I’m going to make more of an effort to work on my spoken Portuguese, probably adopting some of the tips on this guy’s video, to work on my listening comprehension and my accent & rhythm of speech.
I occasionally tune in to what Internet polyglots are saying. Some of it is a bit wanky but sometimes they have really good ideas to give my routine a bit of a shake-up, and this video has lots of stealable material in it.
Important note to self: do it with portuguese though, not Swedish.
I’m still watching videos from the occasionally excellent improv music show, Canta-me Uma História.
One of the things they often say during the live shows is “Não Mandem Bocas”. It’s used in the theme song and in the host’s t-shirt. So what does it mean? Don’t send mouths? Eh?
A boca, in this context, is a criticism. Specifically, a low-effort, smartarse remark. It’s the eleventh definition on Priberam – “comentário provocatório ou crítico”. So basically, a heckle. The audience has access to a big screen at the back of the stage and they can use it for requests and messages, so it seems they have a rule not to spoil the vibe by shit-talking the performers while they’re half way through some parody number they’ve written.
I made what I thought was a good pun today and then I realise that it was a variation on one I’d already heard and now I feel like a fraud.
I don’t know how this song by Fábia Rebordão ended up on my playlist, but Spotify is convinced it’s something I should listen to. Good shout, Spotify, it’s pretty good. The theme is not wanting to listen to malicious gossip. It’s light and fluffy and fun to listen to.
| Portuguese | English |
|---|---|
| Não ouço essas conversas Isso é banal Por serem tão perversas Fazem-me mal | I don’t listen to those conversations That’s boring By being so perverse They make me ill |
| Falem agora Que eu estou por fora, e até já Não se incomodem, deixem lá Que eu já estou fora | Speak now I’m outside and for the time being Don’t bother, it doesn’t matter Because I’m outside |
| Conversas de café Não quero ter Falar de outros não é Só mau dizer | Conversations over coffee I don’t want to have To talk about others, it’s not Just nasty talk |
| Falem agora Que eu estou por fora, e até já Não se incomodem deixem lá Que eu já estou fora | Speak now I’m outside and for the time being Don’t bother, it doesn’t matter Because I’m outside |
| Quem diz que viu, quem mente Essas coisinhas Nas costas de outra gente Eu vejo as minhas | Whoever said they saw, whoever lied Those little things Behind other people’s backs I watch mine |
| Falem agora Que eu estou por fora, e até já Não se incomodem deixem lá Que eu já estou fora | Speak now I’m outside and for the time being Don’t bother, it doesn’t matter Because I’m outside |
| Um caso mal contado E outros que tais Desligo passo ao lado Leio jornais | A badly explained case And so on I switch off and step aside I read the newspapers |
| Falem agora Que eu estou por fora, e até já Não se incomodem deixem lá Que eu já estou fora | Speak now I’m outside and for the time being Don’t bother, it doesn’t matter Because I’m outside |
I’ve come across phrases like “Armar-se em valente” before, where “armar em” means put on a show. So armar-se em valente might be making a big show of what a heroic figure you are (shortly before being flattened) but I came across a slightly different version the other day: armar aos cucos. There are variations too: Armar aos cágados and Armar ao pingarelho. These all seem to mean more-or-less the same thing: to make yourself the centre of attention – for example by giving a huge tip (the example I saw at first) or by having an eye-catching look like in this make-up tutorial.
There are still a few tickets left and they’re pretty cheap if you’re in or around London and fancy a night of Fado on the 17th.
I’m hoping she’ll bring Pedro Abrunhosa with her but it seems like a bit of a long shot. You never know though. When we saw Mariza a few years ago she had a whole host of stars in her retinue.
This song is actually by Maximiano de Sousa (aka “Max”) but I don’t think there’s a video of him performing it so I went with this cover by Raul Solnado instead. Max is from Funchal, and he says his wife is from Ponta do Sol, a few miles up the south coast. Another nearby town – Camacha – is mentioned too.
As you can see – or maybe you can’t – Solnado is wearing a hat that I recognise as a Maderian style, and I think the clothes are specific to the island too. The set shows a traditional house and I’m pretty sure the musical instruments the guys at the back are using are Brinquinhos*. Solnado is a mainlander from Lisbon so this is definitely cultural appropriation and he would be cancelled if he did this today. Quite right too. Throw him in jail!
I am publishing this on the 3rd of February to commemorate the birthday of another island girl – my wife. Since my birthday is on the 6th of May, she is numerically an older woman for the next 3 months. Feliz Aniversário, velha linda!
| Portuguese | English |
|---|---|
| Casei c’uma velha Da ponta do sol Deitei-a na cama e o raio da velha rasgou-me o lençol Tornei-a a deitar Tornou a rasgar Perdi a cabeça e atirei co’a velha de perna p’ró ar | I married an old lady From Ponta do Sol I laid her in bed but that blasted old lady Tore my sheet** I laid her down again She ripped the sheets again I lost my head and threw the old lady and she landed upside down |
| A tua mãe foi às lapas O teu pai aos caranguejos Ficaste sozinha em casa, fui*** dar-te abraços e beijos Ó menina da Camacha Diz de mim o que quiseres Menos que não tenho jeito p’ra agasalhar as mulheres | Your mother went to the limpets Your dad to the crabs You stayed at home alone, I went to give you hugs and kisses Oh girl of Camacha Tell me what you want from me Unless I’m just don’t have the knack of taking care of women |
*More about traditional Madeiran instruments here if you’re interested.
