreams. Not a day went by when Karol didn’t share with me her lovely and funny stories. Once she told me that her dream is to discover the cure for cancer, and I’m sure she’ll do whatever it takes to discover it because Karol is such a hardworking and dedicated person!
Karol was a very funny person at camp! At the same time, she looks serious, she looks funny. I think she looks funny because she looks serious. Karol taught me so much! I don’t have a girlfriend yet, but when I do, I’ll love her as much as Karol loves her fiancé. Karol was also very correct in everything she did and she always got really mad when the schedule changed. She is very organized, calm, and she really knows how to be a good person. Karol is very intelligent!
I’ll never forget the day she did the High Ropes Course for the first time. And how scared and brave she was when she did the zip line. I’ll never forget how many times I talked to her about some tough moments I was going through at camp, but as I didn’t want anybody to hear, I spoke in Portuguese with her. I’ll never forget when we wanted to talk about something/somebody and we started talking in Portuguese so that nobody could ever understand a word we said. I’ll never forget the crazy and funny things we said to the campers when they asked us to say something in Portuguese, for them to get the sense of what Portuguese sounds like. I’ll never forget the day we attended a church service together and while the choir was singing, we started laughing for no reason.
During all the skits we had on Monday mornings, which were about The Day at Pentecost (that story from the Bible), the counselors who speak a different language had to say something in the foreign language they speak, representing what the passage from the Bible meant. And I’ll never forget what we used to say in Portuguese. (Once we said: “We’re tired of eating big potatoes!”). I’ll never forget the times we cried and laughed when we talked to each other! We became really good friends! At camp, we leaned on each other for support all the time.
After camp, we also traveled together and let me tell you something: All these places I’ve been to wouldn’t have been the same if she hadn’t been with me. We went to NYC together, we had a really good time with our best friend Chloé in Virginia. We also spent some days in Washington DC and Maryland. We really had a blast together! And we wouldn’t have had fun and learned so much from each other, if we hadn’t opened our minds to accepting the idea that we were going to be with each other, even if this wasn’t what we expected!
Living abroad is more than just practicing languages! If you’ve never lived abroad for more than a month, I’m sure you would like to go and you would like to get rid of any chance of meeting anybody from your own country there. But living abroad is more about making friends than practicing languages with the friends you make! The least important thing to worry about is the language you’re going to speak when you are in another country! There are several other factors to worry about rather than simply “improving your foreign language skills”. There’s a lot more adaptation than you may think. There’s a lot more learning than teaching. There’s a lot more investment in establishing a good relationship with people than simply seeking the native English speakers to talk to. Everything is a lot more important than improving your foreign language skills. The way you’re used to studying/practicing this foreign language in your country must remain in your own country when you go abroad! It’s a different time when you live abroad. It’s a different life. Everything is different! And the difference is, you will be living in another country, but you won’t be speaking your native language. That’s why you have to think of how you should live and not how you should speak.
Many Brazilians wouldn’t like to live with other Brazilians in the US because they think if they meet any Brazilian abroad, they won’t improve their language skills. But, actually, they find out that they do not only need to improve their foreign language skills but their life in general.
If you’re planning on going abroad, don’t make this stupid mistake of focusing only on improving your language skills, otherwise, you will have so many problems. You might come back to your native country speaking another language fluently, but with no good memories and friendships. Improving your language skills is more related to thousands of other factors, such as how long you’re living abroad for, or, the kind of environment you’re involved with. Not only in “being in another country”. Being in another country does not help you speak another language. Doing something in another country is what might help you learn/improve the foreign language you’re learning. So, think more about the relationship and friendship, regardless of the nationality! And when I said regardless of the nationality, I was saying it’s okay to be friends with people from your own country when you are living abroad.
Always focus on making friends, being the best person you could possibly be. Focus on learning from anybody. Don’t be a selective person. Those kinds of people who only learn and accept things from the ones they select. People who are like that, normally cause so many problems and have a huge chance of being unlikable.
And if you’re from Brazil and you have this same prejudice that I used to have before going abroad, don’t forget what I said before: “Getting adapted to a new culture, making friends and just seizing the moment, is a lot more important than simply practicing/improving English”. I have awesome memories with Karol and, better than that, I have her friendship. She’s somebody I can count on.
And, if anybody ever asks me today if I met and made friends with any Brazilian in the United States, my answer will be a very happy and proud YES! Because I met an amazing person, thanks to my open-mindedness. Thank you, Karol, for being such a nice friend to me in the US.
As I close, I couldn’t forget to show you this video of me looking for Karol in Washington DC. I went there to pick her up, but I ended up losing her of sight. This video is funny and you will get to know a little bit more about Karol and me, these two crazy Brazilians living in the United States during the summer!
Always remember to have fun!
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