I made a new Memrise deck, based on the Snail book I read last month. Has lots of good woodland vocabulary in it: names of trees, flowers and stuff. My favourite is “o rasto de baba” which literally means “trail of saliva” but it’s a snail trail. Love.
Category: English
Diz-se Que Existem Outras Línguas.
Bon Soir, Boa Noite and Good Evening
Well, I think this is the longest gap between blog posts for quite some time now. I have been wibbling about doing other things, busy with work and actually took a whole week off portuguese to brush up on my french for a family holiday. It was sort of a strange experience. On the one hand, I was surprised by the experience of accessing the francophone bits of my brain. I’ve forgotten a lot in the 34 years since my O’Level of course, but I used to be pretty good at it back in the day, and the language has pretty deep roots in my head, such that I’ve always been able to hold my own in conversations I’ve had as an adult. But to continue the deep roots metaphor, the whole plant has been buried under a thick mulch of portuguese vocabulary. I had to read a couple of comic books to reawaken it, and even then I’d find portuguese would just tumble out of my mouth at every excuse. I consistently said “et” like the portuguese “e” and standards like “merci”, “pardon” and “oui” would all just give way to their portuguese equivalents even if I was a few sentences deep into a conversation. Words that are similar between the two like “fácil” and “facile” got a bit blurry too.
What was weirder still, though, was that the day after I got back, I had a portuguese lesson after having not spoken, read, heard, or written a word of portuguese for about 8 or 9 days. Normally if I have a delay like that I find I’m really rusty and can’t get a word out, but it actually flowed pretty well, and I can only conclude that whatever mental equipment I use for producing portuguese was getting a good workout from producing the bizarre Françuguês I was bellowing at the longsuffering garçons of Nantes.
Chulé, Madly, Deeply
Apparently there’s a specific word for the smell of stinky feet in Portuguese: Chulé.
Ricardo Araújo Pereira mentions it in “Estar Vivo Aleija” and wonders how “línguas bárbaras” like English manage without it in sentences like “Após a meia-maratona, os meus pés cheiravam a chulé”. We’d have to say “(they) smell of smelly feet” which would be tautologous.
If never come across the word before. As an example of an untranslatable word it’s not as impressive as “Saudade” but it’s much more fun.
Well That Went Well…
Or at least I think it did. I’m not sure if they’ll agree. Feeling pretty good about it though.
Leaving the Portuguese embassy like
Big Day
Right, well here I go then…
Tuesday
Read on the train1 hour accent practice (speaking)1 hour accent practice (listening – while walking)Write about o Mosteiro de Batalha
Wednesday
Read on the train1 hour lesson1 hour conversation practiceWrite a letter of complaintGo to bed early
Thursday
- Exam
Exam Prep Review #6
Last 3 days. Biff. And also: Thwack.
Monday:
1 hour lessonWatch “Gatos Nao têm Vertigens”Write about the Padrão dos descobrimentosWrite about the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos(did a text about my book instead)Watch 1 episode of “O Ministério do Tempo”
Tuesday
- Read on the train
- 1 hour accent practice (speaking)
- 1 hour accent practice (listening – while walking)
- Write about o Mosteiro de Batalha
Wednesday
- Read on the train
- 1 hour lesson
- 1 hour conversation practice
- Write a letter of complaint
- Go to bed early
Thursday
- Exam
Oh My God, I Know That Bookshop!
Exam Prep Review #6
Crossin’ off dem tasks:
Sunday:
Do the Just a Minute Challenge- Watch “Gatos Nao têm Vertigens” (not done)
Spend 15 minutes trying to commit the song to memoryDo half an hour more on the transcriptGo through DIPLE modelexam (mostly done but not quite)
Monday:
- 1 hour lesson
Do half an hour on the transcript- Watch the film from Sunday instead of the above which I’ve now decided is a waste of time.
- Write about the Padrão dos descobrimentos
- Write about the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos
- Watch 1 episode of “O Ministério do Tempo”
Tuesday
- Read on the train
- 1 hour accent practice
- Write about o Mosteiro de Batalha
Wednesday
- Read on the train
- 1 hour lesson
- 1 hour conversation practice
- Write a letter of complaint
- Go to bed early
Thursday
- Exam
Exam Prep Review #5
Progress update on the list of topics to cover.
Speaking Goals
- Build Confidence: I need to speak clearly and confidently even when I get to a bit I’m not sure about. If I don’t know the word, just guess and keep on going rather than fretting and looking confused.
- Conversely, don’t be cocky: talk at a sensible speed to give myself time to think, and don’t go off at a tangent that seems interesting if I’m not sure where I’m going with it. Obviously this is in conflict with the point above. I haven’t really got anywhere with these first two but I’m planning to do a sort of portuguese version of “just a Minute” as a way of making myself do it. One for the next couple of days, I think.
