July 28, 2008

Brazilian Film Festival in New York City

Atenção New York City Portuguese learners: the Reel Brazilian Film festival is going to be showing 14 Brazilian movies, this coming August 11-16th at the Tribeca Cinemas ($10 per film).

The opening party will be at Central Park, with the singer Maria Rita, followed by a screening. Admission is free!

Definitely worth a little educational trip! Pity I won't be in town then... So far, I've only seen one of the movies: Not by chance (pic.) and found it muito legal!

July 25, 2008

Basic Computer Terms in Portuguese

Are you sitting in front of the computer? Great! (sorry, iPhone users). Let's learn how to talk about it in Portuguese. Ready?

Let's start, repeat after me: software, hardware, mouse... that was easy, huh? :-) A lot of Portuguese computer terms are really easy to learn, because they are really just straight borrowings from English (advanced students may like to read this rant against the use of estrangeirismos (foreign words) in Portuguese by the IT industry). As with any borrowed words, the fun lies in pronouncing them the Brazilian way way, so:

[softchyweh], hardware [hahdjiweh], mouse [mouzy].

Computer Parts:
Now look at your computador (it is masculine, so you say o/meu/seu computador):
Here is some more, if you are into hardware (you may also look here):
O disco rígido (the hard disk)
O processador (can you guess?)
O leitor/gravador de CD/ DVD (the CD/DVD reader/ writer)
A Memória RAM
A placa mãe (the mother board)

Ligar/ Desligar o computador (to turn the computer on/off)

Clicar ... (To click)
... o botão direito/ esquerdo do mouse (the right/ left mouse button)
... na link (the link)

Fazer um clique duplo or clicar duas vezes (to double click)

Abrir/ Fechar... (open/ close)
... a janela (the window)
... o arquivo (the file)

Selecionar (to select)
Apagar (or deletar)
Imprimir (print)

A. Read the article. Now minimize the article, look at your computer and name its parts. How many terms can you remember? Check the terms you missed and repeat. Did you improve your score?

B. Answer the questions you that you can understand (or try your best guessing their meaning):

  1. Qual é o processador do seu computador? (e.g. "Intel"/ "AMD")
  2. O seu computador tem um gravador de DVD?
  3. Qual é a marca (=brand) da sua impressora?
  4. Qual é o tamanho da sua tela? (exemplo: 14 polegadas (=inches))
  5. Quantas janelas estão abertas na sua tela agora?
  6. As suas caixas de som são boas?
C. Make sentences with the actions above. Here are a couple of examples:

Para abrir uma janela nova, eu cliquei nessa link.
To open a new window, I clicked in this link.

João, salva o documento nessa janela e desliga o computador para mim, por favor.
John, save the document in this window and turn the computer off for me, please. (informal)

Uau! A foto naquela janela é muito bonita! Eu vou copiar e imprimir ela para você.
Wow! The photo in that window is very pretty! I will compy and print it for you.

July 18, 2008

Hand gestures in Brazilian Portuguese

Brazilians use a lot of hand gesture when they communicate, so if you are learning Portuguese, those are a great thing to learn too. Here are just a few of many that are frequently used, to get you started:

Thumbs up - you will probably see this a lot in Brazil. It means beleza (nice, literally beauty) or that everything is legal (cool). Some people (usually younger people) greet like this (instead of using Tudo bem):

- Beleza? [Thumbs up]
- Beleza! [Thumbs up]

Ok Gesture: The gesture used to indicate 'ok' in the U.S. (making a circle with your thumb and your index finger) is not commonly used in Brazil, and when it is it is considered by most to be obscene! (something to do with the whole represented by the circle... ). For some people it is offensive only if you face the remaining fingers down, as in turning the ok sign upside down... but for some people even just the plain ok sign is a bad thing. Just avoid it and use the thumbs up instead.

