I thought this was interesting, to see the Brazilian version with the Portuguese version of this classic.
If This Street Were Mine – Two Versions
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Monthly Archives: November 2010
‘Visit Lisbon’ Tries to Shed Stereotype
“Brazilian tourists are visiting Lisbon more and more and for an average of three nights, spending 969 euros (R$2,200), according to Turismo de Lisboa (aka Visit Lisbon), an entity that will be honored on Tuesday in São Paulo. The communications project “Lisboa Convida”, developed last year by Turismo de Lisboa in Brazil, won in the International Public Relations category in the 30th edition of Brazilian public relations contest (with a name that’s too long to reproduce).
The idea is to stop Lisbon’s image from being “a bit provincial” and full of connotations of the past like “Manuel, the baker and people with mustaches”, says Lusa Paula Oliveira from Turismo de Lisboa. “We’re a city with a strong image, we speak the same language and we’re a formidable entryway into Europe”, she continued to say. The budget for Lisboa Convida in Brazil is close to half a million euro, with the Brazilian market being “extraordinarily important for Lisbon”.
Brazilians are spending around a thousand euro while other foreign tourists to Lisbon spend about 700 euro. Last year, Turismo de Lisboa did roadshows to several Brazilian cities with some local personalities, travel agents, unique brochures geared towards Brazilians, news clippings, events and invites for Brazilian journalists to visit Lisbon.
The end of a novela from TV Globo recorded in Lisbon’s Parque das Nações created a boom in interest and was of great help in presenting the Portuguese capital’s modern side. ” – i Online (in PT)
My Take
We should all visit Lisbon. I would…but I’m just missing the 969 euro. Perhaps they shouldn’t have included that last part. In an article from the Portuguese paper Diário de Notícias, it says Globo stereotyped Portuguese people in the Brazilian novela Negócios da China and that they didn’t even film in the nice and neat Parque das Nações (photo).
Related Posts
Sara Lee to Buy Cafe Damasco
“Sara Lee Corp. is buying Brazilian coffee company Cafe Damasco for nearly $60 million as it continues to focus on its more-profitable coffee and meat businesses. The purchase of Cafe Damasco gives Sara Lee a stronger presence in Brazil, particularly in the south where the coffee company has a strong market position, Frank van Oers, CEO of Sara Lee’s international beverage and bakery business, said in a statement.
Sara Lee already has the Pilao and Caboclo coffee brands in the central regions of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Its other Brazilian coffee brands include Cafe do Ponto, Moka, and Seleto.” – Business Week
The best part of waking up is that corporate aroma in your cup
The Story of Biscoito Globo
Folha in English? #Fail
Let’s play a game. Find the item that doesn’t belong in the picture below.
And here I am thinking Folha is the “Primeiro jornal em tempo real em língua portuguesa.” Kind of weird, right? And no, I didn’t run it through Google Translate. I guess they’re trying to expand their reach. Interesting, though, that the 7 articles they have in English are about the recent violence in Rio. You can even hear a podcast in English on their site. Putting the subject matter aside, the best parts are the comments sections of each article as they are full of ‘discussions’ about why Folha is doing these translations.
I almost decided to write an entire post just about how stupid this is. It’s highly likely that anyone who reads Folha either speaks Portuguese as their first language or knows Portuguese through study. Moreover, it’s highly unlikely that someone who doesn’t know Portuguese would be on Folha’s site, much less scroll down to look for an article in English. Then there’s the whole false promise of an English-speaker finding the article and thinking Folha had a section for articles in English (which they don’t). I think the comments below speak some truth.
100 Best Brazilian Companies – Epoca
Época magazine back in August made a very detailed list of the 100 best companies to work for in Brazil. Once you choose the company you want, a profile pops up (like the one below) giving you a bunch of information on that business.
Rio Has Its Hands Full
It seems Rio de Janeiro’s police force have their hands full (BBC). Click on the map to enlarge current hot spots of violence.
Meanwhile, the BOPE Captain says: “I believe the task of forgiving the drug dealers lies with God, we’re only here to promote a meeting between them.”
Article 5 – Festa da Uva
Article #5 is up at Street Smart. I chose Caxias do Sul’s Festa da Uva as the topic and wrote about it’s history. Enjoy!
