Brazilian Expressions: NA MARRA

Today, we’re going to take a look at the expression "na marra" (pronounced “na MA-huh”)—not exactly slang, but more of an idiom that’s pretty universally used.

Let’s say you meet a Brazilian in your city who speaks amazing English. Curious as to how they got so good, you ask them “Como você aprendeu inglês?” (How did you learn English?)

So they tell you “Eu aprendi na marra!” (I learned it “na marra”!)

Another example…

Imagine a kid heading off to college and having to cook for the first time in their life—you could say that they learned to cook “na marra”.

When someone says that they learned something “na marra”, it often implies that they were thrown into an immersion situation and had to learn it quickly out of necessity—not by choice.

Basically sink or swim.

In English, we might say that they had to learn it “the hard way”.

If you go to a country without knowing a lick of the language and gradually pick it up just through talking to people on the streets, at work, watching TV shows, etc.—you learned it “na marra”.

In the video below, the lady describes her experience of moving to London while barely knowing any English: “Eu aprendi inglês na marra—na rua, no trabalho” = “I learned English the hard way—on the streets, at work”.

Hopefully you learn as much Portuguese as possible before going to Brazil so you don’t have to learn it “na marra”! 🙂

Till next time,

Andrew