Portuguese Language Blog

Today, we’re going to read about a Brazilian phenomenon on Twitter – a mixture of World Cup enthusiasm and very amusing opportunism. Click the link below to read the story, and then try to answer the questions.

Galvão Bueno: Campeão do Twitter, Gazeta Web

Excerpt: “Poucos minutos depois de a cerimônia de abertura da Copa do Mundo começar, a competição já tinha um vencedor: Galvão Bueno. O locutor da TV Globo foi o primeiro lugar entre os assuntos mais comentados no Twitter no mundo inteiro no dia da festa e, pelo menos até quinta-feira, não saía dos dez mais. Embalada num truque de aparência ecológica, a frase “Cala boca, Galvão!” ganhou o mundo e foi repetida milhões de vezes, numa corrente para a frente que levou Galvão às páginas do New York Times e do El País.”

Questions

1. What did many foreigners think the “Cala boca Galvao” phrase meant?

2. How many people viewed the Galvao birds video (in Portuguese)?

3.  How did Galvão react to the “Cala boca, Galvão” campaign?

4. When did Galvão begin his broadcasting career?

Read More…

Today we’re going to do a little listening comprehension exercise using a short report from BBC Brasil (which by the way, is a fantastic resource for Portuguese students).

Questions

1. Where is the healer from?

2. What does the healer foresee about the World Cup, and how did he find out?

3. How many people has the healer treated?

4. Why doesn’t the healer want to help his country’s team?

5. Based on the context, what do you think “desempenho” means?

Read More…

Since being in Brazil, I’ve been getting my American TV shows fix online.  Since I have the privilege of speaking English and having a great internet connection, I don’t have to wait until the episodes get to cable tv in Brazil in order to keep up with my American friends’ Facebook comments on different shows.  So the other day, as I was looking for a House episode on Sidereel.com, I opened a video that was dubbed in Spanish!  I thought the opening was actually supposed to be in Spanish until House walks in speaking Spanish as well…

Which got me thinking – this is a great way to learn!

Have any of you tried watching your favorite TV shows or movies dubbed in Portuguese or even with Portuguese subtitles (for beginners?).  It’s a great practice to watch sentence construction while assimilating words in Portuguese with those in English and just watching your favorite characters speaking Portuguese (it can also be quite funny)!

For those who are beginners, Terra TV is a great place to start because there are tons of episodes in English with Portuguese subtitles – they have all sorts of great shows like Lost (after last night’s finale, you can watch it all over again, but subtitled in Portuguese!), Scrubs, Ugly Betty, and more!

There are also some documentaries and movies both in Portuguese and English with subtitles on there!

Another place to go is YouTube! All you have to do is look up “TV show + dublado” if you want to watch the show in Portuguese or “TV show + legendado” if you want subtitles! It would also help if you searched on YouTube Brasil – it gets you better results

Happy Watching!