Speak portuguese for at least 5 minutes every day between now and the exam.Crossing this one off – I have done loads and have 4 hours of conversation practice booked in the next 5 days, plus whatever I can coax out of Mrs Colin
Listening Goals
Listen to videos of people speaking in a range of accents from Alentejo, the rural centre of the country. and the islands (hence that Açoriano video I just posted).- Listen to at least 3 video films with subtitles. Not really a film but I’ll count “Na Ponta da Língua” for one and the Ricardo Araújjo Pereira thing as another. One to go.
Get to grips with the Raul Solnado “Guerra de 1908” sketchDone!
Cultural Goals
- Read at the very least:
-
- A Língua Portuguesa (Fernando Pessoa) I probably won’t get to finish this but it’s locked and loaded. I have read two extra (smaller) books in the meantime.
Mensagem (Fernando Pessoa)Done!Brevíssima História de Portugal (A.H. De Oliveira Marques)Maybe even A construção da democracia em Portugal (Kenneth Maxwell) although that seems a bit ambitious. No way is this happening.
-
Make a timeline of portuguese history to get a sense of how it hangs together.Done- Write about portuguese landmarks – the Padrão dos Descubrimentos,
Torre de Belém, Mosteiro dos Jerónimos and so on. I’ve done one and listened to some audio about the others
General Language skills
- I need to build my vocabulary – Memrise and Lingq daily goals – Still winning
- I
’m getting better at the ver/vir (which was one of the 4 Evil Exes I identified a year or so back) but need to step up my game on some of the other weirder irregulars like Por and Dar Finish the exercise book I’m on nowDone!- Do a couple of mock exams to get a feel for the speed I need to be working at to get in under the time limit Work still needed. Only half a one!
Practice writing legibly. I type so much these days I need to get my hand used to forming letters or I’ll be penalised for spelling errors.Crossing off. If I can’t do it now, I’m in trouble,- Letter format and forms of address Still one to do
- Learn – actually learn verbatim – one song. Still not done.
Plans for the next few days to make sure I hit all the remaining items
Sunday:
- Do the Just a Minute Challenge
- Watch “Gatos Nao têm Vertigens”
- Spend 15 minutes trying to commit the song to memory
- Do half an hour more on the transcript
- Go through DIPLE model exam
Monday:
- 1 hour lesson
- Do half an hour on the transcript
- Write about the Padrão dos descobrimentos
- Write about the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos
- Watch 1 episode of “O Ministério do Tempo”
Tuesday
- Read on the train
- 1 hour accent practice
- Write about o Mosteiro de Batalha
Wednesday
- Read on the train
- 1 hour lesson
- 1 hour conversation practice
- Write a letter of complaint
- Go to bed early
Thursday
- Exam
Já and Ainda
Another one I get wrong from time to time: Vamos a isso!
Translating from this question on Ciberdúvidas: Somos três alunos estrangeiros a estudar na Univ. do Minho. A pergunta é: qual a diferença na utilização de já e de ainda?
1. “Já” “ainda” are adverbs. I usually think of já as meaning “already” and “ainda” as “still”, but já has quite a few other meanings to do with immediacy, so it can be translated as “still” or “now” in some contexts.
a) When a question contains the word “já” and you want to reply in the affirmative, you always use “já” in the reply. If you want to reply in the negative, use “ainda não”.
“Já leste este romance?” (Have you read this book already?)
- “Sim, já o li.” (“Yes, I’ve already read it”)
- “Já, sim.”
- “Já.”
- “Não, ainda não o li.” (“No, I still haven’t read it”)
- “Não, ainda não.”
- “Ainda não.”
b) Likewise, a question that contains “ainda” is answered with “ainda” if it’s positive or “já não” if not
“Ainda vais sair?” (Are you still going to go out?)
- “Sim, ainda vou.” (Yes, I’m still going to”)
- “Sim, vou.”
- “Não, já não vou.” (No, I’m not going any more)
- “Não, já não.”
- “Já não.”
2. In plain speech, “ainda” can have the following meanings
a) up to the current time (english: “still”)
“Ele ainda não voltou.”
“Este velho carro ainda participa em corridas.”
b) up to that time (english: “still” again but about something in the past)
“Quando o filho nasceu, ele ainda morava em Lisboa.”
c) One day in the future
“Tu ainda hás-de ser muito feliz.”
d) Precisely, exactly
“Ainda ontem o vi.”
e) Also, furthermore (cf “ainda por cima”)
“Fui jantar, comi muito bem e ainda me diverti com a conversa do Miguel.”
f) Finally
“Tenho de arrumar a casa, ir às compras e, ainda, fazer o jantar.”
g) At least (surprised me but of course, we use “still” in this way in english too: “A meteior is about to strike the earth… still, mustn’t grumble, at least we won’t have to hear any more about Brexit”)
“Ainda se ele marcasse um golo, o dinheiro era bem gasto, mas assim…”
3. “Já” on the other hand, has the following meanings:
a) Now, at the moment
“O menino já sabe ler.”
“O pai já não tem paciência.”
b) Immediately, without delay
“Vou-me já embora.”
“Faz já isso!”
c) Before now, already
“Ele já tinha comido.”
“Eu já tinha visto este filme.”
d) Previously, before that time
“Eu já sabia que isso ia acontecer.”
Luso 