Repeatedly snapping your fingers - that is, snap your thumb to the middle finger, as some people do when dancing or singing: People snap repeatedly (around 3 -4 times) to indicate something taking a long time.

O Marcos mora aqui nos Estados Unidos faz, ó... [snap, snap, snap] muito tempo!
Marcus has lived here in the U.S. for, look... [snap, snap, snap] a long time!

Pseudo-finger snapping - this is very similar to clicking your fingers, but you just stroke your thumb to the middle and index finger instead of snapping them: this is usually means 'expensive' (though I have seen it more rarely to mean money). For example, say a street vendor is offering you something for 10 reais, and you think it should cost 5, you can say no (head shaking for 'yes' or 'no', as well as 'no' done with the index finger is just the same as in English) and do the pseudo-finger clicking to indicate you think it is too expensive.

All fingers together - palm facing up, bring all your fingers together, repeatedly taping four fingers against the thumb: this means 'a lot' or 'full'. For example, a bus driver might make this gesture if you are trying to catch a bus, but he won't let you get on because the bus is too full... Or someone might say:

A festa ontem estava, ó... [All fingers together]: lotada!
The party yesterday was, look... [All fingers together]: full to capacity!

Tap behind your chin - palm facing down, tap right under your jaw, with the back of your hand. This means papo-furado (B.S.), indicating that something is not true.

Clapping the back of a hand against the palm of the other - both palms horizontal, facing up the whole time, clap the back of one hand on the palm of the other and slide it off as if sweaping. Repeat couple of times: This means Não tô nem aí ( 'I don't care at all' or 'I am not all all interested').

For more, you may look at this article with pictures of gestures, here is a great video on Brazilian hand gestures and another with some more examples of gestures and body language (make sure to look at the helpful comments). If you have a Brazilian teacher or a friend, get them to show you these to help you practice.

July 15, 2008

Watch a Movie in Portuguese

A great way to hear the language and experience a view of the culture!

If you are either in New York City or Los Angeles, you can catch regular screenings at the Centro Cultural Brazil (NYC) or at Melnitz at UCLA.

For everyone else, here are some movies that you can get relatively easily in the US (it is as easy as adding it to your Netflix list... a couple of them are at Blockbuster too.):

- Central Station (Central do Brasil)
- Carandiru
- City of God (Cidade de Deus)
- Cidade dos Homens (City of Men)
- The other side of the street (Do outro lado da rua)
- Behind the Sun (Abril despedaçado)
- Four days in September (O que é isso, companheiro?)
- Me You Them (Eu, Tu, Eles)
- Midnight: 2000 Seen By... (O Primeiro Dia)
- God is Brazilian (Deus é Brasileiro)
- Orfeu
- Black Orfeus (Orfeu Negro)
- Possible Loves (Amores Possíveis)
- The man who copied (O homem que copiava)
- Bossa Nova
- Casa de Areia (House of Sand)
- Vidas Secas
- The Middle of the World (O Caminho das Nuvens)
- Bus 174 (Ônibus 174)
- Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)
- Foreign Land (Terra Estrangeira)
- Tieta of Agreste (Tieta do Agreste)
- Moro no Brazil
- The Sound of Rio: Brasilierinho
- Almost Brothers (Quase Dois irmãos)
- Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures (Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus)
- Saudade do Futuro
- Dona Flor and her Two husbands

This should be able to give you a lot of listening practice...

Happy watching!

Note: I haven't watched many of these yet, so please add a comment if you liked or disliked any of these... or add your own suggestion.

July 12, 2008

Learn by singing: Exercises for "Amanhã eu não vou trabalhar"

I have just posted the words of a música (this is how Brazilians say song) for you to practice your Portuguese by singing. Here are some exercises if you want to turn the song into a complete lesson that you can do without a teacher (note: start here and follow the instructions, then only go to the post after you are done).

Focus of the exercises: listening and practice conjugating verbs in first person (eu)

1. Get the song and open it in a different window.
You can purchase the song from itunes or listen to it from this somewhat strange video.

