Monthly Archives: June 2010

Root Beer (Float) – Vocabulary

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When I watch films, I tend to look for Portuguese subs and when doing that tonight, I came across two terms that I’d never seen before in Portuguese. Here they are…

Root Beer – Cerveja Preta (lit. ‘black beer’)

Root Beer Float – Vaca Preta (lit. ‘black cow’)

Now imagine having head trauma one day and only remembering how to speak English via translating Portuguese. Then you walk into a diner and ask for a black cow.

On a side note, ‘root’ in Portuguese is raiz so translating literally from English to Portuguese, one would think of asking for a ‘cerveja de raiz’, but that would be incorrect.

Models for ‘Success’

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The NYT did a piece on model hunting in Southern Brazil which I’ll post below. The obvious issues with this is that it tells young people that success is beauty, something that is almost tantamount to promoting eugenics. If you’ve watched any TV show or movie in the last few decades, you can see the increase of four principal characteristics in almost every character portrayed, those being beauty, brains, power and youth. Don’t listen to old people (the ones who we used to consider to be the wise ones), if you aren’t beautiful or at least symetrical then you aren’t as special as someone who is, if you don’t have (financial) power or better yet, transformative assets, then you have to work 10 times as hard, etc etc. Give the people ‘bread and circuses’ (fluff, instant gratification) and they will stop thinking of things like hard-work, critical thinking and integrity as worthwhile characteristics.

Random Links

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I was looking to make a post this morning when one thing led to another and I ended up jumping around the web and finding a few interesting topics, so I’ll put them all in one post.

Bringing the Beach to Belo (via Street Smart Brazil)

“When at the end of last year, Belo Horizonte’s City Hall published a decree banning events of any nature from taking place at one of the most popular squares in the city, it was certainly not expecting to bring “beach life” to a Brazilian inland mountain town.”

Citizen Samba: The Lost Film (plus the lost soundtrack)

“…south of the equator in Brazil, on the 13th February 1942, there landed Orson Welles with a mission to film two episodes of It’s All True. The first would tell the story of carnival and its influences, such as samba and candomblé; the second would pay homage to four men from the northern state of Ceará…”

Mistura Urbana (for those who like the urban scene, in PT)

Anglicism Glossary – New Link

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We all know that I dislike anglicisms but nonetheless, for those times when you hear a word that is vaguely familiar but a bit strangely pronounced (ie. market-ching for marketing), it’s likely that it’s an anglisicm. Then again, correct pronunciation is, of course, debatable.

Here’s the link to a site containing glossaries of ‘economic, finance and e-commerce’ terms as well as those on marketing. The good part of these glossaries is that each term is explained in Portuguese, making them a good reference for those that have to deal with and use anglicisms on a daily basis.

Nelson Freire – Brazil’s best classical pianist

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Last night, I saw a Brazilian documentary called Nelson Freire about none other than the man himself, who is one of the world’s brightest classical pianists (who I think looks like William Shatner). The film was sort of pieced together from different vignettes featuring the artist on tour around the world. For those interested in hearing some great piano playing, I recommend the documentary but don’t expect a lot of dialogue. If you enjoy the Brazilian classical scene, I hear Giomar Novães was a virtuoso as well.




More Info
Official site
Nelson Freire IMDB
Giomar Novães playing Chopin

To Find Out – Phrases

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There are a few ways to say you discovered or perhaps just realized something in Portuguese. One, is actually to use the verb descobrir (to discover) but there are also three phrases that combine two verbs each, which express a similar meaning. Another, perhaps more accurate, way to look at this lesson is by keeping the phrase ‘to come to one’s knowledge’ in mind, although all three examples below are used to convey the same thing.

Tomar Conhecimento (de) – lit. to take knowledge of…

Ex. Ele tomou conhecimento do que tinha acontecido só depois de uma hora.
Ex. He found out what had happened only an hour afterwards.

Ficar Sabendo (de/que) – lit. to remain knowing about…

Ex. Eu fiquei sabendo que você não presta.
Ex. I found out that you are useless.

Vir a Saber – lit. to come to know

Ex. Vim a saber que me ligou ontem.
Ex. I came to know that you called me yesterday.

Keep in mind you may also see ‘chegar a saber‘ (to arrive to know) which can mean to find out about something but it can also be used to convey a sense of something you used to know, or knew at one moment in time (ex. Eu já cheguei a saber, mas entretanto me esqueci)