Posted in Portuguese

Paris

Posted on by Colin Lusk

Two texts based on our recent trip to France with corrections

A minha esposa irá trabalhar no hospital durante a noite da passagem do ano. Eu e a minha filha vamos hoje para* Paris para celebrar o novo ano porque será mais divertido do que ver televisão sozinhos. Ela está a aprender francês, portanto podemos fingir que a viagem é “trabalho de casa” em vez de um desperdício de dinheiro.

Customers queuing outside Shakespeare and Company in Paris
Shakespeare and Company, Paris

Pela segunda vez neste ano, ficámos** numa fila para entrar numa loja. Desta vez, foi a Shakespeare and Company. A visita correu mil vezes melhor do que a na Lello. A Lello parece uma lata de sardinhas cheia de clientes***. A S&C é uma livraria fixe, com menos pessoas e além disso é proibido tirar fotografias. Acreditem ou não, os clientes entram para comprar livros e não para fazer cara de pato nas escadas. Adorei.

*I used “a” instead of “para” here but that would be more of a fleeting visit, not a two day jaunt.

**This was the text that triggered my post about Brazilian portuguese a couple of days ago

***I used “um chouriço enchido de clientes” because that appealed to me. It’s been changed to a more conventional portuguese expression. I think simile works OK, but there are other expressions using chouriço-stuffing so it’s probably a bit confusing. Encher chouriços means to waffle: to fill in time or pad out speech or essay with boring filler.

Posted in English

Divided by a Common Language: the Aftermath

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I had been incorrectly corrected by a Brazilian tutor who had taken exception to my use of the word “ficámos”. History seems to have vindicated my position: I was right and managed to get this across without offending the fella who had incorrected me. The following day, I used a different verb in the same tense – declarámos – and was corrected by a different Brazilian guy. Bless ’em. I guess they’re new teachers, maybe being helpful as a new years resolution and I’m sure they’ll be a big help once they figure out how to differentiate between the European and Brazilian learners.

Posted in Portuguese

O Ano Sabático

Posted on by Colin Lusk
O Ano Sabático se João Tordo

O Ano Sabático é um livro de João Tordo que conta a história dum músico português que mora na Canadá. Durante uma crise pessoal, o protagonista regressa para Lisboa onde fica obcecado com um outro músico cujo concerto inclui uma peça de música exatamente igual à sua própria obra. Fica convencido de que os dois têm uma ligação. É um livro assombroso que me deixou com muitas perguntas!

Posted in English

Divided by a Common Language

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I wrote something the other day that included the word “ficámos” as a past tense of ficar, meaning “we stayed”, and a Brazilian guy has told me it should be ‘ficamos”. I’ve told him that I am pretty sure this is one of those differnces between PT-PT and PT-BR: Portugal uses an -ámos ending in the past perfect, but in Brazil -amos is used for both present and perfect (lol, no scope for confusion there!) but he’s insisting that no, his way is correct. I feel a little arrogant contradicting someone whose native language is portuguese but I’m pretty sure I’m right on this one so I’m just ignoring the bloke and carrying on regardless.

Priberam (portuguese) on the left vs conjugação.com (brazilian) on the right

As I mentioned a few months ago in my comparison of the two types of Portuguese, Brazil has a larger media and a more powerful cultural impact in the world so they don’t always notice the smaller group of people speaking the European variant across the atlantic. The same is true of the US media hegemony co-opting English. There’s no use complaining (*pauses to wipe away bitter British tears*), it just is what it is. So if you’re asking someone for advice or corrections, it’s best to say what variant you’re learning to avoid misunderstandings, but if someone tries to help and gets it wrong (like this bloke is doing, I think) you have to be sensitive in how you reply. Anyone who honestly tries to help someone online is a good person. If they get it wrong from time to time, that doesn’t make them bad: a gentle reminder should sort things out with no hurt feelings. I used to have a portuguese friend who would absolutely lay into Brazilian teachers who corrected European portuguese learners but I think she was being unreasonable and I’d always try to calm her down because it made me cringe to think that someone had tried to help me and was getting a verbal battering for their troubles. I definitely don’t want to do that, but I’m going to politely suggest that I think he’s mistaken!

Posted in English

New Year, New Uwu

Posted on by Colin Lusk

Feliz Ano Novo, fellow slaves to the grammar. May 2023 bring us all the linguistic wins we so richly deserve!

We were in France for the new year. France is a country to the south of us where they speak a language that’s a bit like portuguese but not as good. We’ve only been here a couple of days to see in the new year and it has been lovely, but we’re waiting for the Eurostar to take us home. The announcer has just told us that owing to the bad weather, the platform is slippery and “please take special care of it”, which I just find delightful, imagining myself tucking the platform into bed, giving it some camomile tea and a foot massage and tiptoeing out of the room. Aww, so cute!

