Is it better not to speak Portuguese?

Recently I was reading the blog of an expat and they were summing up the good and bad points of living away from their home country and then also looking at what it felt like to return. One point that particularly interested me was the returning to a country where everyone speaks your language isn’t always that great. Sure we all get a little tired of the language barriers when we’re ‘away’, but when you go ‘home’, you have to get used to understanding everything that everyone says.

Yes. Yes I am still complaining. And so is everyone else apparently.

It got me thinking about the possibility that maybe the reason I think everyone here in Rio is so chirpy and cheery is that I can’t understand them when they’re bitching away about whatever happens to be pissing them off at the moment.

In England: On top of the overcrowding, extortionate prices and inefficiency of public transport back in England, one of the things I found most annoying was having to listen to some stranger complaining loudly about how their boss is a shit or how fed up they were with their boyfriend/their life/the world. 


Back in Brazil: “Ahhh”, I would sigh to myself as my morning bus hurtled through the streets of Rio, “everyone here is so happy and content with their lot.” 


And yet the more Portuguese I learn, the more I realise that people here complain quite a bit too! Perhaps they’re not quite so optimistic after all? And it makes me smile to hear people complaining about the exact same things. Public transport, high prices, crime, the degradation of society, etc. How everything used to be so much better.

Really?

I was reading an article on the Globo newsite recently – it was saying the Rio is now the second most expensive city for expats in the Americas (north and south). The comments section was fully of people saying that everything in Rio was terrible and that no one else in the world would put up with all the problems.


With all this negative talk, I got to think how it is actually quite nice that I can filter it all out. In fact I don’t have to try to filter anything, I have to actively listen and concentrate to understand what people are saying. But at some point my Portuguese will improve to the point where I can’t help but understand (to be fair, it’s a fairly distant prospect, but y’know, it will happen one day right?).


It reminded me of a phenomenon I heard about some time back. When an adult who has been blind from birth is given sight (through some new operation or whatever), they are often very disappointed with the results. Because before they could see, the world in their mind was beautiful; they had no notion of rubbish, of dirty buildings, of messed up people living on the streets – of the ugly things in life. Apparently this can lead to quite serious depression.

Miserable sods!

Of course I’m not really suggesting that it would be better not to understand Portuguese. I know my life would be immeasurably improved and enriched by being able to communicate with everyone in a free and easy manner. But I will be interested to see whether my view of Brazilians as being a generally happy people changes over the years as my Portuguese improves. 

Has this been an issue for my more linguistically talented readers? Or do you think I should simply stop paying attention to the people who comment on Globo articles?