**I had a little trouble following the action here: When he says “rasgou-me o lençol” did she actually make a hole in the sheets or just tear them away from him? I checked on r/portuguese just to be sure and it’s the former. And then how am I supposed to understand “atirei (com a) velha“? Is he throwing himself on her? No, apparently not. “Atirar com” isn’t in my handy guide to verbs with prepositions, but “atirar-se a” is, and that means to throw yourself at someone in an attack. No, my informant told me atirei com means that he just threw, shoved or otherwise propelled the old lady away. The “com” emphasises the force and “brusquidão” of the “sova” or “arremesso” he gave her (3 new items in the word hoard!), so she ended up “de pernas para o ar” – upside down. Probably not literally, but it wasn’t a graceful landing. Hmm… I think it’s one of those songs that’s really fun to listen to but just try not too hard to think about what it is he’s actually describing.
UPDATE – Well, i was joking about the violence and really imagining it as a kind of slapstick scene, but I am told I should consider it might be much more suggestive. That the legs in the air and the ripping of sheets and the warming up of the women could all be interpreted as taking about his sexual prowess, broadcast in an age when you couldn’t really say this sort of things directly. OK, well, that gives a whole new spin on things!
***Online lyrics say “foi” but I think that’s a typo because it doesn’t make any sense. Oh wait, it says fui in the subtitles doesn’t it! Oh well, glad to know I was right about that!
Everyone gets fifteen minutes of fame and I’ve just had three and a half of my minutes handed to me, courtesy of the “Say It In Portuguese” podcast, where I am the interlocutor in Episódio 147: Voltar à Carga. You can find it on the website or just search it on most podcast platforms. It’s definitely worth the subscription if you’re intermediate level or above because it explains a lot of useful portuguese expressions.
Voltar à carga is similar to an expression I tried to use about 3 weeks ago, “Get back on the horse”, except that where getting back on the horse usually has a sense of confronting something that you’ve failed at and not letting yourself be put off by a setback, voltar à carga is more like returning to action after a pause. So it’s more like “get back in the saddle“.
When I first started listening to the podcast I could barely understand half of it, but now I’ve actually been able to take part in a recording so it feels a bit like I’ve won a chance to be an extra in the new Star Wars film or something. My acting probably isn’t going to win me a starring role in an RTP radio drama, but that’s OK. My biggest stumbling block was the phrase “carga de trabalhos”. I struggle with the lh sound at the best of times, but coming straight after a string of crunchy consonants – rg-d-tr-b – it felt like a real tongue twister and I had to have a few goes before I got it right.
Anyway, have a listen and see what you think.
Porquinho Mealheiro – a money box in the shape of a piglet. A piggy bank in other words. In fact, mealheiro on its own seems to show piggy banks if you google it, but there are definitely some other shapes there. Here’s Fátima Lopes talking about Moneyboxes in her lifestyle website a couple of years ago and as you can see she’s gone with a porquinho motif even though she doesn’t mention the word.
I was mercilessly teased yesterday for using the character map instead of setting my computer up properly. Mutter mutter… this constant drive for self-improvement is exhausting. I already have portuguese language input but when I had a closer look, d’oh! It still had a UK Qwerty keyboard linked to it.
I have a mousemat that tells me how to use the number pad and the alt key (basically, what Rafa is talking about here) but it’s a faff, so I have been using character map instead, plus a lot of autocorrect.
Practice Portuguese and Liz Sharma – two formidable knowers of things… Hm, did I just treat Rui and Joel as one person? Three. Three knowers of things – recommend using a US International keyboard. I found my keyboard didn’t work quite the same way as described though, so just for an experiment, I decided to follow their instructions but install a portuguese keyboard. Here’s how you make accents using that:
| What is it? | How do you get it? |
|---|---|
| ãõ | ~ followed by a or o |
| ÃÕ | (caps lock) ~ followed by a or o |
| ÂÊÎÔÛ | (SHIFT)~ followed by A,E,I,O,U |
| âêîôû | (caps lock)(SHIFT)~ followed by A,E,I,O,U |
| áéíóé | ] followed by A,E,I,O,U |
| ÁÉÍÓÚ | (caps lock) ] followed by A,E,I,O,U |
| àèìòù | (SHIFT) ] followed by A,E,I,O,U |
| ÀÈÌÒÙ | (caps lock)(SHIFT) ] followed by A,E,I,O,U |
| ç | Just the ; key – easy! |
| 1º, 2ª | Just the ‘ key ((SHIFT) for feminine) |
The trouble with this is that it boogyrs up all the punctuation keys tooç see what I mean_ )that was supposed to be a question mark!= And those were supposed to be brackets! Hm, maybe that US International keyboard isnºt such a bad idea… To get question marks and the other things you might want, you need to follow this map. I’m going to try it for a few days and see how I get on.
Luso 