Oof, well I’ve finished working my way through the exam paper. That aural comprehension part remains an absolute bastard. The DAPLE paper is like the rest I’ve come across: it doesn’t leave you much time to read, some of the answers seem purposely ambiguous, but I just about held on. But the fifth section has really long, detailed sentences. I’m sorry, but I just don’t see how it’s possible to answer them all. I’m going to take a prep course from the Say it in Portuguese site that I mentioned a few weeks ago to try and hone my technique. I suspect that best strategy is probably to look at the later questions in each group and make little one-word notes about each, because by the end you’re more likely to be lost so you’ll be glad of the help. Then do teh same for any long questions so you don’t have to try and parse them while the person is talking. Maybe there’s something to be said for not even trying to answer the questions on the first reading; just make notes about what the person says and then use that in teh second round…? I dunno, that feels like a high-risk option though. Maybe divide the answers in half and try to answer the first half in the first reading and the second half in the second reading?
Category: English
Vazios
I did the compreensão da leitura test from the DAPLE (C1) exam yesterday. It’s the one available on the Universidade de Lisboa site at the bottom of the course description here. I did pretty well on most of it but the wheels really came off on the last exercise so I’m going through the answers and trying to work out why it is the way it is.
Complete o texto com as palavras que faltam nos espaços 1-20. A cada espaço corresponde apenas uma palavra. Escreva as palavras na folha de respostas.
André Nave, Diogo Madeira e Bruno Nunes são três amigos que lançaram em novembro passado um sítio na Internet [1] podemos conhecer sugestões diversas sobre a cidade de Lisboa.
O sítio, chamado Onde Lisboa, [2] recordes de popularidade. A ideia surgiu quando os
três amigos [3] a necessidade de criar um espaço virtual onde os estudantes, os
residentes e os turistas pudessem encontrar informação que não [4] dos guias turísticos, por exemplo a questão do estacionamento gratuito.
O sítio dispõe de um separador [5] exclusivamente aos estudantes. Desde locais para
fazer impressões à lista de cantinas [6], os estudantes conseguem aceder a um conjunto de informações úteis em qualquer situação. [7] além disso, há um espaço dedicado ao desporto, à cultura e ao comércio.
O André e o Diogo fazem pesquisa de campo, sendo responsáveis pela [8] de informação e de fotografias que ilustram os artigos. Acabam [9] envolver os amigos nesse processo e estão sempre disponíveis para aceitar sugestões de [10] visita o sítio. Bruno Nunes diz que é comum encontrar espaços que não se [11] referenciados na Internet.
Nesses casos, o Onde Lisboa passa a [12] uma referência na divulgação desses espaços. À [13] que os proprietários do sítio vão fazendo pesquisas, vão descobrindo [14] vez mais coisas e aí constroem novos conteúdos.
O projeto está em permanente autoavaliação e os três amigos não sabem, ainda, [15]
proporções o projeto poderá atingir. [16] que vamos ter, em breve, um Onde Porto ou um Onde Coimbra? O tempo o [17].
Para já, Bruno, Diogo e André, os três mentores desta ideia já considerada genial, [18] as suas atividades profissionais com este projeto. Não têm uma ambição desmedida para o projeto e preferem que ele [19] crescendo aos poucos. Afinal, Roma e Pavia não se fizeram num dia. E é melhor [20] pelo seguro, para não dar razão ao ditado popular “quem tudo quer tudo perde”.
- “Onde” or “Em que” are given as answers, but since the instructions say only one word per space, I am declaring the second one bullshit and the correct answer is Onde
- Bateu. It beat the record. Embarrassingly, I got the point of the sentence wrong and thought “recordes de popularidade” was the actual content of the site so I wrote “contem”. This was moronic and I like to think if I’d gone back and checked my answers I’d have spotted the idiocy, but I didn’t
- viram/identificaram. Straightforward enough
- consta. This word constar has a few different meanings here but I think the relevant one is “to be written in”. Note that it’s folled by “de” and not “em” though. I stuggled to think of a single word that fit here and ended up writing “veio” – the information didn’t came from, the tourist sites. Nope.
- dedicado. I wrote “reservado” which isn’t a million miles away but it’s not right
- disponíveis. I wrote “baratas” but there’s no need to assume they’re only talking about value for money of course. A lot of people like to travelin luxury.
- Para. For some reason, madness seized me and I wrote “por”. Ugh.
- atualização. I said “escolha” – the choice of information. Hm… I don’t think this is a terrible answer, but atualização (“update”) definitely sounds better
- por. Acabar por means “to end up doing…” so this makes sense
- quem. This is a relative pronoun referring to person so it makes sense too
- encontram. I didn’t notice the “se” and wrote “for”. Lack of attention there. Always read the question carefully!
