Photo credit: Appreciate/ Adobe Stock The picture says, “a diamond is a piece of coal that did well under pressure.”
Right now, I am supposed to be at post. Due to the pandemic, I am still the United States. When the Coronavirus made its way to the East Coast, I was still in language training. I am still taking language classes.
Since I passed my language exam, I was put in maintenance classes to maintain my Portuguese level until I get to post.
In my opinion, maintenance classes are a bit more laid back than regular language training because we don’t have a final exam to think about. For more information, about what language training was like pre-Co-vid 19, click here.
However, I feel so blessed to be in these classes because I can continue to improve my Portuguese skills. Right now, I’m working through more complex grammar structures and I can speak longer.
Each day, I have three hours of class, with five other colleagues, via the computer. After lunch, I self-study. I have two teachers, and they do their best to keep the class interesting. We are learning more expressions and day to day vocabulary. When I was in official training, I learned how to speak about more complex issues like politics and the environment.
We still have homework. For homework, I watch movies, create presentations related to Brazil, study grammar, etc. Right now, we’re reading the Alchemist in Portuguese.
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