2. Listen to the song once or a couple times.
Advanced/ upper intermediate students: pay close attention to the words while you listen and then try to summarize what you understood: (a) Did you get a gist for what is the song about? Pretend you are explaining your guess to a friend, in Portuguese. (b) Can you remember any of the verses?

Upper beginners and intermediate learners: pay close attention to the words while you listen. (a) Did you recognize any words? Intermediate students: try to list 10 words you think you recognize and write them down, upper beginners: try for 5 words. (b) Can you guess what the song is about? (it is ok if it is wrong!)

Fresh beginners: Just listen to the song a couple of times and enjoy it. At least once, try and pay close attention to the singing, even if you don't understand (just to help you get used to the sounds of Portuguese). If you are adventurous, you can even try to imitate a little part of the song, just for fun... but don't worry too much.

3. Complete the orange part of the words below.
Feel free to skip this part if you are a fresh beginner and you don't know much about verbs yet. Just follow the conjugation instructions and fill in the orange blanks in a separate page or a print out of this post. (For example, if you see: Eu _________ [falar, eu, presente] Português. You write: falo in the blank space.)

Amanhã eu não vou trabalhar
_________ [Ficar - eu, pretérito perfeito] até tarde no samba
________[poder - eu, presente] negar
E eu não _______[saber - eu, presente] o que eu vou _________
Só sei que ______________________
________[acordar - eu, presente] às cinco da manhã
_________[sair - eu, presente] sozinho
_________[Levantar, eu presente] antes mesmo do sol levantar
Demoro uma vida pra ____________

Começa o meu expediente, não boto uma fé

_________ [Tomar - eu/presente] um litro de ________
Pra ver se eu
__________[esquecer - eu, presente]
que a minha ________ já tá pra estourar

Eu ________[perder - eu/presente] o emprego,
mas sei que Amanhã eu não vou trabalhar

Amanhã eu não vou...

O samba tá bom demais

Pra ir embora, como é que faz

O chopp descendo, o couro comendo
E aquela nega não para de _____________

__________ pra mim
E a loura __________ que sim

___________ [se apaixonar, eu, preterito perfeito] mais de três vezes
Desde o começo da noite pra cá

Eu perco o juízo, e
________[dizer - eu, presente]:
Amanhã eu não vou trabalhar

Optional: you may now listen to the song again, paying attention to the parts you have completed.

3. Complete the remaining (green) blank spaces of the words above.
Upper beginners to advanced students: now listen to the song again. This time you want to fill out the green spaces. Don't worry if you don't get all of them.

4. See the full lyrics.

Check the full lyrics for the song here.

Optional exercises (if you haven't had enough already! :-))

Intermediate: (a) Can you summarize what the song is about now? (b) Find one or a couple of new words that you didn't know before and see if you can guess their meaning from context.

Advanced: (a) Have you had any experiences similar to the one described in this song? How was it? How would you tell a friend about that experience (in Portuguese).Did you learn a little Portuguese from the exercise? Good job! Now you can sing along in Portuguese!If you still want more, you can see a rough translation and some notes in this next post.

Well done! Now, you can see a rough translation of the song with notes on this post.

Learn by singing: "Amanhã eu não vou trabalhar"

Music can be a great tool to help you learn (see a short post in Portuguese, here): it can build up your vocabulary, it is fun and the rhythm may help you better remember what you learn. Here is a song for you to get started: "Amanhã eu não vou trabalhar", by Alexandre Grooves, with Seu Jorge. You can get it from itunes, msn music or listen to it from video.