- ser. Passar a ser means it comes to be, so this makes sense
- medida. “À medida que” makes a lot of sense – it means something like “to the extent that…”. For some reason, I blanked and ended up writing “proposita” instead. Wild guess, and it doesn’t even make sense because the a wouldn’t have an accent on it if it was “a propósito” (“By the way”)
- cada. Cada vez mais means “increasingly” or “more and more” so this makes sense
- que. I wrote “quantas” for reasons which seemed to make sense at the time
- Será. “Será que” is a sort of impactful way of leading into questions where you’re maybe a little skeptical or want to build up some expectation.
- dirá. the expression is obviously equivalent to “time will tell”, but I used “contar” which is used for telling a story and it should be dizer: O tempo o dirá”. Time will say it!
- conciliam. This verb can mean conciliate, and something like “synchronise”, but I think the sense it means here is “combine elements that are apparently divergent or incompatble” according to Priberam.
- vá. I wrote Anda, which is on the right lines. According to this Ciberdúvidas page, andar+gerundio is valid (it’s example 5 on the page) but ir+gerundio has more examples and it explains that teh ir+ version is more like a slow development over time, where as andar+ was more like a repetitive action, so that must be ahy anda wasn’t the correct answer
- jogar. Jogar pelo seguro: play it safe! Should have guessed that one, although I’d never seen it before.
Pod
The podcast I recorded with Ângela of “Learning Portuguese is Fun” is out now and… well, it’s not as bad as I remember because she’s wisely edited out some of my waffly asides, but there are still a few embarrassing errors and a lot of umming and erring. She usually has two participants per episode so it was me and a Bosnian guy called Damir who is much newer to portuguese but is obviously a gifted student because he did fantastically well.
You can find the recording here and the interactive exercises here (needs an account)
And Speaking of Half Marathons…
YouTube Channels You Actually Want to Watch.
I tend to follow mostly Booktube channels when I want to watch a video in portuguese but I’m training for a half marathon at the moment, so I’ve started watching this guy’s videos. He’s quite good on how to prepare and train. I don’t have as much free time as him I think, so I won’t be following his tips religiously, but it’s a good way of getting both training tips and listening practice at the same time. It’s quite a hard listen but I can manage, only dropping the occasional word.
Not interested in running? No worries, I definitely recommend looking for portuguese words related to something you are interested in, because it’s easier to focus on something you like, using visual clues to work out what they mean, rather than listen to something that’s aimed at learners but the subject matter is dull as ditch water. Throw in something specifically portuguese so as to avoid the Brazilian channels. So, in my case, “Meia maratona Lisboa” scored some decent hits and gave me plenty of channels to choose from.
Râguebi
A Wobble and a Change of Direction
I’ve had a bit of a crisis of confidence recently, but it’s been quite useful in prompting me to reexamine my routine and make some changes.
I’ve been feeling for a while that, as much as I was enjoying the portuguese writing subreddit, I wasn’t really challenging myself very much. I tend to write the same kinds of things and yet I was making a lot of the same mistakes. Not only that, but the fact that it takes an hour or so each day means that I didn’t really have time for much else. Recently, some of the teachers have taken a well-earned break from correcting. There aren’t really enough to keep up with the number of students and so it seemed like a good time for me to withdraw, let some newer learners benefit from the experience, rather than hog it all for myself. Maybe I’ll go back to it later but for now, I think it’s time for a pause.
In the meantime, what I’ve decided to do is focus much more on book learning. I’ve been doing a couple of hours of grammar exercises in “Qual é a Dúvida” per day, just trying to get the nuts and bolts of the language right and firm up some of the things I’m still crap at.
I also – and I know I’ve said this a thousand times before – need to spend more time talking. It remains the achilles heel of my language learning. I’m an introvert anyway, so my smalltalk game is pathetic, even in English. When I try to speak Portuguese it’s even more stilted and unnatural. Actual, proper lessons are called for!
I’d like to do the DAPLE exam (that’s the C1, advanced diploma) in about 5 weeks but the experience on the podcast a few days ago has really shaken my confidence.
Quem Sai Aos Seus Não Degenera
I came across this fairly baffling sentence in an exercise. What on earth can it mean? Googled it to see if I could find anyone using it and apparently, yes, it’s an expression, the gist of which is that, if you follow your parents’ guidance you won’t go far wrong in life. There’s an example here, referring to sporty kids following in the footsteps of their sporty parents.
