This text is from a few days ago and includes some “expressões de realce” (emphatic expressions) from a video by Speak Portuguese Like a Native which I’ll include down at the bottom along with some notes based on the corrections (thanks Butt Roidholds) and some more blurb about the aftermath…
Estou a experimentar a técnica pomodoro para aumentar a minha produtividade. Há 3 dias que experimento mas ainda não sei se ou não funciona bem. Tenho uma* app que mede 25 minutos de trabalho, durante os quais** simula os sons duma biblioteca para alimentar a concentração. Depois, há cinco minutos de descanso (e sons de pássaros a cantar) assinalados por uma voz que diz “está na hora de relaxar”. A voz é robótica e ainda por cima tem um sotaque russo***. Um robô russo a exigir relaxamento ajuda lá a tranquilidade.
O gestor do projeto telefonou-me e perguntou ” sempre escreveste o relatório que prometeste?”
Respondo “*Não, cheguei* a escrever, porque estou escondido no armário para evitar o robô russo que me quer matar”.
* App é uma menina. Its short for aplicação
** We would normally treat the twenty five minutes as a single block of time so i wrote “o qual” but we need to think of the minutes as plural: 25 individual minutes during all of which we are working… Oh and by the way, I’ve used “mede” meaning “measures”. The corrector, Butt Roidholds, commented that this isn’t very idiomatic but that it was at least understandable. TBH, I think it sounds a bit weird in English too. Probably should have rephrased the whole thing but hi ho…
*** Really Russian? I’m not sure exactly where the text-to-speech engine’s accent is supposed to be from but to my ears, that was how it seemed. I wrote the original version of this a day or two before Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine. I had figured out that I could change the words so the voice would say “Sod this for a lark” at pause time and “Time to kick ass” five minutes later, so I was quite enjoying it, but since the invasion I haven’t been in the mood to listen to anything with even a vaguely Russian accent. It was just annoying the shit out of me, so I uninstalled it.
Luso 