As a Brazilian photographer based in London, I have met many Brazilian parents who resents the fact their children don’t want to speak Portuguese when they reach a certain age. We shouldn’t blame the little ones, though. They are surrounded by English-speaking friends, and it’s only natural they feel more at ease expressing themselves in English, which is the dominant spoken language in the country they are currently living.
The best way to encourage them to speak their heritage language is to make sure they are exposed to it in a relaxed playful way. If they get to hang out with other bilingual kids and adults in an engaging environment (or even trilingual as it frequently happens in multicultural London!), they will be more willing to speak up !
That’s why I loved and had great fun documenting the Festa Junina at the Brazilian Language Club in North London (Clube dos Brasileirinhos). Firstly, it was great to listen to the beautiful Brazilian traditional music band Giramundos (forró) – I know we can all relate to the amazing nostalgia of listening to songs that remind our most cheerful memories. But it was even more rewarding to watch first-hand Clube dos Brasileirinhos’ beautiful work enabling children to learn Brazilian Portuguese through play and through Brazilian culture.
As you can hopefully see in the video below, kids and their family loved it as much as I did!
As an end note, I’d like to share a few words that Alice Soares, Clube dos Brasileirinhos’ supervisor, said about the video I was so happy to make:
Paula produced a beautiful video slide of our school’s summer fair. The result was simply breath-taking. We were both enchanted and delighted as she managed to capture the essence of our party and the overall spirit of our school and all its wonderful characters so beautifully.
Her sensitivity and eye for detail, recording our kids shone through and we will be eternally grateful to have such a vivid and incredible memory of a wonderful day.
Thank you, thank you!
