Ana Cañas – Luz Antiga
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Monthly Archives: August 2010
LAN & TAM Look to Merge into LATAM
Lan Airlines, Latin America’s biggest carrier by market value, agreed to buy Tam in an all- stock transaction valued at $3.7 billion. The combination follows similar tie-ups between U.S. and European carriers trying to reduce operating costs and increase revenue by offering a broader global market to passengers. Carriers worldwide have been battered in the past two years by record high fuel prices and a drop off of lucrative business travel during the economic slowdown.
Lan’s Enrique Cueto will become chief executive officer of the new company, called LATAM Airlines Group SA, while Tam’s Mauricio Rolim Amaro will be chairman. Tam’s controlling shareholders will retain 80 percent of Tam’s voting shares and Lan will own the remaining 20 percent to comply with Brazilian regulations, the statement said. The agreement calls for the delisting of Tam in Brazil. – Source
Ragging On Novelas in the News
I know I’ve ragged on Brazilian novelas in the past as I’m sure they actually kill brain cells by the hundreds, but one thing I never ever understood is why in the world play-by-plays of the episodes would appear as a front page news article in the digital versions of major Brazilian newspapers. Ok, it’s not just Brazil. Sometimes you’ll see mini magazines in the supermarkets in the US that treat American soap opera characters as real people, but I find that equally as odd.
If you haven’t seen this strange, strange phenomenon in Brazil, here’s how it goes…
“Joe walked out on Sue. Joe went to the bar and had a beer. Joe’s friend came by and they talked about Sue. Mark went to the gym after work. Mark got a traffic ticket by Joe’s police office father who is secretly in love with Sue’s aunt.”
How I Think In Portuguese
I want to address how I think in Portuguese, which is to say, how I translate words I see and interpret words I hear. The initial misconception on how this works is that I see maçã (apple), for example, and then my brain searches for the word, then the translation, and then the word ‘apple’ appears in my mind. Well, that’s actually not how it works. Let me explain.
For me, and maybe this goes for everyone or most people or maybe no one else, but for me, English pretty much goes out the door when I’m thinking in Portuguese. It’s as if my left brain is Portuguese-speaking and my right brain is English-speaking and one side gets turned off while I process things in the language of the opposite side. Make sense?
I’m trying right now to think back on my learning process and if there was a point when I did translate word for word where the phrase ‘eu comi a maçã’ would become something like ‘eu/I…comi/ate…a/the…maçã/apple’. Perhaps in the very beginning, I’m not sure anymore.
When I have to interpret for someone or when subtitles on a movie are in the other language, it’s like my mind doesn’t naturally want to do that work, which tells me that either profession is about training your mind to automatically do the extra level of processing on top of the foreign language side of the brain processing. If you’ve ever spoken with either interpreters or translators, you’d know that they do not appreciate non-professionals even though practically-speaking, knowing another language means you can do either job (notice I didn’t say well). Technically-speaking, though, what they strongly dislike about someone not-highly trained doing such work is that they are taking away work from a professional while doing a worse job at it.
Going back to the main subject, I’d say that once you hit about 85% fluency, you can start to automatically think in that language but if you are finding it hard, try to force yourself to do it. All the things you say to yourself during the day, just think of those very things in Portuguese. Whether you ‘say’ it right is one thing, but there’s also the other side of the coin which is that you are still training your brain to think in that foreign language.
To Miss Work/Class – Phrases
Since the verb ‘to miss’ has a few meanings, one might end up interpreting such a phrase as ‘I missed work today’ or ‘I missed class today’. For this, you wouldn’t use ‘sentir falta (de)‘ because that is used to express the idea that you miss something that is not or no longer present in your life. What do you say then? The verb ‘faltar (a)‘!
Ex. Hoje, eu faltei ao trabalho.
Ex. I missed work today.
To say you missed class, just change ‘o trabalho’ for ‘a aula’. Keep in mind that you will also see ‘Eu faltei no trabalho/na aula’, so don’t worry, it means the same thing. Knowing what verb requires something else after it or with it is called regência verbal, in grammatical terms…but that’s another post!
Also keep in mind that if you wish to express truancy/playing hooky/cutting class, you would say ‘Eu matei aula‘, so that’s ‘matar‘ (to kill). Another verb for truancy is ‘cabular‘, as in ‘cabular aula‘, which is more specific although less used.
Sony Brasil Makes Gamers Have Real Life
“The PS3 (Playstation 3) will arrive in Brazil at the price of R$1,999, against US$299 in the US. According to Anderson Gracias, director of the PlayStation division of Sony Brasil, the Brazilian price is subsidized because the console should cost R$2,500. However, a quick search of the online marketplace Submarino will tell you it’s possible to buy the same thing for R$1,399.
Gizmodo Brasil, a technology site, did the math: in the case that Sony Brasil bought the console from an American buyer and paid all the importation taxes, the final price would be US$730, which currently would be R$1,285. That means, it’s more than one thousand Reals cheaper than the unsubsidized version from Sony.” – Source (in PT)
I was thinking about this yesterday and I did the math myself before seeing the article above. The US$730 price is only if you pay the taxes because there are times when things just get put through without being taxed. Still, to tax one item 1.5 times its original price is highway robbery. A poor American could purchase the PS3 at its normal price but a poor Brazilian wouldn’t be able to do so. Luckily we are talking about a mind-numbing, escapist device here and not something that actually matters.
Giving Up Without A White Flag
Every month or two I clean up my main links page, which consists of taking a few minutes to check all the links to make sure they are still active and relevant. There’s always a few bloggers and website starters who email me asking to be listed on my links page because they have their own online space where they talk about their love of Brazil.
Unfortunately, most of those who do email me asking for such a thing are precisely those that, after about 2 or 3 months, give up without waving the proverbial white flag to their readers. This, I don’t understand. If you are a Brazil lover who takes the time out (and in some cases, seemingly a lot of time) to give yourself an online presence, then why give up so easily? In light of such occurrences, I kindly request that you bestow upon your audience a single act of good will, either commit or get off the pot.
Maysa: Estudos 1/10
Find the rest here.
The House that Soiled Books Built
“Benedito da Silva used to scour the dumps of Sao Paulo looking for anything of value. But after discovering an enormous volume of books that are destroyed every day he started his own collection and now, with the help of others, he is donating the discarded works to local schools and libraries.
In this first person account Bene talks about the ambitious project and what he hopes it will accomplish.”
Now let’s duplicate this program nationwide! Here’s more (in PT)
The Birth of Brazilian Installment Plans?
“Shopping in Brazil before the late 19th century meant facing a Portuguese immigrant, almost always serious, standing behind a counter, demanding guarantees to grant credit. Around the 1880s, however, common men carrying bags full of fabric, thread and lace started knocking on the doors of Brazilians.
They spoke little Portuguese and were always ready to lower the prices of products and to accept payment in installments, as they would return later.
They were the Arab immigrants who, without planning it, brought innovation to the activity they chose as their breadwinner in Brazil, trade.
“They brought a breath of fresh air to trade in Brazil – marked by the Portuguese traditionalism – with credit, discounts, and stock flow. Trade was reinvented,” said Oswaldo Truzzi, a professor at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and author of book “Patricians – Syrians and Lebanese in São Paulo.”
As they carried their merchandise, they could not walk and walk, selling nothing. “So they sold in installments, gave discounts and traded,” said the professor.” – Source (more)
