Katie Perry

Katie Perry began learning Portuguese about five years ago, spending about six months prepping for a mission. She served in Brazil for 16 ½ months. While she initially felt motivated by a desire to impress others with her grasp of the language, Katie eventually fell in love with learning Portuguese. She values the ability to communicate with and understand people in another part of the world, calling it a "beautiful language".

On her mission, Katie committed to diligent and immersive study. She spent about an hour every morning writing sentences and studying Portuguese grammar. She only spoke Portuguese with her companions, saving English for phone calls with her family. It helped that most of her companions were native Portuguese speakers.

Since returning, Katie maintains progress through consistency. She keeps in contact with people from her mission, reads the Book of Mormon in Portuguese, writes notes in Portuguese, and has her phone and computer set to Portuguese. Katie has worked at the MTC and used her connections to native speakers to get feedback on improving her accent.

Early on, she was afraid of making mistakes, but once she embraced a humbler attitude and started actively asking for feedback from companions, professors, and advanced learners she took more risks. She considers the feedback as sometimes "way more important" than things learned independently.

Consistency has been the biggest factor contributing to her success—doing a little bit every day over a long time is more effective than intense, infrequent study. She also stresses the importance of embracing discomfort, as growth often happens in moments when one feels pushed or challenged by the language. Additionally, establishing a solid foundation in grammar early on made later vocabulary and accent improvements easier.

For the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), Katie did not stress much over studying, relying on her years of consistent preparation. However, she did examine the recommended study materials available on our website.

Her advice for preparing for the OPI includes:

1. Know the progression of the test; the interviewer will ask increasingly complex questions, so test-takers should not get stressed when they are pushed. 
2. Prepare to discuss complex topics such as career goals and world affairs, rather than just basic conversation points. 
3. Stay calm because nervousness can negatively affect speaking performance.