My name is Frederico, I'm Brazilian, I'm Paulista [from São Paulo].
And... I was born in São Paulo, I was raised in São Paulo,
I learnt Portuguese at an early age, along with English.
I learnt both at the same time
and developed different relationships within each of the languages, with different people,
given the context... the contexts.
Now I live in New York, and therefore speak English more frequently,
however my family remains in São Paulo, and my contact with them is in Portuguese.
My friends also remained. I speak with them in Portuguese,
and at least once a year I meet them.
And then it's all Portuguese as well.
But I think it's important to say hat the language itself has a...
meaning to me that is different to English, right,
which is what I use most today.
I recall my roots,
I have a clearer awareness of what my culture is,
of what composes my identity.
here are aspects that are not... that are Brazilian,
that are culturally specific, such as the food and go as far as...
the human contact, which is also different, and unique in the world.
Every place has its identity, Brazil has theirs, ours.
And I think that this is very valuable.
At the same time, since I speak English more frequently,
since I seldom speak Portuguese also,
my use ends up suffering. My fluency ends up suffering a little.
I've been here for 3 years now, and I use Portuguese at least 3 times a week,
for short periods, that is, speaking only with my family.
And therefore, I can't... it's complicated to maintain a strong level.
At the same time, when I go back, spending one or two weeks in São Paulo,
or traveling through Brazil, it's very quick to re-acquire the vocabulary,
the accent, the logic. The logic is an aspect that is different
based on the language that's spoken.
I think this is the most important aspect of my language for me,
of my languages.
And other people who speak two languages end up mixing the two frequently,
but given the fact that my use of Portuguese in São Paulo is exclusively...
with non bilingual people, when I speak Portuguese, I speak only in Portuguese,
when I speak in English, I speak only in English. It's very difficult to mix them.
At the same time, there are many other people who...
are bilingual and who mix very frequently.
Not me.
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