As I mentioned in my last post (which describes our language journey as a third-culture family), my daughter is currently most comfortable speaking in Portuguese. This hasn't always been the case but now, at three and three months, Portuguese is her default language and if she finds it difficult to express herself in English she'll … Continue reading Bilingual children and language development – Over-generalisation of specific rules
Category: Brazil
Our language journey as a third-culture family
I've written previously about how language fascinates me and how amazing I find it to witness my daughter acquire two languages as she grows up. You can read about that here. She's now three and three months. I'll give a bit of background about our language journey as a third-culture family. [I'm using the term … Continue reading Our language journey as a third-culture family
Memorable haircuts from Bristol to Brazil
Studying 'Educating Rita' in Year 8 has had enduring consequences. Patina and frisson were both new words for me, but I think what has most stuck with me is Rita's comment about how every woman who comes to her for a haircut leaves invariably disappointed that she is unable to transform them into Farrah Fawcett-Majors. … Continue reading Memorable haircuts from Bristol to Brazil
Daily rhythms of life and death
On her third birthday our little one gained and lost her first pet. We both gave and (unwittingly) took it from her. She used to ask to see the fish every time my husband took her to town with him so we decided to give her a fish for her birthday. But it was a … Continue reading Daily rhythms of life and death
Squirrels, toucans and confessions
Having once openly ridiculed a Brazilian friend who went nuts when she saw a squirrel in the Rio de Janeiro botanical gardens when I was still fresh off the boat and clinging jealously to a brief glimpse of a toucan as my only brush with tropical wildlife, I have a confession to make. I've harboured … Continue reading Squirrels, toucans and confessions
Advent – links, lists and lockscreens
If you're looking for some Advent and Christmas ideas, here are some of the resources I've mentioned in other posts along with some lockscreens I've made for my phone at the end. For an introduction to Advent, the conversation between Jonathan Rogers and Tsh Oxenreider (author of Shadow & Light: A Journey into Advent) on … Continue reading Advent – links, lists and lockscreens
Third culture Christmas
We are a Brazilian husband, a British wife and a Brazilian-British daughter currently living in Brazil. This year I'm trying to be intentional about choosing meaningful traditions for Advent and Christmas that will point us as a family to Christ. I've written more about the reason for this here. As a third culture family unit … Continue reading Third culture Christmas
Seeing nature writing in a new light
This week I had the pleasure of listening to the In Conservation With... series for the first time. These are conversations hosted by David Lindo (The Urban Birder) and the latest featured Melissa Harrison (writer and podcaster). At one point Melissa commented that although she wouldn't describe herself first and foremost as a nature writer, … Continue reading Seeing nature writing in a new light
Poems in Portuguese
I have only written and shared a few poems in Portuguese and I will include them here, with a rough English translation. My Brazilian bird poems are all written in Portuguese but their grammatical structure works a bit differently so I tend not to think about them as being written in the same way. Writing … Continue reading Poems in Portuguese
Writing in Portuguese
At the beginning of lockdown I was still more or less convinced that I would never write poetry again, and that the spoken word poems and songs were long gone, a passing and past phase never to be revisited. I had been grieving my loss of language for a while (more on that in another … Continue reading Writing in Portuguese
Brazil from the outside in 