Learning another language is not always gratifying. The end result may be, but the process is long and often embarrassing. Unlike registering for a course, I chose to move to Brazil—to live with a family native of Bahia—and let the language surround me.
Arrival: Listening Before Speaking
The first days feel like being a child again—hearing sounds that make sense only in fragments, watching faces for clues, and smiling when words fail. Every moment demands humility. The rhythm of Bahia, much like the one in my home city, Cali, Colombia, has a provocative melody as if inviting me to dance to it. I remind myself that silence is also a form of learning, that listening is the first act of understanding.
Struggle: When Words Don’t Come
There are moments of deep frustration—when I want to say something kind or profound, but only manage a few broken syllables. Yet, in those pauses, I discover grace. People wait, they help me finish my thoughts, and I realize that communication is more than vocabulary. It is connection. My mistakes are met not with judgment but with laughter that strengthens friendship.
Hope: Transformation Through Community
I am documenting these fifteen days as an experiment in faith and learning—trusting that immersion works not only on the mind but also on the soul. Neuroscience says that our brains adapt through presence and repetition; I believe God uses community in the same way. Here, among people who open their homes and hearts, language becomes more than words—it becomes communion. And validates my conviction that learning transforms us when we let life itself teach us.
Learning as a Spiritual Practice
These days in Bahia remind me that autodidaxy is not only an intellectual exercise but a posture of the heart. To take learning in one’s own hands is to surrender control—trusting that God shapes understanding through lived experience as much as through study. When we step into unfamiliar places, we become apprentices again: dependent, teachable, open—and yes, very vulnerable as well. In that dependence, learning ceases to be about developing one more expertise and instead becomes a quiet act of worship.
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