O Leilão da Casa da Mariquinhas
I saw this in the same compilation as yesterday’s. The style is a bit lighter. The singers are Fernando Maurício (left) and Francisco Martinho (right). For me, the best thing is the staring match between the guy on the portuguese guitar and the guy on the vanilla guitar. Neither of those lads is backing down.
The song seems to date from the thirties or forties, when a song with a similar name – A Casa da Mariquinhas – was written by João Silva Tavares and sung by Alfredo Marceneiro. It tells the story of a house with shutters on the windows, which we are meant to understand is a brothel, and it was so popular it inspired a whole lot of similar songs about whorehouses. This is one, and it talks about the auction held after the closure of the house. Oh no! So I’ve listened to the sequel without hearing the original!
There’s a lot more background on this page if you want to know more.
| Portuguese | English |
|---|---|
| Ninguém sabe dizer nada Da formosa Mariquinhas* A casa foi leiloada Venderam-lhe as tabuinhas | Nobody knew how to say anything About the beautiful Mariquinhas The house was auctioned They even sold the shutters |
| Ainda fresca e com gajé Encontrei na Mouraria A antiga Rosa Maria E o Chico do Cachené Fui-lhes falar, já se vê E perguntei-lhes de entrada Pela Mariquinhas, coitada | Still cool and with swagger I met in the Mouraria Old lady Rosa Maria And Chico do Cachené I went to speak to them, as you see And asked them right away About poor Mariquinhas |
| Respondeu-me o Chico: E vê-la? Tenho querido saber dela Ninguém sabe dizer nada As outras suas amigas A Clotilde, a Júlia, a Alda A Inês, a Berta, a Mafalda E as outras mais raparigas Aprendiam-lhe as cantigas As mais ternas, coitadinhas Formosas como andorinhas Olhos e peitos em brasa Que pena tenho da casa Da formosa Mariquinhas! | And Chico replied: And to see her? I was wanting to know about her Nobody knew how to say anything Her other friends Clotilde, Júlia, Alda Inês, Berta, Mafalda And some other girls They learned her songs The most tender ones, poor things Beautiful as swallows Eyes like black coals I feel such pity for the house Of beautiful Mariquinhas |
| Então o Chico apertado Com perguntas, explicou-se A vizinhança zangou-se Fez um abaixo-assinado Diziam que havia fado Ali, até madrugada E a pobre foi intimada A sair; foi posta fora E por mor duma penhora A casa foi leiloada | Then Chico, eager To ask questions, explained The neighbourhood got angry And started a petition They said there was fado There until the small hours And the poor woman was summoned To leave; she was put out And for the sake of a foreclosure The house was auctioned |
| O Chico fora ao leilão Arrematou a guitarra O espelho, a colcha com barra O cofre-forte e o fogão | Chico, outside the auction Bid for the guitar The mirror, the striped duvet The safe and the stove |
| Como não houve cambão Porque eram coisas mesquinhas Trouxe um par de chinelinhas O alvará e as bambinelas E até das próprias janelas Venderam-lhe as tabuinhas | Since there was no change because they’re trivial things He took a pair of slippers The license and the awning And from the windows themselves They sold him the shutters |
Mariquinhas seems to be a woman’s name here, but generally speaking mariquinhas is a diminutive of maricas, meaning sissy or effeminate, so probably to be used with care.
Vida Vivida – Argentina Santos
I saw this one in a compilation video and I’d never heard of the fadista but I thought it would make a good transation. And holy shit it’s heavy! Not the music, obviously, but the sentiment is raw and real. I don’t think it would even make sense sung by anyone younger than she is. It’s emo music for the older generation.
| Portuguese | English |
|---|---|
| Volta atrás vida vivida Para eu tornar a ver Aquela vida perdida Que nunca soube viver | Come back, life lived So I’ll see again That lost life I never knew how to live |
| Voltar de novo quem dera A tal tempo, que saudade Volta sempre a primavera Só não volta a mocidade | If only I could go back again, to such a time, what sadness Spring always returns Just not youth |
| A vida começa cedo Mas assim que ela começa Começamos por ter medo Que ela se acabe depressa | Life starts early But as soon as it starts We start fearing That it will end soon |
| O tempo vai-se passando E a gente vai-se iludindo Ora rindo ora chorando Ora chorando ora rindo | Time keeps passing People keep deceiving themselves Either laughing or crying Either crying or laughing |
| Meu deus, como o tempo passa Dizemos de quando em quando Afinal, o tempo fica A gente é que vai passando | My god, how time passes We say, from time to time But really, time stays It’s the people who pass by |
*
Luso 