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Eduardo: right, I’m going to talk about something that happened outside university, can I? I travelled with my friends to Minas Gerais and to Rio de Janeiro, they had family house and I quite felt/ felt, you know, the accent difference… of the region, I found it very interesting, a::nd when I visited Paraty in Rio de Janeiro, you know, I visited my friend who had done an exchange at my university a::nd people said I was speaking
Researcher: [Brazilian friend
E: Brazilian friend, people said that, like, before this exchange, I was speaking in a different way, that there was no influence of paulistano accent, I arrived THEre at the bus station (inaudible) “Hi, how are you?” like, “Quite some time [that we’ve seen each other]”, I said something ((laughs)) that had an R, you know, “wow, Eduardo”, then he started teasing me, “e aí, ma::no, meu, tudo bem, magina” ((mocks paulistano accent and we laugh)), but, yes, like, I was/ was going out with his friends, you know, like, then they started criticizing my accent influenced by paulistano ((laughs in an uncomfortable way)), but I think it’s kinda interesting, when I was, like, in Minas Gerais, you know, they spoke very fast, because they tend to shorten the ending of words… I guess it’s a very remarkable experience, that I would never be able to live if I were in Japan
R: and what is the sensation… of speaking such a local Portuguese, it is/ of a Brazilian identifying in you a feature of a so local Portuguese, is there a sensation of belonging or not?
E: it is/ usually people find my speaking very weird, hum, “where are you from?”, “I am from Japa:n”, “hi, are you from Japan? why are you here? why are you speaking Portuguese?”, oh, so many things
(...)
E: so, I imagine that, being here in São Paulo, you know, I am speaking with Japanese accent, because for you all, you hear (inaudible) a foreigner (inaudible) ((we laugh)) but when I visited Minas Gerais/ both in Minas and in Rio de Janeiro, like, people didn’t notice I am Japanese, like… “oh, you’re speaking with a different accent”, like that, you kno::w, “where did you grow up?”, “I’m studying at ((says the university name))”, “ah, ri:ght, your accent is influenced by paulistanos”, ((we laugh)), “no, I am from Japan”, “O:::h, you are from Japan, but you were born here and so on and so on, right?”, “NO::” ((laughs)) “I am on an exchange”, always this confusion
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Researcher: is there anything else that you consider important? a module, for example, it could be something shorter, like a pronunciation workshop
Alice: ah! pronunciation is very good!
R: ((laughs)) your pronunciation is great! ((both laugh)) you DON’T need it ((laughs))
A: this is true… but Asians have accents, you know, so, in fact, I didn’t know I have a Korean accent ((laughs))
R: I guess you almost don’t have an accent
A: there are so::::me people that “ah, you have an accent, don’t you?”... I went to a party and I met a very drunk girl ((laughs)) in the bathroom… her friend said “a:::h can you hold her for now?”, so I tried talking to her, “ah, hi, how’s it going?”, “you good? you alright?”, but she said, “AH! you have an ACCENT! where are you from?” ((laughs)) goodness ((both laugh)) goodness!
R: [goodness... I think that
I barely hear any accent from you ((both laugh)) so perhaps if I didn’t know you’re Korean ((Alice laughs)), I’d think “ah, she’s Brazilian” ((Alice laughs)) everybody has an accent, you know so do I, but there are Brazilian accents (Alice laughs)) and
A: [yeah
R: accents from people who are not Brazilian
A: but among Asians also say: “AH! You have Japanese accent, you have Chinese accent”, Chinese can’t speak/ differ between R or (inaudible)
(...)
A: so, I guess I don’t know because it’s ME, I am speaking, so…but maybe I have a Korean accent ((both laugh)) an exception, I want to improve
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Eduardo: the worst thing, but/ dunno, the worst thing is that I don’t realize, you know, if I make a mistake in the classroom because nobody corrects me, but in everyday conversation, as I get along very well with people, you know, like, they correct, you know, “you’re not doing it right”… yeah, but both are heavy, for example, you know, like, dunno… for me to improve I say that this correction from my friends worked a lot, I even asked them to make an impression of my pronunciation, “but how is it wrong? So do it like me”, and I understood ((laughs))
Researcher: so it/ then it hit you
E: I tried to pay attention to, like, the tongue movement (inaudible)
R: you used the word heavy, you said
E: [heavy?
R: yes, in both contexts it’s heavy…. to make this mistake, to produce a sound like this
(…)
E: (inaudible) it’s just that/ hu::m, when I am, like, corrected because of these mistakes, I kinda/ get shocked, you know? wow, it’s wrong, so it’s been a long time that I am speaking like that, right?, that they corrected/ so it was a shock, you know? wow, it’s really wrong… but/ so, in this case, it was a shock being corrected, spoken, like, “this is wrong”, right… but in the classroom nobody corrects me, but I’m wrong, I don’t realize it, but it’s heavy, that’s why I said, like, both cases are kinda heavy
R: and do you think it’s very serious, to mispronounce words?
E: yes, I do, I think it’s very serious (8) because it’s something that is never out there on the manuals, on the textbooks that I checked…kinda like “wow, I didn’t know about that because nobody taught”, right, but, like, my friends, like, started talking about this kind of/ like teasing, you know? “ah! It’s wrong, Eduardo, you are Japanese”, you know?
R: yes, this is something interesting, to be acknowledged as a Japanese because of a certain way of producing sounds in Portuguese
E: yes, it’s kinda shocking, isn’t it?
R: do you mind this situation? maybe this is heavy
E: yes, YES, also
R: all of this?
E: yeah, maybe, all of this is kinda heavy, you know? Because we never learned this (inaudible) putting yourself in Brazil, right, putting yourself in a situation in which people only speak Portuguese, ah, I thoug/ and people start teasing, you know, my pronunciation, it’s kinda heavy, you know
R: can I understand this heavy, one of these heavy that you mentioned, that “we never learned this, it’s not in the textbooks” as an injustice, is that it?
E: that’s it, shocking, so let’s say, sometimes they talk about these mistakes in a kind of derogatory way, you know, “it’s WRONG”, you know, with that prejudice that they have, Japanese can’t articulate R, J, I don’t know why, but they know about this ((laughs))
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Alice: oh, I think that meeting the other international students really helped me because they are also foreigners and they don’t speak very good Portuguese, so I thought that/ oh, everybody does mistakes, so… so I can speak more free with them
Table 1
Portuguese as an Additional language modules at University C
Symbols
Meaning
…
Short pause
it’s WRONG
emphasis
/
Self-correction or restart
(6)
Duration of the pause
((laughs))
Description of non-verbal activity
[
Overlapping speech
(inaudible)
Sound not understood during transcription