I would get this question a lot every time I told someone I was a Spanish major but that my mother country is Brazil. At first, I did not know the answer to that question myself. 

Here’s a little back story about myself that I believe is essential to my journey at UMass. I was born in the metropolitan city of São Paulo, Brazil, and is where most my family currently lives. When I was five years old, my dad got offered a job as the manager for a company plant, however, this would be a long-term position in China. Yes, China! My mom sacrificed her musical career in Brazil because she knew living in China would ultimately bring us to the U.S. at some point in the future, which would give me a better education than in Brazil (she’s my ultimate role model). So we packed our bags and moved across the world to a country I had zero connection to. Little did I know that I would be spending 11 years of my life abroad. While living China, I attended a British international school and this is where I learned fluent English and (not-so-fluent) Mandarin. As I got older, I was given the opportunity to learn Spanish, which I quickly picked up and loved to learn. Because my school was so small, they did not offer Portuguese classes, so my parents decided to speak to me in Portuguese at home so that I would not lose my mother tongue. And I am so grateful that they did because now I speak 4 of the most spoken languages in the world, which means I can converse with 4 different groups of people around the world. When I got to high school, I decided to drop Chinese and focus on Spanish instead. This is one of my major regrets in life because now that I’m in college I do not have time to take it up again and I wish that I could speak more than just the basics of conversational Mandarin. I have met so many Chinese speakers here at UMass that I hear Chinese being spoken all around me: in the dining halls, in the library, in the dorms, and it makes me long for the beautiful language and culture I once knew so well. I have learned from my unwise decision, which is why I am so determined to continue Spanish and to become fluent in it.  Continue reading →