[Note: if you want to make the most of this song by doing some exercises, go through this post before reading on]

Listen to the song and see the words for the song here. Here a free translation with some notes:

Amanhã eu não vou trabalhar Tomorrow I am not going to work
Fiquei até tarde no samba I stayed until late at the samba
Não posso negar I can't deny it
E eu não sei o que eu vou inventar I don't know what I am going to make up
Só sei que amanhã eu não vou trabalhar I just know that tomorrow I am not going to work
Acordo às cinco da manhã e saio sozinho I wake up at five in the morning and go out alone
Levanto antes mesmo do sol levantar I get up even before the sun rises
Demoro uma vida pra chegar I take a life[time] to arrive
Começa o meu expediente, não boto uma fé My work hours start, I can't believe it/ I have no faith on it
Tomo um litro de café I take a liter of coffee
Pra ver se eu esqueço que a minha cabeça já tá pra estourar To see if I forget that my head is already about to explode
Eu perco o emprego, I lose my job,
mas sei que amanhã eu não vou trabalhar but I know that tomorrow I am not going to work

O samba tá bom demais The samba is really good
Pra ir embora, como é que faz How can one do to leave?
O chopp descendo, o couro comendo The beer (draft beer) going down, the action going down*
E aquela nega não para de sambar and that girl/ black girl doesn't stop dancing samba
Olhando pra mim Looking at me
E a loura dizendo que sim and the blond saying yes
Já me apaixonei mais de três vezes I've already fallen in love more than three times
Desde o começo da noite pra cá Since the begining of the night until here
Eu perco o juízo, e digo: I lose my mind, and I say:
Amanhã eu não vou trabalhar. Tomorrow I am not going to work.

  • botar fé: literally, to put faith. It is a slang, popular with hip youngster, that means to believe in or have faith in something and somebody, e.g.: Boto fé que a Marina vai acabar ficando com o Alexandre. (I believe that Marina will end up hooking up with Alexandre)
  • Chopp: draft beer.
  • O couro comendo: I think the best translation, meaning wise, would be "the shit is going down", though in the Portuguese expression has no bad words in it.
  • nega: this slang term means black girl or woman, but it is also used to refer to women of any skin color as an endearment term (like honey or sweety).
  • perder o juízo: to lose one's mind.
Now see if you can sing along!

July 9, 2008

Happy Bithday in Portuguese 2

Here is a little more on singing happy birthday in Brazil.

Right after singing the standard happy birthday song, people may also sing this song as a joke (in the same tune as the happy birthday song):

Parabéns pra você
Eu so vim pra comer
Esqueci do presente
Nunca mais vou trazer

When the birthday boy or girl is single, people may also add the following song:

Com quem será
Com quem será
Com que será que o/a [Name of bithday boy/girl] vai casar?
Vai depender
vai depender
vai depender se o [Name of potential love interest]** vai querer
Ele/ela aceitou
Ele/ela aceitou
Tiveram dois filhinhos e depois se separou

The name of the love interest usually agreed upon amongst the party guests (without consulting the birthday girl/boy) to be someone of the opposite sex who is present at the party, as a potentially embarrassing joke.

Happy Birthday in Portuguese

Today is my lovely mom's and her twin sister's birthdays (Parabéns, gatíssimas!). Here is a happy birthday song for them:

Parabéns pra você
Nesta data querida
Muitas felicidades
Muitos anos de vida!*

This is the simple song that most people sing. If the crowd is really enthusiastic (which is true in this case), they would keep on singing a second song (not everyone does this, and there are variations):

Chegou a hora de apagar a velinha
Vamos cantar aquela musiquinha
Parabéns pra você
Parabéns pra você
Pelo seu aniversário
Parabéns pra você
Parabéns pra você
pelo seu aniversário.

Here is an example a video with both songs.

After the song is over, we say, while clapping (don't ask about meaning, because I don't know! :-)):

É pique! É pique! É pique, é pique, é pique!
É hora! É hora! É hora, é hora, é hora!
"Teresa/Tetê"! "Teresa/Tetê"! "Teresa/Tetê"! [these are their names]

Here is an example (after their intro)... and here is another very cute person trying.

