Study
Contents
Classes
There are three main classes of long-distance bus. The ordinary convencional or comum is indeed the most common. It’s fairly comfortable and usually has a toilet on board. An executivo is more comfortable (often with reclining seats), costs about 25% more and stops less often. A leito (overnight sleeper) can cost twice as much as a comum and is exceptionally comfortable. It has spacious, fully reclining seats with blankets and pillows, air-con, and more often than not, an attendant serving sandwiches, coffee, soda and água mineral (mineral water). If you don’t mind missing the scenery, a leito can get you there in comfort and save you the additional cost of a hotel room.
With or without toilets, buses generally make pit stops every three or four hours. These stops are great places to meet other passengers, buy bizarre memorabilia, and load up on greasy plates of food.
Air-con on buses is quite strong; carry a light sweater or jacket to keep warm.
Courses
Aside from language instruction, very few courses are geared for foreigners. If you have a bit of Portuguese, you can join in classes of dance, percussion, capoeira and cooking. Rio and Salvador are the best places to find such activities.
Language
There are lots of ways to learn Portuguese in Brazil. It’s easy to arrange classes through branches of the Instituto Brazil-Estados Unidos (IBEU), where Brazilians learn English. Rio de Janeiro offers the most opportunities for classes, but there’ll be a language institute in each large city. Website www.onestoplanguage.net has a small database of Portuguese-language schools in Brazil. In the US, the National Registration Center for Study Abroad (414-278-0631; www.nrcsa.com) has information on Portuguese language schools in some Brazilian cities.
Language
Brazilians speak Portuguese, which looks similar to Spanish on paper but sounds completely different. You’ll do quite well if you speak Spanish in Brazil. Brazilians will understand you, but you won’t get much of what they say – so don’t think studying Portuguese is a waste of time. Listen to language tapes and develop an ear for Portuguese – it’s a beautiful-sounding language.
When the Portuguese arrived in 1500, an estimated 700 indigenous languages were spoken by Brazil’s Indian peoples. About 180 survive, 130 of them being considered endangered because they have fewer than 600 speakers. These indigenous languages, together with the various idioms and dialects spoken by the Africans brought in as slaves, extensively changed the Portuguese spoken by the early settlers.
Along with Portuguese, the Tupi-Guarani language, simplified and given a written form by the Jesuits, became a common language that was understood by the majority of the population. It was spoken by the general public until the middle of the 18th century, but its usage diminished with the great number of Portuguese gold-rush immigrants and a royal proclamation in 1757 prohibiting its use. With the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1759, Portuguese was established as the national language.
Nevertheless, many words remain from Indian and African languages. From Tupi-Guarani come lots of place names (such as Guanabara, Carioca, Tijuca and Niterói), animal names (such as piranha, capivara and urubu) and plant names (such as mandioca, abacaxí, caju and jacarandá). Words from the African dialects, mainly those from Nigeria and Angola, are used in Afro-Brazilian religious ceremonies (eg Orixá, Exú and Iansã), cooking (eg vatapá, acarajé and abará) and in general conversation (eg samba, mocambo and moleque).
Brazilians are easy to befriend, but unfortunately the vast majority of them speak little or no English. This is changing, however, as practically all Brazilians in school are learning English. All the same, don’t count on finding an English speaker, especially out of the cities. The more Portuguese you speak, the more rewarding your stay will be.
Body language
Brazilians accompany their speech with a rich body language, a sort of parallel dialogue. The thumbs up tudo bem is used as a greeting, or to signify ‘OK’ or ‘Thank you.’ The authoritative não-não finger-wagging is most intimidating when done right under someone’s nose, but it’s not a threat.
The sign of the figa, a thumb inserted between the first and second fingers of a clenched fist, is a symbol of good luck that has been derived from an African sexual charm. It’s more commonly used as jewelry than in body language. To indicate rápido (speed and haste), thumb and middle finger snap while rapidly shaking the wrist – a gesture it often seems only Brazilians can make. If you don’t want something (não quero), slap the back of your hands as if ridding yourself of the entire affair. Touching a finger to the lateral corner of the eye means ‘I’m wise to you.’
Books
An excellent pocket phrasebook is Lonely Planet’s Brazilian Portuguese Phrasebook. In addition to covering most travel situations, the book will also provide much help in social situations. It includes an easy-to-follow grammar guide, a comprehensive section on food and dining, plus a two-way dictionary.
Although Spanish and French take up far more shelf space at most bookstores, there’s a growing selection of Portuguese language learning material. One of the best short-term introductions is Portuguese Complete Course: Basic-Intermediate by Living Language. In addition to an English-Portuguese dictionary, the kit includes a course book with 40 lessons and three audio CDs. The lessons are easy to follow and designed to get you speaking quickly.
For grammar, pick up a copy of Essential Portuguese Grammar by Alexander da Prista. Although it’s old (published in 1966), this slim volume is still a gem, with clear and concise explanations of grammatical structures and the language in practice.
If you’d like to delve deeper into the language, and have the time to dedicate to a challenging self-study course, try the US Foreign Service Institute (FSI) series, which comes in two volumes. The first volume, Mastering Portuguese, includes 12 90-minute cassettes and a textbook that covers pronunciation, verb tenses and essential nouns and adjectives. Volume 2 is harder to find, but polishes your skills even more with 22 tapes and an additional textbook.
Combine these with a few old bossa nova albums, recent Brazilian cinema (seek out any Walter Salles or Fernando Meirelles film) and some Jorge Amado novels, and you’re ready for the next level of instruction – on the streets and beaches of Brazil.