As usual, it’s hard work, communicating in French. I used to be reasonably fluent so long as the conversation didn’t get too heavy. Now, every time I open my mouth, portuguese verbs elbow their way to the front of my tongue, shoving French conjugations out of the way. Sometimes I can get pretty far into crazy mishmashes of the two and it leaves me feeling a bit awkward. My daughter is better but she is a bit self-conscious too. She does a great job in what she plans to say but doesn’t like to speak spontaneously. We have a competition of who can go longest without “getting Englished” – in other words, making the person we’re speaking to just start speaking to us in our own language because it’s easier.

There’s no reason to be self-conscious though. Speaking someone else’s language is absolutely a compliment to them. It shows you’ve made an effort, and it’s basically always appreciated, whereas just launching into English is arrogant and douchey, so just go for it, and if it doesn’t work out, well, no worries, try again. What’s the worst that can happen? Well, short of picking the wrong words and accidentally buying twitter or divulging your location to the Romanian police, the worst most people can imagine is being laughed at. Is that really likely though? Would you ever laugh at someone from overseas speaking your language? And even if someone laughs, is it going to be malicious laughter? Again, it seems unlikely. Sometimes you might just trigger someone’s delighted reaction at an odd combination of words, like the French train announcer who’s concerned about the wellbeing of the platform, but that’s ok. Keep a sense of humour about it, and you’re all good.

Posted in Portuguese

Presentes Caseiros

Posted on by Colin Lusk

Happy Christmas! Today’s text is a couple of days old but I’m revising my corrections while I wait for the teenager to finish her shower so it seemed like a good chance to show off the present she made me at the same time.

Lolly Adefope as Kitty in BBC Ghosts
Kitty, uma personagem do “Ghosts”, protagonizada por Lolly Adefope

Todos nós gostamos de presentes, certo? Para mim, a melhor espécie de presente é o caseiro. Não custam nada, ou quase nada, mas precisam de mais esforço e mais imaginação. Tenho em casa vários marcadores de livros, dois potes de barro e um cachecol entre outras coisas. Dou-lhes mais valor do que qualquer outro presente, independentemente do que tenha custado*.

*My original final sentence was too much of a literal translation so this whole sentence is an alternative suggested by the corrector.

Posted in Portuguese

Estou a Gostar Deste Livro

Posted on by Colin Lusk

This is a pretty simple text I wrote the other day Poyoduhmerduh corrected it (thanks!) and suggested a title change. I had originally written it as “Estou a Curtir Este Livro”, trying to use curtir, meaning “enjoy”, as in the lyrics of Sol da Caparica, but although this way of talking has been part of yoof slang in the past, its not really common now in Portugal. Its more of a Brazilian thing.

João Tordo - O Ano Sabático

Estou a ler “O Ano Sabático” de João Tordo (o livro do qual tirei a citação de ontem). É muito bom. Demorei muito tempo antes de ficar entusiasmado mas agora que estou agarrado, estou muito ansioso para averiguar* o que está a acontecer!

*Bit of a formal word this but I wanted to use it to make it stick in my head. It’s as if I’d written “ascertain” instead of “find out”.

Posted in Portuguese

Proteínas, Carboidratos, Gorduras, Vitaminas e Pedaços de Vidro: As Cinco Pilares de uma Dieta Equilibrada.

Posted on by Colin Lusk

Here’s a text from a couple of days ago about finding broken glass in some food when I’d already eaten half of it. Thanks to Butt Roidholds for the correction and for pointing out that “Carboidrato” is often “Hidrato de Carbono” but either is fine. {Update – and thanks to Dani for a second set of improvements which I’ve now applied to the original text}

Encontrei uma lasca de vidro nas minhas papas de aveia hoje de manhã. Foi por causa da tampa do frasco se ter partido. Não entrei em pânico porque não acho que tenha engolido mais pedaços, apesar de ter comido 10 colheres (mais ou menos) da refeição, mas deitei as papas (e os restos da aveia) fora. Agora há uma pequena voz na minha mente que sussurra “vais morrrrreeeer” de cada vez que sinto qualquer dorzinha no abdómen.

Status update: still alive.

Status update after the second set of corrections: yep, still alive.

Posted in English

Soa

Posted on by Colin Lusk
Soa on Netflix

Acabo de ver um filme chamado Soa. É um dos filmes portugueses na Netflix portanto achei que seria fixe e também um bom método de praticar ouvir português. É um documentário que fala sobre o papel do som na vida do planeta e de nós, os habitantes.

Basicamente, acabei por desistir, desiludido. Embora o filme fosse português, a maior parte dos participantes eram anglófonos e havia também alguns japoneses, alemães e espanhóis.

Ainda por cima, não achei o argumento muito interessante. Não me agarrou a atenção. Não o recomendo.