So here, it is. We can all sing Parabéns to my mum and aunt.

Feliz aniversário pra vocês, Mãe e Tia Tetê! Tudo de bom pra vocês!

Here is the Google Translate translation of this post (pretty good, but use at your own risk :-)).

July 8, 2008

Typing Portuguese Accents (Keyboard shortcuts)

Are you ready to get serious and start typing accents? Not only will your accented text look somewhat cool, but you will also be able to type correct Portuguese and get some important distinctions, like the difference between avô (grandfather) and avó (grandmother)... or coco and cocô !*

On a Mac, it is very easy to type accents, even without any configuration (setting up a keyboard etc.) necessary. You just have to remember the 5 combinations below (press keys in the square brackets at the same time and then type a vowel):

[Option n] = tilde (til) e.g.: não
[Option `] = grave accent (crase) e.g. Fui à escola. (I went to the school)
[Option e] = acute (acento agudo) e.g.: café
[Option i] = circumflex (acento circunflexo) e.g.: você
[Option c] = cedilla (cê cedilha) e.g. força (strength)

These should work with all applications, including word and browsers in Internet Cafes, and you should remember them in no time if you use them (it works for me! ˆ´˜ç :-)).

On Windows, unfortunately it is harder to just use the immediately available shortcuts. This is because they have separate codes for each combination of vowel, case and accent, so there are more codes to type and remember... but here are the codes anyway (press the Alt Key at the same as the codes below on the number keypad only):

á 0225, Á 0193, à 0224, À 0192, â 0226, Â 0194, ã 0227, Ã 0195
é 0233, É 0201, ê 0234, Ê 0202
í 0237, Í 0205
ó 0243, Ó 0211, õ 0245, Õ 0213, ô 0244, Ô 0212
ú 0250, Ú 0218
ç 0231, Ç 0199

... So Windows users usually set up an international or Brazilian Keyboard first, which you can quickly learn how to do here (Brazilian), here or here (International)**. Once an international keyboard is set up, the key combinations become easy and more intutitive (press keys in square brackets at the same time, followed by a vowel):

[Shift ~] = tilde (til)
[`] = grave accent (crase)
[' ](apostrophe) = acute (acento agudo)
[Shift ^] = circumflex (acento circunflexo)
[RightAlt c] = cedilla (cê cedilha)

Want to try it out? Leave a comment with accents!

*Digresssion for advanced learners only... you may be entertained by these discussions on Brazilians confused by these words.
** For setting up a Brazilian keyboard on a Mac, see this page.

July 6, 2008

A Great Website for Portuguese for Spanish Speakers

If you know Spanish, learning Portuguese is really great! You get a ton of vocabulary and grammatical structures for free, which you can use very soon after learning some basics on the pronunciation. (If you have not heard much Portuguese yet, you may try just reading some text first, to start appreciating the similarities)... but it is not all easy: since the languages are so similar, it is very easy to get confused where they do differ. It can be really tricky to separate them (to have an idea on the types of differences you can have a look here (written in Spanish)).

Because of that, it is very useful for Spanish speakers to learn through a program especially for them, focusing on speeding up on the similarities and giving you a lot of practice on the differences. This is exactly what you can find at Tá Falado, an excellent resource including podcast lessons and notes put up by the University of Texas Language Technology Center... and it is all free too. Definitely worth a try for the Spanish speakers.

A final note before you start: I find from observing myself and my students that the hard part is not to understand what the differences are. The real challenge is to remember them when you are speaking. So don't just read the notes at Tá Falado and consider yourself done: really practice each lesson extensively so that it becames part of your speech.

July 4, 2008

'Ter' versus 'estar com'

We have seen the difference between ser and estar... Ter and estar com form another pair that can be confusing, this time for both English and Spanish speaking learners.

