Portuguese Language Blog

This past week I was visiting my family in Minas Gerais, a state in Brazil famous for its friendly residents with funny accents & sayings, pão de queijo (or cheese, overall) and cachaça!

Cachaça is a traditional Brazilian liquor made of sugarcane juice (as opposed to molasses which is the difference between cachaça and rum) and is appreciated by those who are familiar with the drink worldwide.  In Minas, almost every farm has an alambique, a still for cachaça usually made of copper, and this past week, I had the opportunity to visit a farm that produces Cachaça Ibituruna, a premium artisan cachaça, and got a personal tour which was tons of fun! And then of course, bought myself a bottle of the stuff

Since I didn’t memorize what I learned, I found this great article on the history of Cachaça plus the Cachaça Ibituruna site gives you step by step instructions in Portuguese and English on how their cachaça is made by clicking on the menu item, “A Cachaça.”

Have you tried Cachaça? Did you like it?

Talking to people on the Internet to learn a language is probably the next best thing if you can’t go abroad. That’s why I’m providing you with 10 useful phrases to use when you meet a new person on the Internet. Be sure to wait for the right moment before asking for personal information as some people might not be comfortable with it. Also you can be asked those questions so why don’t you go ahead and answer them on the comments?

Qual é o seu nome? What’s your name?
De onde você é? Where are you from?
O que você faz? What do you do?
Quantos anos você tem? How old are you?
Qual é o seu hobby? What’s your hobby?
Qual é o seu e-mail/Skype/MSN? What’s your e-mail/Skype username/MSN?
Você é homem ou mulher? Are you a man or a woman?
Você é solteiro(a)? Are you single?
Qual é o seu fuso horário? What’s your time zone?
Você sabe falar (inglês)? Do you know how to speak English?

This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Brazilian government has now imposed a two percent tax on foreign investment entering Brazil, hurting the local stock markets.

Brazil has weathered the global economic crisis much better than other countries, and the Ibovespa index rose 70% since March. The government has imposed tax on stock market purchases before, at 1.5% in 2008. The move this October is due to the strong real, which is hurting Brazilian exports.

However, experts say the move is already been detrimental to Brazilian stock markets and small and medium-sized companies looking to get onto the market in Brazil. They also say the move could threaten Brazil’s relatively new investment-grade status.

But like things in Brazil sometimes go, it seems investors may have already discovered a jeitinho to get around the tax. Investors looking to buy equities in Brazil could buy the equivalent stock in New York, cancel the purchase, and as a result get the equivalent Brazilian stock.

To read more, see the WSJ article here.