To Tame a Language by Niara

To Tame a Language by Niara - April 2019 Scholarship Essay

Portuguese slid through one ear and out the other, not stopping in my brain for comprehension. It stumbled across my tongue tripping awkwardly from my lips and blurred on pages in front of me.
Not only was I separated from my home by the ocean between between Salvador, Brazil and Houston, Texas, but I was separated from Brazil by the language barrier that I was too intimidated to attack, approach or even acknowledge.
Portuguese evaded me, so at first, I stopped trying. My family helped me by not allowing me to hide from it. As they pushed me to explore Brazilian culture I grew to love it and realized some benefits of being able to interact with it.
My friends, multilingual, multicultural, international kids translated for me when I needed it, but they also taught me Portuguese idioms and expressions. My family pushed me, and my friends inspired me to want more, pushing me to see through the wall.
As I saw the benefits, I realized the greatest failure was not trying at all and seized the challenge. My mom helped me get started, offering me a quarter for every page of the Portuguese phrasebook I memorized. I began collecting quarters and the skeleton phrases of my Portuguese.
Next, I faced my fear of failure by failing repeatedly. I boldly spoke broken Portuguese, learning from my mistakes. When my family started teaching English classes in our ministry I volunteered to teach the youth, learning Portuguese as I taught English. We stumbled and improved together.
I even stopped shying away from the books I loved. Instead of waiting for the American version, I bought A Casa do Hades, neutralizing the foreign words with my dictionary and my friends, learning in the process.
After facing failure I relentlessly sought improvement. I began translating everything in my mind, to wrap my mind around the language and imitating the way other people spoke to wrap my mouth around it. My friends applauded me; my dad asked me to help him translate his messages; but I only realized my progress during a group fundraiser at school, when sweet words helped me sale brigadeiros like I’d once sold Girl Scout cookies, shocking the others.
“When did Niara learn Portuguese?”
“She sounds Brazilian!”
Although that’s when I realized my progress, it wasn’t when I overcame the barrier. I’d overcome it when I faced it and charged it head on, disregarding fear and failure. On the other side of that barrier I found important parts of myself. Learning another language, I learned another way to think about things, I rose above my perceived limitations and reached new levels of my capabilities.
Upon returning, I picked up Vietnamese, Chinese, and learned Spanish like a native, to connect with and serve different communities-from helping the international kids at school to translating for HPD. I’d gained one of my greatest skills and unlocked my iron resolve. I’m still stubbornly persistent, undeterred by failure, fighting for the prize on the other side of whatever wall’s in my way.