English Bites!

"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!"