Enem vs. Vestibular
The vestibular is one of the selection methods utilized by institutions of higher education in Brazil. The Enem, on the other hand, is the High School National Exam (Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio), which was created by the Ministry of Education to evaluate the knowledge of students who either are finishing high school or who have just finished. The Enem started out merely as a way for the government to rank high schools nationally based on which school had the overall brightest students, but its purpose in recent years was expanded to act as an alternative to the vestibular. The reason for the expansion was to level the playing field for lower-income students who couldn’t afford both the price of the expensive vestibular prep courses, called cursinhos, as well as the cost of taking the actual test (one for each university the student applies to). The vestibular registration costs generally range from R$70-90 each, which can easily add up to R$500-R$1000 per student, depending on how many universities they are applying for. The ‘cursinho’ costs anywhere from R$60-R$300 or more. The Enem, however, costs on average about R$40, though I’m unsure if there are prep courses for it.
From what I can gather, both require the answering of questions (multiple choice and short answer) and essays (called redação in Portuguese). More specifically, the Enem is composed of an essay and “180 multiple-choice questions, equally divided into four areas of knowledge: languages; human sciences; natural sciences and mathematics. Due to the size of the test, it is applied in two consecutive days” (Wikipedia), one lasting for 4 hours and 30 minutes, and the other lasting for 5 hours and 30 minutes. As for the vestibular, “several Brazilian universities follow the FUVEST (University of São Paulo’s entry exam) pattern, which is divided into two stages or “phases”. The first stage consists of around 80 multiple choice questions, including subjects such as Portuguese Language, Portuguese and Brazilian Literature, Math, History, Geography, Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Foreign Language. The best scoring candidates from the multiple-choice stage proceed to the second stage, which contains write-in questions about subjects related to the candidate’s major (Wikipedia)”. More on some other differences later on.
In recent years, institutions have used the Enem score in substitution of the vestibular, thus, if a candidate has a certain score on the Enem, his or her acceptance (into a specific university) is practically guaranteed – it only depends on the availability of the vacancies and on the other candidate’s scores. As a compliment to the Enem, the federal government last year created the SiSu – System of Unified Selection (Sistema de Seleção Unificado), which is exactly that, a new system of selection. Using the score from the Enem, one can apply for a vacancy at any one of 59 federal universities. So, depending on where a student intends to study, the Enem is fundamental.
As I’ve neither taken the Enem nor the vestibular, I can only relay information via second parties (sites that specialize in such tests and opinions of those who have taken them). One student summed the differences up by saying the vestibular is a test of knowledge you “should” have (or can attain), while the Enem is about testing to see what knowledge you have (attained). In other words, the vestibular is about memorization while the Enem is about using your logic and about interpreting texts. While in Brazil, I saw a list of the kinds of subjects students study when preparing for the vestibular and let me just say it’s no walk in the park.
Problems w/ the Enem
In 2009, the Enem was somehow made available on the black market, which made the MEC (Ministry of Education) push the test forward two months from October to December so they could redo the test. A few months ago, detailed personal information on students who took the exam in previous years was leaked on the Internet. Then, this month the actual template used for the test contained errors and thus it was suspended again.
Thanks to Fábio for suggesting the topic.
Related Info
4 Brazilian Airports Have Body Scanners
This is from back in July but still relevant as a topic of interest, though I can’t find further news items that are more recent.
“Four Brazilian airports are going to adopt, starting this month, the controversial body scanning machines. Passengers that embark on international flights in Cumbica, in Guarulhos (SP), Galeão, in Rio and in Recife and Manaus may be selected to go through the device. The objective being to stop the entrance of guns, explosives or drugs.
The superindentant of the PF in Rio, Ângelo Gioia, said the technique can be considered invasive, “but within the limit”. Legislation permits a body search when there are founded suspicions of illicit activity. This technique will be less invasive than others already in place, though compelling”, he said. “There are no excesses when it comes to security”. – Veja
My Take
First off, I’m not risking the body scanners as they may give off way more radiation than a typical x-ray. Second, I don’t care to have a revealing scanned body image saved on some gov’t database. Third, there actually are excesses when it comes to security, like intruding on my right to privacy and freedom. Fourth, the alternative is…being groped? This Wednesday is National Opt-Out Day for TSA Screenings. Join in if you’re flying.
In the meantime, let’s all party like it’s 1984…