Pronunciation
Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation can be tricky for the uninitiated. The big shocker is that, generally, an r is pronounced like an ‘h’: ‘Rio’ becomes ‘hee-oh, ’ the currency is pronounced ‘hay-ow’ etc. In the same spirit of fun, a t (or d) followed by a vowel is pronounced ‘ch’ as in ‘church’ or ‘j’ as in ‘judge’, so the word restaurante is pronounced approximately ‘hess-to-roch.’
The letter ç is pronounced like an English ‘s’; the letter x as the ‘sh’ as in ‘ship.’ So ‘Iguaçu’ is ‘ig-wa-soo’ and ‘Caxambu’ ‘ka-sham-boo.’
You’ll know you’ve mastered Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation when you’ve successfully ordered one of the country’s more popular beers, Antarctica (that’s right, you say ‘ant-okt-chee-kah’!).
Within Brazil, accents, dialects and slang (gíria) vary regionally. The Carioca inserts the ‘sh’ sound in place of s. The gaúcho speaks a Spanish-sounding Portuguese, the Baiano (from Bahia) speaks slowly, and the accents of the Cearense (from Ceará) are often incomprehensible to outsiders.
Vowel sounds
aas the ‘u’ in ‘run, ’ eg camera
aas in ‘father, ’ eg padre
aias in ‘aisle, ’ eg pai
awas in ‘saw, ’ eg nó
ayas in ‘day, ’ eg lei
eas in ‘bet, ’ eg cedo
eeas in ‘bee, ’ eg fino
oas in ‘go, ’ eg gato
ooas in ‘moon, ’ eg azul
owas in ‘how, ’ eg saudades
oyas in ‘boy, ’ eg noite
Nasal vowels
A characteristic feature of Brazilian Portuguese is the use of nasal vowels. Nasal vowels are pronounced as if you’re trying to produce the sound through your nose rather than your mouth. English also has nasal vowels to some extent – when you say ‘sing’ in English, the ‘i’ is nasalized by the ‘ng.’ In Brazilian Portuguese, written vowels that have a nasal consonant after them (m or n), or a tilde over them (eg ã), will be nasal.
Consonants
The following lists a few of the letters that represent the trickier Portuguese consonant sounds.
ly as the ‘lli’ in ‘million’
ny as in ‘canyon’
r as in ‘run’
rr as in ‘run’ but stronger and rolled
zh as the ‘s’ in ‘pleasure’
Word stress
Word stress generally occurs on the second last syllable of a word, though there are exceptions. When a word ends in -r or is pronounced with a nasalized vowel, the stress falls on the last syllable. Another exception is that if a written vowel has an accent marked over it, the stress falls on the syllable containing that vowel.
Gender
Portuguese has masculine and feminine forms of nouns and adjectives. Alternative endings appear separated by a slash, the masculine form first. Generally, ‘o’ indicates masculine and ‘a’ indicates feminine.
Accommodations
I’m looking for a...
Estou procurando por... es·to pro·koo·rang·do porr...
Where is a...?
Onde tem...? on·de teng...
room
um quarto oom kwarr·to
bedand breakfast
uma pensão oo·ma pen·sowng
campingground
um local para oom lo·kow pa·ra acampamento a·kam·pa·meng·to
guesthouse
uma hospedaria oo·ma os·pe·da·ree·a
hotel
um hotel oom o·tel
youthhostel
um albergue oom ow·berr·ge da juventude da zhoo·veng·too·de
I’d like a... room.
Eu gostaria um e·oo gos·ta·ree·a oom quarto de...kwarr·to de...
double
casal ka·zow
single
solteiro sol·tay·ro
twin
duplo doo·plo
What’s the address?
Qual é o endereço? kwow e o en·de·re·so
Do you have a... room?
Tem um quarto de...? teng oom kwarr·to de...
For (three) nights.Para (três) noites.pa·ra (tres) noy·tes
Does it include breakfast?
Inclui café da manhã? eeng·kloo·ee ka·fe da ma·nyang
May I see it?Posso ver? po·so verr
I’ll take it.
Eu fico com ele.e·oo fee·ko kom e·lee
I don’t like it.Não gosto.nowng gos·to
I’m leaving now.Estou indo embora es·to een·do em·bo·ra agora.a·go·ra
How much is it per...?
Quanto custa por...? kwan·to koos·ta porr...
night
noite noy·te
person
pessoa pe·so·a
week
semana se·ma·na
Can I pay...?
Posso pagar com...? po·so pa·garr kom...
bycredit card
cartão de crédito karr·towng de kre·dee·to
bytraveler’s check
traveler cheque tra·ve·ler she·kee
Conversation & essentials
Hello.
Olá. o·la
Hi.
Oi. oy
Good day.
Bom dia. bong dee·a
Good evening.
Boa noite. bo·a noy·te
See you later.
Até mais tarde. a·te mais tarr·de
Goodbye.
Tchau. chau
How are you? Como vai? ko·mo vai
Fine,and you? Bem, e você? beng e vo·se
I’m pleased to meet you. Prazer em conhecê-lo. pra·zerr eng ko·nye·se·lo (m)
Prazer em conhecê-la. pra·zerr eng ko·nye·se·la (f)
Yes.
Sim. seem
No.
Não. nowng
Please.
Por favor. por fa·vorr
Thank you (very much).
(Muito) obrigado/ (mween·to) o·bree·ga·do/obrigada (m/f) o·bree·ga·da
You’re welcome.
De nada. de na·da
Excuse me.
Com licença kom lee·seng·sa
Sorry.
Desculpa. des·kool·pa
What’s your name? Qual é o seu nome? kwow e o se·oo no·me
My name is... Meu nome é...me·oo no·me e...
Where are you from? De onde você é?de ong·de vo·se e
I’m from... Eu sou (da/do/de)...e·oo so (da/do/de)
May I take a photo (of you)? Posso tirar uma foto po so tee rarr oo ma fo to (de você)? (de vo se)
