I tried to be brief in the last
article that I planned to write about Novo Mesto, but while I was
writing, the language topic just touched me strongly that I felt like to
share this tiny piece of me. I could remember how impatient were some people
with me while I was learning English, because sometimes I couldn't express
myself that well and I feel a enormous frustration to be someone that couldn't
express myself with others. I felt it as well in the process of learning French
and Spanish and in these languages until now there are some levels of
conversations that I can't follow well.
One year after
leaving the USA, a girl from Hungary that I met use to laugh at me and complain
that sometimes we weren't understanding each other. Her English level was
really good, but mine didn't help that much the perfect understanding.
I could learn a lot
with these frustrations and now be stronger for critics than before. I don't
feel down with my Spanish and French deficiency as I felt with English in the
beginning. None of them are my first languages. As you saw in the last article
I shouldn't be able to write this post now.
My life just
started to change in ending of 2012. Once my ex girlfriend told me about a
scholarship do study my degree abroad for one year, program that the government
was offering to higher education students. At this time I was able to speak
just Portuguese and for all of options, Portugal was the only one that I would
be able to follow classes in the local language.
Done, I applied for
it just for fun, I didn't have any plan to get a scholarship to study abroad
and I was sure that the concurrence would be high and once I didn't have good
grades in my study courses and in a future selection I though that I wouldn't
be the chosen candidate. The most pessimist guy that didn't even submitted the
application. In fact it was something without so many importance for me that I
just filled partially the form and I still needed to add other information, I
just left it as draft and at the ending I forgot to submit the application.
Unexpectedly one
month later I received an email from the government saying that I was accepted
in this scholarship program. The problem was that so many people applied to
Portugal as well, because like me they couldn't speak any other language. From
the all 12 thousand students that were accepted almost 10 thousand applied to
Portugal. It's a huge number. Just 2 thousand of them probably could speak
another language.
This problem was
actually a key to identify an educational problem that exists in Brazil and our
government, that most of the times make us to feel the shame to be Brazilians,
just found a quick found a solution to fix this problem in small scale. They
just had the idea to provide half year of language course to all of these
students. The idea was great in my point of view. For short-term solution it
would be the only way that people in which experienced a poor language education
could learn a language in half year living in a foreign country and afterwards
they would have the chance to spend more on year in this country studying their
degree abroad.
Most of these
students would never have the chance to do it by themselves. I'm part of this
big number of people. Part of the society that their parents works more than
40h per week to earn enough money to pay their basic expenses and spend
the save money to spend in leisure (oh carnival!), trips or save it for a
future investment, but rarely they would be able to put their soon to study
abroad. For me it would be impossible, my scholarship costs was $75 thousand
dollars. With our weak currency now it's about R$300 thousand
Reais. If both of your parents earns 2 current minimum wages and they
would save half of the money every month (impossible in Brazil), they would
need to work 12 years and 6 months to provide you one year and half of studies
in the USA. This is an extreme project of life. In the normal lines, the
maximum that your family could save with sacrifices would be maybe 20% of their
earns. In a figured situation ignoring the currency chances, they would need to
plan your trip 31 years before.
It's a little bit
insane, but it's the truth that million of Brazilians faces everyday, our
unfair system managed for corrupted politicians that uses the money paid by
poorer people by taxes and fees to put in their own pocket and making the rich
people be even richer using their companies to create a complex mechanism of
corruption.
Then the ones that
paid their taxes and fees are never going to see this money being invested in
their life, as it should be.
Almost 30% of the
money in Brazil is in the pocket of 1% of the population. Around 10% of the
population has 55% of the money circulating in the country. Dude, it means that
45% of this amount is distributed unequally in the 90% of the population.
I'm part of this
group of people that is being raped everyday by the Government. What I want say
is that this program from the Government this time changed my life strongly.
From a daft application made by joke, I would have the chance to choose one of
these 16 countries to study half year of language course and one year in the
University. I'm really grateful for it, this government that I never voted or
support in fact made so many great programs that gave to people like me to have
the chance to go further than we expected in our life. In fact 100 thousand
people had this opportunity until 2015. I'm sure that it changed in different
ways the life of each one of these guys that most of the times were having the
first experience to live abroad.
It changed my life,
but the same government was involved in the biggest scheme of corruption of the
Brazilian story. The carwash investigation estimate that 10 billion euros were
diverted from the public safes and the party of this current Government had stole
half of this amount that was used to elect the last president campaign in 2014.
Our ex president from the same party recently was convicted to spend 12 years
in the prison for accepting an apartment that costed $600 thousand dollars in a
exchanging of $25 million dollars of public contracts to a constructor, this
rich guy that is going to get richer with our money. That's how rich get richer
and poor get poorer.
I was help by the
system, as many people were, but think about how many things this government
could have done if they wouldn't have stole $5 billion dollars. This amount of
many could be used for the public security, education, heath care,
infrastructure and other many things. It's the annual costs of 28 thousand
public schools. It would be 15% of the public schools that we have in Brazil.
It could even to allow 66 thousand other people to have the same experience as
I had. My call was in 2013.2, unfortunately the last one was on year later for
under graduation.
Thanks for the
government in changing my life, but I was just one lucky guy in crowd of people
that are being stole everyday in this system that most of them didn't have the
same chance as I had.
Why am I fluent in
English now? Purely luck.
References:
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/01/24/future-for-brazils-lula-hangs-on-apartment-in-decaying-city.html
http://www.cienciasemfronteiras.gov.br/web/csf/home
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ci%C3%AAncia_sem_Fronteiras
https://veja.abril.com.br/blog/impavido-colosso/5-coisas-que-poderiam-ser-feitas-com-os-21-bilhoes-desviados-da-petrobras/
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera%C3%A7%C3%A3o_Lava_Jato
http://correiocidadania.com.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8625:submanchete170713&catid=72:imagens-rolantes
https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2017/12/13/internacional/1513193348_895757.html
https://chermontlopolis.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/o-custo-da-escola-publica/
http://especiais.g1.globo.com/educacao/2015/censo-escolar-2014/o-raio-x-das-escolas-do-pais.html
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