Posts

The end of the market!

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People have different tolerance thresholds for mess and untidiness don’t they? For some people, the limit is a little dust on the shelf and a couple of dishes in the sink. Others will live quite happily with mould growing on half-finished cups of tea sitting under their bed (naming no names!).

bagunça

Has someone been watching too much TV? Source

 

Some people who know me may be surprised to hear that in our house, I’m the tidy one. This is annoying as it means that in ‘The Cleaning & Tidying Game’, I always crack first. But not without a little complaining first!

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My favourite word in Portuguese

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Back in 2009 when I was planning my 4 month (ha!) trip to South America, I started taking Spanish lessons. Back then there were no plans to visit Brazil and so Spanish was the obvious choice. A couple of friends and I found a lovely teacher and we would spend a very enjoyable hour each week having lessons. After a few months we were discussing how the lessons were going, what we thought of Spanish as a language, what we liked about it and so on.

portuguese words

Words, words, words…

 

My favourite word in Spanish

At some point a question came up: What’s your favourite word in Spanish? I hadn’t given it much thought before, but I knew my answer immediately:

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The Most Important Word in Brazil

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The British (and English speakers in general) are not renowned for their knowledge of other languages. So many people in non-English speaking countries speak our language that our need just isn’t as pressing as that of, say, a Hungarian. So we’re lazy. 

I remember encountering a couple of 40 something English guys living in Medellin, Colombia. Although they had been living there for more than a year, their profound lack of Spanish was astounding. When they wanted to do their weekly shop at the local supermarket, they would hail a cab, get in and then hold up an empty supermarket carrier bag and point at the logo! Amazingly bad!

“Erm, you take-o me here-o?…”

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Quiz – Brazilian Hand Gestures 2

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Everyone likes a quizinho on a Friday don’t they? Well today that’s what you’re getting – it’s the return of the Brazilian Hand Gesture videos! (The first one is here) 


I’m afraid that if you’re Brazilian, or you’ve lived here for a while, then this will be mamão com açucar for you. For the non-Brazilians, you may find it a little more challenging (and in case you’re wondering, that phrase I just used literally means ‘papaya with sugar’ and signifies that it will be very easy, like shooting fish in a barrel). 
So without any further ado, let’s get started with the first video:


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Big Fresh – frescão!

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The words “Big Fresh” mean a lot of different things around the world. 

Big and Fresh

 

Supermarkets, logistics companies, burgers, soft drinks and air fresheners – there are a lot of things claiming to be both big and fresh. There is even a terrible Danish rapper whose one track is so bad that I can’t bring myself to post it.

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