In this episode we talk about some interesting Portuguese vocabulary and then move on to some of the major Brazilian news stories of the past several months.
Vocabulary: saudade, cara de pau, gostoso, mosquito, sacanagem
News:
- Murder of Isabella Nardoni
- Lindemberg Alves Hostage Situation
- News Footage of the Flooding in Southern Brazil
The intro was from the cast of Buffy Between the Lines, and the promo was for the Weird Show.
About the Weather happening in Santa Catarina...thas really awful for something like that to be happening down there at such a wealthy place to be living at. i have read that they have had one Hurricane down there I think in 2005 maybe...they just called it Catarina since i guess the weather men didnt know what it was considering they never seen or heard of a Hurricane happening in that area. But as for the clouds miltions friends seen in the sky twriling. I bet that would be very scary for alot of braziians if they havent ever seen a tornado or anything. I have only seen clouds moving like that once and i was quite amazed myself and we have quite a few tornados come through here in Kentucky.
as for the news I read on Yahoo that a American was killed in Sao Paulo around the New Years Day or Eve...he was a winery owner..it was something about him being beatin and being thrown in water and left there till somebody found him. Sorry I dont have all the details but it was interesting lol. somebody else may know more about this if they heard about it.
But have you guys did an episode on Belo Horizonte...like whats there to do, the nightlife..how it is there, crime rates lol..just anything. It would be nice to hear about Belo Horizonte for some people that might want to visit.
Posted by: Chris | January 12, 2009 at 06:17 PM
When "mosquito" became a word in English, it meant just what it meant in Spanish and Portugese, but don't take me word for it, take the American Heritage College Dictionary:
http://www.bartleby.com/61/40/M0434000.html
Enjoy....
Posted by: Peter | January 15, 2009 at 04:08 AM
Chris,
Yes, we'll definitely dedicate an episode to Belo Horizonte in the near future. We probably should have done it long ago.
Peter,
That's interesting. I didn't know the word in English came from Spanish/Portuguse.
Posted by: Kinsey | January 15, 2009 at 11:35 PM
I find that Brazilians in general don't like to *have* to be creative or to think about things. I realize that sounds bad but that isn't my intention. I know plenty of creative and smart Brazilians so let me explain my statement.
The first case is movie titles, as you mentioned. I think the movie distributors believe that they need to convince the public to go to a movie. Terminator, starring Schwarzenhegger(sp?) doesn't seem to be enough, so they add a subtitle. They don't expect Brazilians to have their curiosity peaked enough to discover what the movie is about. There was another I saw years ago called, I believe, Corina. In Brazil it turned into Corina, the almost perfect Nanny. I guess they thought "Corina, the almost perfect Nanny that ends up liking the Dad and created racial tension in the Neighborhood" was to big. "Almost perfect" seems to be tacked on to titles often.
The second example is in humor. Here is a joke:
What has four legs and one arm in the park? A pit bull.
I have never told this joke to a Brazilian and had them understand it. The "fill in the blank" part just doesn't happen. All humor needs to be done from the joke teller's side. They don't seem to step up to the situation.
Again, I'm not saying it is bad, I think it is cultural.
As a gringo I always need to make sure everything is explained (usually twice).
Spanky
Posted by: Spanky | January 29, 2009 at 10:26 AM
Spanky,
Yes, subtlety is definitely lacking in Brazilian humor, which I guess is the only possible explanation for the success of the Escolinha do Professor Raimundo. I think most of Latin America is like that and wonder if it is connected to the general lack of education in the population at large. It's also sometimes risky to use any degree of subtlety in a joke, because Brazilians, not understanding what's funny, will sometimes assume that it's a joke at their expense.
Posted by: Kinsey | January 30, 2009 at 01:22 AM