Tag: Video

Posted in English

Latest Monkey/Branch News

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I came across another reference to monkeys and branches in Bruno Nogueira’s Mata Bicho podcast: “Cada macaco no seu galho”. It reminded me of the one I mentioned a few weeks back. I guess Portuguese speakers must really like monkeys because I can think of at least two other monkey-related expressoes: “Vai pentear macacos” and “macaquinhos na cabeça” (here). This new one means “Each monkey on his own branch” or, less literally “people should mind their own business”.

It’s mentioned in a song here (#braziliandialectklaxon)

By the way, I always thought Mata Bicho meant something like “bug killer”, which it kinda does but it’s an expression that can mean a tip (in some places) or a little drink taken at breakfast time. So I guess “hair of the dog” then…?

Posted in English

Bacalhau to the Future

Posted on by Colin Lusk

1986Nuno Markl’s comedy series, “1986 A Série” finally dropped today on RTP1. I’ve been excited about it since August last year and I think it might be the first time I’ve watched something in normal TV time instead of on Netflix or DVD since… well, since 1986. I’m not a big TV watcher. I won’t bullshit you by pretending I understood every word but it’s sufficiently close to my era (I was 17 in 1986) that I could relate to the characters, and now I’m past the stage of oohing and ahhing at all the songs, books, films etc crammed into every frame, I think I’ll go back and have another look, armed with the Wikipedia pages about Mário Soares and the Eleições Presidencias de 1986, which form the backdrop to the teenage kicks. If you want to watch it, it’s still up on RTP’s website but I’ve no idea how long it’ll last.

Posted in English

Fado Bicha

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I heard this um… bloke? To be honest, I don’t know, but let’s say bloke because beard. So as I was saying, I heard this bloke on Cinco Para Meia-Noite and I think he has a really interesting voice, quite different from most fadistas, and yet, you know, the same. I can’t seem to find any music online other than on Youtube but I’m definitely adding a few videos to my PT Music playlist.

Posted in English

O Acordo Ortográfica

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I’ve been meaning to write an article about the 1990 Acordo Ortográfica da Língua Portuguesafor a while now but never really felt up to it. There’s a really good video on YouTube though, of Portuguese humorist Ricardo Araújo Pereira, author of Reaccionário Com Dois Cês in conversation with Brazilian Renaissance man Gregório Duvivier, that makes a pretty good introduction to what it is, why it’s needed and why it falls miserably short. It’s a little hard to follow in places but not as bad as I expected. Both speak pretty clearly and I found I could laugh at the jokes as well as simply learning, which was a nice bonus.

Posted in Portuguese

#Youtubing

Posted on by Colin Lusk

#uncorrectedPortugueseKlaxon

Ainda continuo gravar videos sobre livros que já li, no Youtube. A minha esposa – e a minha professora – zombam-me.

icon

– Como corre a sua vida como Youtuber? perguntam eles, e eu rio ligeiramente e acrescento-os à lista de pessoas com que não falo quando o canal estiver patrocinado por Fnac.pt e eu for rico e famoso.

Não, quando jantar com a Zoella e o Pewdie Pie e o Owen Jones, não vou convidar-los acompanhar-me.

Não pretendo publicar todos os vídeos aqui, mas o canal tem um novo nome:

28 Days Leitor

Vem visitar se quiseres! O exercício é muito útil, e ando a aprender muito.

Posted in English, Portuguese

Comentário: Europe in Autumn

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I finally got around to the actual review of this book instead of just waving it around while talking about other books. I think I made fewer mistakes this time, and fewer pauses too. I’m not quite ready to participate in the Portuguese version of “Just a Minute”, but I think the process is helping my speaking ability somewhat at least… Although, an hour after I made it I had a lesson and was an incoherent mess, so on the other hand, maybe not…

I’ve put a written version (not a transcript but it hits the same points in the same order so it’s pretty close) down below, which has been scrubbed clean of errors (thanks Rubens and Sophia for the help) and there’s a fuller, english version on Goodreads.

Este livro foi escrito por um homem que já conheci através do Twitter. Por isso, fiquei preocupado, caso descobrisse que era um LRTT*. Mas, por acaso não era nada disso: felizmente, o senhor Hutchinson escreve muito bem. Que alívio! Não precisei de me preocupar: os comentários nos jornais são maioritariamente positivos. Foi escrito uns anos, atrás antes do brexit. Este facto será importante como vamos ver daqui a pouco. É um thriller com elementos fortes de ficção especulativa ou seja ficção científica, e de espionagem e com muito humor – algo incomum no género de thrillers. Para resumir: há algo coisa para todos!

O enredo do romance passa-se na Europa do futuro próximo. A União Europeia tem-se desmoronado, com poucos países restantes. Ironicamente, a Inglaterra (mas não a Escócia) é um deles. É quase o oposto da verdade.Isso significa que, nesta realidade alternativa, Nigel Farage, Michael Gove e Boris Johnson seriam muito tristes, ou melhor, seriam prisioneiros na Torre de Londres que é nada mais do que eles merecem.
notebook_image_836312Os restantes da união têm-se desenvolvido a um caos. Regiões, cidades ou até parques nacionais, tornaram-se pequenos estados, que se chamam “polities”, com os seus próprios governos, leis, passaportes e exércitos. O continente é entrelaçado por redes de espiões e criminosos implacáveis. O herói é um daqueles espiões, membro duma empresa privada que faz varias espécies de coisas sombreadas. Não vou dar spoilers mas é muito entusiasmante e perto do fim, durante as últimas quarenta ou cinquenta páginas, ele e os seus companheiros descobrem uma nova conspiração mais profunda, que prepara o resto da trilogia. Mas tive sentimentos mistos sobre isto, porque mudou a atmosfera do livro. A torção do enredo tem a ver com algo quase sobrenatural, que se encaixa melhor no género de fantasia fiquei ligeiramente chateado mas é provável que faça mais sentido no contexto da trilogia. Vou ver porque vou encomendar os outros livros.

*=Livro Realmente Terrível do Twitter.

Posted in English, Portuguese

Tag | Divertida – Brace For More Videos!

Posted on by Colin Lusk

Well, my campaign to be a famous youtuber with the multi-million euro sponsorship deal with Bertrand Livros is going pretty well. I had a go at a tag questionnaire the other day, and it was really good fun, and passed a boring afternoon in the hotel. Since I didn’t have any of the books I was slagging off in the room with me, I held up the one book I did have: “Europe in Autumn” by Dave Hutchinson and just acted as if it was a different book each time.

The thing I like about it is that it makes me prepare. In a normal conversation, I can speak with varying degrees of fluency, depending on how warmed-up I am, but I only say each thing once, and any mistakes I make hang there in the air like helium-filled turds. But in this setting, I prepare in advance, jot down some useful phrases and can take a couple of practice runs; I don’t read the notes out to camera, but I do have a rough roadmap in my head of where I’m going and what backalleys I’ll need to take to get there, so it’s a different kind of speaking, if you see what I mean. The fact that I seem now to have a small cluster of friends who are all very nice and share my interests in books is a huge bonus too, of course!

Observations:

As usual, it takes me a while to get warmed up. The first couple of minutes are pretty painful but it gets better.

At one point I use the english word “Now” instead of “Agora”, which is unfortunate because it sounds like “não” and it completely reverses the meaning of the sentence.