Neither Here Nor There

It happens every time. Invariably. Portuguese and Spanish are so similar that it always takes me a while to switch from one to the other when I travel to a Spanish-speaking country. For several days upon arrival, I graciously accept light-hearted jibes from friends, and locals asking me if I am Brazilian. There are two issues at play -- the first being the actual words themselves, which are close, but not always the same as the Portuguese words [same same but different, as vendors in Vietnam used to call out to us]; and then there is the question of the accent, so that even when the word is the same, the pronunciation between the Spanish and the Portuguese is completely different.

Most recent was my trip to Chile, which was five days long. By the end, I think that I was speaking mostly Spanish, although the Portuguese accent was hard to kick and then there were those pesky few Portuguese words which keep sneaking their way in. I've been back for almost two weeks now, and yet, the Spanish seems to be here to stay. Several times a day I find myself shaking my head wondering why I am still speaking Spanish fourteen days back into my main language of operation, when I never fully managed to switch to Spanish when I was there. The brain is a wonderfully strange phenomenon!