Conquering the Language Barrier

Mapusa, Goa

For many of us, college has been a smooth journey. Academic pressure, with submissions and assignments may test our patience. However, none of us may have faced any problems in college that J.B Bras, a former student from St. Xavier’s College, Goa faced.

J.B Bras chose Xavier’s, Goa to pursue his graduation. Having come to Goa from Angola, he was fluent in conversing in Portuguese. But sadly, the Portuguese language was no longer the means of communication, especially within the education system in the state.  

Remembering the fond days at Xavier’s, Bras says, “My experience at Xavier’s was exciting and tough at the same moment. It was tough because I didn’t know English at all. I couldn’t express myself”.

Many of us have had a memorable experience in our college, right from sharing ideas and thoughts to being a part of different events.

“A college is a place where you put forward your ideas freely, and I couldn’t do that. I’d go to class and I would be just clueless as to what was going on. Sometimes I would just pretend that I understood what they were saying, but I was really clueless”, he says.

However, this language barrier didn’t stop young and enthusiastic J.B from moving ahead.  With a dictionary in his hand, J.B would sit and translate the words that he would not understand during class. “It was crazy”, he recollects.

He later joined some English coaching classes for about two to three months. However, that wasn’t enough to learn the language from scratch. J.B later turned to cultural events, wherein he enrolled himself to be a part of many college competitions.

He expressed his willingness to sharpen his English language barrier by actively participating on different platforms. “this helped me to express myself in a way I couldn’t do in the classroom”, he reminisces.

These kinds of social platforms enabled Bras to overcome the language barrier he had initially . Moreover, he also was a part of the famous Vem Cantar, a Portuguese state level singing competition held every year in Goa, where he won laurels for his wonderful singing.

Click here to read how J.B Bras is current helping educate children in Angola.