I mentioned in yesterday’s post, my favourite “hack” for conversarion: tell them you’re Danish. If, like. Me, you’re pale and un-iberian-looking, you obviously can’t pass yourself off as a local, but you don’t want people to clock you’re an English speaker because then they’ll be unhelpfully helpful. So pretend to be Danish because nobody speaks Danish. Then you can swear you have no knowledge of other languages and they’ll just have to talk to you in Portuguese. Or run away. I definitely recommend having this trick up your sleeve for an emergency.
Anyway, when we were in France, my daughter, who is learning French at A-level, used the same trick and told them she was “danoise”. I was really proud of her putting herself out there and talking to people. She did really well.
Luso 