Aaaaaaaaaaaah(bacaxí)!

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When it comes to learning languages, there are enough similarities between Spanish and Portuguese that I’m never really impressed when a native Spanish speaker tells me they speak Portuguese (or vice versa). My attitude tends to be “big deal – compared to English, they’re practically the same language anyway”. But when there are so many similarities, I do rather sympathise when a Portuguese word comes along that is just nothing like its Spanish counterpart.

Take this prickly customer:

I love pineapple! You know the French almost call this fruit bananas... (they say "Ananas").

 

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Language pitfalls. So many language pitfalls.

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Ah Portuguese! It’s a constant source of both frustration and fascination. Lindsey put it very nicely in a recent post:

“It’s what will paralyze you on your weaker days, and give you the biggest sense of accomplishment on your strong ones.”

So true. The simplest victories will put a spring in my step for the whole day – the failures can make me feel utterly defeated. Mistakes and misunderstandings are common and occasionally your mistake will cause everyone to fall about laughing. In such situations they say that it’s better to laugh along with everyone but I find it difficult not to scowl. Sometimes I throw in a little sulking as well for good measure.

And the pitfalls are many. First of all there are gender issues – I will describe this using one of my famous animations. Those of you who speak Portuguese should be able to work this one out just from the imagery:

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Learning Portuguese, Losing English.

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I arrived in Brazil just over 18 months ago and during that time there have been some major challenges. Finding a job, getting married, obtaining my visa, finding an apartment and finding some friends! But the biggest challenge has been learning the Portuguese and dealing with communication difficulties.

I’m not only talking about the obvious issues of struggling to understand the locals and struggling to make myself understood. There are other things that I have also found difficult/testing. I am always being asked “So, how is your Portuguese?” – I honestly don’t know how to respond to this anymore! Even worse is the performing monkey routine: “This is Tom. Yes, he speaks Portuguese! Go on Tom, say something in Portuguese for them!” – I realise, of course, that all these issues would go away if I just improved my Portuguese!

 

And it is slowly improving. I mean, the pace is glacial, but nevertheless I’m getting better and becoming more confident. But now I find there is a new problem emerging.

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Is it better not to speak Portuguese?

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Recently I was reading the blog of an expat and they were summing up the good and bad points of living away from their home country and then also looking at what it felt like to return. One point that particularly interested me was the returning to a country where everyone speaks your language isn’t always that great. Sure we all get a little tired of the language barriers when we’re ‘away’, but when you go ‘home’, you have to get used to understanding everything that everyone says.

Yes. Yes I am still complaining. And so is everyone else apparently.

 

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Quiz – Brazilian Hand Gestures 3

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Whoop! It’s Friday (in case you hadn’t realised). Back in my IT days we used to describe any obviously crappy or hurriedly written piece of software as a ‘Friday Afternoon Package’ to reflect the fact that during most Friday afternoons, people (especially software programmers) are more interested in watching funny clips on YouTube or playing online games than doing actual work. 

Friday Afternoon Package…



Well, as my little contribution to your very own Friday Afternoon Package of procrastination and ineptitude, here is the third in the series of Brazilian Hand Gesture quizzes. 

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