We spoke to Joaquim de Assis, a 48-year-old farmer living in a town close to Rio De Janeiro in Brazil. Joaquim was fortunate to have had a good education unlike many of his farming peers, although he didn't get the opportunity to study English while at school. He studied agriculture at university and during his foundation year he took a basic English course. Since then, he has enrolled on a number of refresher courses at his local community centre. This is what he had to say about his use of English.
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"My name is Joaquim de Assis and I live in a small town near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I own a large farm which produces corn for ethanol, so you might not think that a farmer like me needs to learn English. But you would be wrong! Because I sell about half of my corn to Europe and America, every week I have to drive down to Rio to meet foreign clients. Since I am the only farmer in my community who speaks any English at all, I also do a lot of negotiating with clients for local farmers who only speak Portuguese. In all honesty, when I started speaking to foreign clients, my English was quite poor since I'd never had a chance to communicate with native speakers. All my English was from the classroom. It was very scary and I made so many mistakes. I had to ask “Excuse me” so many times, I know some overseas clients got annoyed with me. But I was patient and most of the people I worked with were patient, too. Every time I had a meeting with British clients in particular, I was so nervous. They look so serious sometimes! Years ago, I got into the habit of writing down about 100 words and phrases before every meeting: any word that was related to corn, farming, ethanol, shipping, or exports. I wrote them all down so I wouldn't forget! In every meeting for years I had a notebook with all the words written in English and little explanations in Portuguese to help me remember. And it did help! One day I realized that I hadn’t opened the notebook in months and I had stopped asking clients to repeat themselves because I understood them! Of course, my English isn’t perfect. I sometimes socialize with clients after our meetings and that is still not always easy but it seems to get easier after a couple of beers! There are so many words and some slang that I am still not familiar with. But I am learning. And if I don't know the meaning, I try to guess it. Or I ask! And though I am nearly fifty now, I feel young because every week is like a new English lesson for me!" |