Listening 26 – Listen for specific words

I studied abroad during my junior year in college, I a semester in Brazil. And part of the program was a homestay – living with a local host family. My host family was a mother, a daughter who was about 12 years old at the time, and a . And they also had a little white dog.

I remember a bit of culture shock when I first met my host family, because my host mother me on my legs and asked if my mother also had big, beautiful legs like mine. I was a bit taken aback, because in the States people probably wouldn’t comment so on part of someone’s body right upon meeting them – but I took it in stride – I thanked her for the compliment and said that yes, my mother also has a physique.

One of the things that the study abroad program told us to do beforehand was to bring a gift for our host families, something representative of the where we lived. And so I brought a jug of maple syrup, which is typical of the United States. The only problem was that – when I gave it to them, they were very , but then they asked me how exactly the syrup was used.

And I wasn’t able to explain it to them, because in the U.S. we usually use maple syrup as a topping on pancakes, waffles, or French toast, none of which are common foods in Brazil – nor did I know the words for them in Portuguese. I think I ended up saying that the syrup is very , and you could eat it with bread or cake. Later I found out that my host grandmother was actually the maple syrup into her milk to sweeten it, which is quite a way to use it! I got a kick out of that.

There was another kind of funny moment when they me some cookies from a jar in the kitchen. Now, I had never seen anyone from my host family these cookies, but I had seen them give these cookies to the dog. So I wasn’t sure if they were regular cookies that the dog happened to like, or if the family was trying to a little prank on me, you know, get the gullible American girl to eat a dog biscuit. But I didn’t want to be and so I accepted, and luckily my fears were unfounded – it was just a cookie.

Some of the students in my program had real problematic with their host families, but I didn’t have any major problems. The closest we came to a conflict was when a bunch of us students were to go see a soccer game in the local stadium, and this was something I really wanted to do.

But my host mother wouldn’t let me go because she said it was too dangerous – that there were a lot of in the stadium and it wasn’t a good place for a woman to be. And I remember thinking this was a bit sexist and that she was being overprotective, and I a little bit, but she was pretty adamant that I shouldn’t go. So I out on the game – but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a big deal.

My host family definitely helped me a lot in of learning Portuguese. I had already studied it on my own before the program, so I knew the basics, but they were very in speaking in a way that I could understand, and explaining new words and expressions that I wasn’t familiar with. I’m very grateful that they me into their home for a semester, and although we’ve lost , I have fond memories of my host family.