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Location Date North America 1322092800 South America 
1321920000 -
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Location Date Rio De Janeiro
1321142400 Tijuca 1319151600 Copacabana 1314572400 Ipanema 1313103600 Rio De Janeiro!!! 1312930800 Porto Alegre 1312758000 Brasilia Sao Paulo -
Ok this blog is dedicated to Danielle and Jen, my linguists :-). Portuguese... is playing with my head. I like listening to it, it sounds really cool but Spanish both helps and hurts me. Some words are exactly the same with an accent and others mean something totally different.
Examples:
•Presunto- in Spanish "presumed" and in Portuguese "bacon"...?
•Embarazada- in Spanish "pregnant" and in Portuguese "embarrassed"
•Atender- in Spanish "to attend at a restaurant or help with something" and in Portuguese "answer the phone"
•Legal- in Spanish "legal" and in Portuguese "cool" (also legal but it's used more as slang for cool)
•Ligar- in Spanish "sandpaper (verb) or file for nails" and in Portuguese " to call on the phone" OR "turn on" (electronics)
•maçá (accents differ in Spanish) - in Spanish "corn flour" and in Portuguese "apple"
•Atravesar- in Spanish "to adventure/risk/do something adventurous" and in Portuguese "cross the street"
You get the idea. So it's fun and frustrating at the same time. Sometimes it's exhausting having to think so hard jut to say a simple thing. And I speak Spanish or Portunhol (a mix) and no one corrects me so I continue using the same Spanish word :-). Luckily Brazilians are so nice and patient, even when I speak slow and broken, they engage in conversation and help me. They don't usually speak (nor want to speak) Spanish but they dont mind if I do.
Basically I feel like a little kid with limited vocabulary and no personality. In Spanish and English I feel so comfortable and can express myself, I can make sarcastic remarks! In Portuguese I can barely order food let alone make a joke. People here tell me I speak well and I'm doing good but I dunno... It's simple phrases like "believe me" or "by the way" that I wish I knew. By the time I use my dictionary and translator "by the way" is not important anymore.
Oh well, it's okay. Fun, interesting and definitely challenging. Either way, I'm in freaking Brazil so who cares!!
- comments
Jen I feel special that my name was mentioned :) haha...I'm sure you are doing great with Portuguese. At least you are not embarassed or scared to keep practicing! And with Spanish, I'm sure you had many years of college/hs classes before you went to CR. So stay patient and keep practicing bc it's all gonna pay off soon!!! It's cool to see how the word meanings are so different in the 2 languages! Do they conjugate verbs the same way? And have that awful preterite/imperfect nonsense? :P Hugs from Indy!!
Danielle Ditto to Jen's comment :-) But just so you can rest easy "atravesar" also means to cross the street in Spanish, I've heard it used many times! Also now you don't have to worry about inadvertently telling people you are pregnant when you say "estoy embarazada" lol Do they pronounce "legal" the same as in Spanish? And if you were making an exclamation like in Spanish "que chiva" how would you do it in Portuguese? I'm sure, as the people there tell you, you are doing great. Just keep up with the books and don't give up trying!
Scott I feel that way with English. It's so confusing :)
Krissy Danielle anything ending in -al is "ow" so it sounds like "legow" and punctuation like ! is the same as English... but they also have the ç and ão like pão...