Like in Spanish, to say you are cold, hungry, sleepy etc., in formal Portuguese you use ter (have):

Tenho frio/ calor/ fome/ sono. (Written Portuguese)
Tengo frio/ calor/ hambre/ sueño. (Spanish)
I am cold/hot/hungry/tired.

... though we sometimes see this in written text, it sounds very unnatural. In spoken Brazilian Portuguese, it is much more natural to use estar com to say these things:

Eu estou com frio/calor/fome/sono.

[Suggestion: At this point, you may try to make simple phrases on your own now using estar com with different persons (você, a gente, eles...) and different words you may know (frio, medo, sede, raiva, muita pressa, vontade de comer chocolate)... If that is easy, try making up small dialogues using other expressions you may know, e.g.:

João: Você quer água?
Maria: Quero sim. Eu estou com muita sede.]

The main difference between the two is very similar to the difference between ser and estar: In general, Ter is more appropriate to express conditions that are somewhat permanent, whereas estar com is best for temporary states. (... so since frio/calor/fome/sono above are things that are normally temporary, estar com is the best form to be used with them). We can see this more clearly from the following examples:

Eu tenho medo de cachorro.
I am (always/permanently) afraid of dogs.

Eu estou com medo daquele cachorro.
I am afraid of that dog (right now).

Ele tem raiva de todos os politicos.
He is (permanetly) angry at all politicians. ( since he hates all politicians)

Ele está com raiva da Maria, mas vai passar.
He is angry at Maria, but it will pass.

This can also happen in cases indicating possession:

Eu tenho um carro importado.
I have/own an imported car.

Eu estou com um carro importado hoje, emprestado do meu chefe.
I have (temporarily) an imported car today, borrowed from my boss.

Did you get the difference? Now, you could practice by trying to make sentences that emphasize the difference (like the ones immediately above)... or you could do search for estar com to see how people use it on the Internet... Meanwhile, eu já vou: estou com fome!

July 2, 2008

'Ser' versus 'Estar'

The other day I got a question about ter and estar com from a student again and I thought it would be a great tip to post... but I thought I should back up to a quick look at the use ser and estar for early beginners first.

Just as a quick reminder*, here is the conjugation for the verbs ser and estar in casual spoken Portuguese:

Eu sou
Você/ele/ela/a gente é
Nós somos
Vocês/eles/elas são

Eu estou or (common pronunciation in very casual speech)
Você/ele/ela/a gente está or
Nós estamos or tamos
Vocês/eles/elas estão or tão

Ser and estar can be most often translated as the verb be in English... Since there is is one word in English for two in Portuguese, no wonder English speaking learners get confused!

Similar to what happens in Spanish, the main idea (it works for most of the cases) is that ser is for intrinsic, somewhat permanent caracteristics, whereas estar is for temporary passing things. I have translated them roughly like that in the following examples, in case that helps (just to get the idea, in reality things are a little more subtle):

Meu nome é Ananda.
My name is (permanently/always) Ananda.

Eu sou brasileira.
I am (permanently/always) Brazilian.

Ele é casado.
He is is (somewhat permanently) married.
(note that in Spanish they use estar here... hmmm :-))

Eles estão cansandos.
They are (temporarily) tired. or They are tired (right now).

A Susan está na academia.
Susan is (temporarily) at the gym. or Susan is at the gym (right now).

The difference between the two is sometimes jokingly used by Brazilians:

Joana: Nossa Maria! Você está bonita!
Wow Maria! You are beautiful!

Maria: Eu não ESTOU bonita, eu SOU bonita.
I am not (temporarily) beautiful, I am (permanently/always) beautiful.

So this is the main idea on ser and estar. When you feel that you have enough practice on this or if this is all old news to you, come back for a post on ter versus estar com.

*Note: If you haven't learnt anything about the verbs ser or estar before, I recommend learning them in a more natural setting, such as part of a conversation first, rather than going straight for the grammar. This post is intended to those who have at least heard these verbs enough to get confused :-).