Category: English

Posted in English

Manuel Cardoso Brings His Comedy Show to London

Posted on by Colin Lusk

This event, happening in London next week, looks like it could be fun. The guy is a comedian who does sketches, and he’s put together a show about bad behaviour (“red flags”) which he’s touring around 10 cities including London.

I assume he’s still going to be speaking portuguese in the London gig… It’s a bit confusing though because he’s given it a title in english and there are no warnings to say it’s in portuguese, so aren’t there likely to be punters who just see it in the What’s On pages, fancy a night out and just buy a ticket on the off-chance? The fact that there are no warnings make me wonder if he’s doing an english version. On the other hand, the online ticket purchase is all in portuguese, so… assuming that’s the only way to get one, hopefully that will keep the riff-raff out and it’ll be safe to do the portuguese show for teh portuguese crowd. Anyway, I’m crossing my fingers. It’s on the day before the exam so I am counting on it being equal parts funny and challenging!

I’ve seen quite a few of his videos and he’s very good, but comedy is always tricky since there tends to be a lot of slang, fast talking and references to events that maybe don’t make sense to outsiders. An hour and a half of that might be pretty challenging if I lose the thread of what he’s talking about! Anyway, I’ll listen to a few more of his videos and try to get really familiar with his accent and the kinds of things he talks about.

You can book tickets on this page (which,just to thicken the plot even further, has a description in both languages!)

Posted in English

Punning with the Brazilians

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I really like being able to make puns in another language. That’s me, the first comment u der the main post.

As you probably know, or can probably guess a Centavo is a hundredth of a Real (Brazilian currency)

I think the people following up are mocking the collapse of the Argentinian Peso. It’s lost more than half it’s value in the last year including a sharp drop-off when the sensible candidate got knocked out if the election race.

Posted in English

Underlining

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I have been practising Compreensão do Oral tests recently. They’re th hardest part of any CAPLE exam because even if you have read the answers, you still find yourself having to parse each one while trying to listen to what the recording is saying. This is nigh on impossible, and so it’s easy to drop marks.

What I’ve been finding works really well is to use the minute to scan each answer and underline one or two words that act as key words for the whole thing. That way, when the speaker answers the question, you only need to look at he underlined words. If its more ambiguous, maybe it’ll need more work, but over all, I find I can answer without wasting so much time, which means I don’t end up feeling left behind and panicky.

I find it works pretty well. I’m not getting perfect marks or anything but I feel much more in control and I am definitely going to use this in the DAPLE exam itself.

Posted in English

I Still Haven’t Read What I’m Wooking For

Posted on by Colin Lusk

mw-fb post

Wook are having a sale today, which seems like a good opportunity to replenish my (admittedly already pretty damn full) To-Be-Read shelf. Why not take advantage? The banner on this page will get you there, and it’s an affiliate link so you’ll be helping me keep this site ad-free (well, unless you count this as an ad, I suppose…) at the same time.

If you’re looking for inspiration, the best books I’ve read this year are

Capitães da Areia (This one’s Brazilian but it’s worth making an exception for if you’re a strong reader and not worried about getting confused over dialects)

A Visão Das Plantas (Chilling stuff!)

Ideias Concretas Sobre Vagas (You can’t go wrong with Richard Araújo Pereira)

… And I’m also a big fan of graphic novels so you could maybe try Balada Para Sophie or whatever tickles your fancy!

Posted in English

One For All You Blacksmiths Out There

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I just came across a baffling expression in an exercise “Dando uma no cravo, outra na ferradura”. It didnt help that I assumed cravo had its ordinary meaning: carnation. But the word actually refer to a kind of nail. So… What’s it all about? Giving it one on the nail and one on the horseshoe is meant to invoke a blacksmith or farrier hitting the nail with one stroke and then missing and instead hammering on the horseshoe with the next.

Figuratively, it means someone who’s vacillating, hedging their bets, making an argument but also waffling and saying the opposite. Here’s the Wikipedia entry if you’re interested.

Posted in English

I Said It In Portuguese

Posted on by Colin Lusk

Well, I had that exam prep lesson with Cristina from Say It In Portuguese and it was really helpful. We did a dummy “interação oral” test and gave me good feedback about what I’d done wrong in some written work, along with some advice about how to avoid stupid mistakes by – say – writing in an illegible scrawl. I’ve booked a few more over the next few weeks to get some more practice in. I’m determined to get a “very good” mark for a change.