Acronyms in Portuguese Posted by Rachel on Mar 28, 2012
In Portuguese, you’ll sometimes come across siglas or acrônimos (abbreviations or acronyms). Here’s a brief list of some you might encounter when reading or talking about Brazil. ANATEL: Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações (Brazil’s Telecommunications Agency) CEP: Código de Endereçamento Postal (Postal Address Code; zip code) DETRAN – Departamento Estadual de Trânsito (State Transit Department; where…
Parabéns, Twitter! Posted by Rachel on Mar 27, 2012
Twitter turned six last week, and to mark the anniversary of its creation, Brazilian website Youpix made a great infographic describing facts about the site as well as a timeline. Twitter, like other social networking sites, is hugely popular in Brazil, and has one of the largest user bases in the world. Twitter has undergone…
Jogos Vorazes Posted by Rachel on Mar 23, 2012
Olá galera! Amanhã será a estreia do filme Jogos Vorazes, nos Estados Unidos e no Brasil também. Leia sobre o filme em português. Sinopse: Jogos Vorazes se passa um futuro distante, depois da extinção da América do Norte, quando sua população é dividida em 12 distritos. Todos os anos nas ruínas de onde outrora fora…
O Jeitinho Posted by Rachel on Mar 22, 2012
If you spend time in Brazil, you’ll learn about the jeitinho brasileiro. It’s hard to translate, but it it’s a cultural phenomenon that allows one to get around a rule or a law, essentially a loophole, to gain a personal advantage. The jeitinho is used in order to maneuver through bureaucracy, to make a time-consuming…
Brazilian Bar Song Posted by Rachel on Mar 21, 2012
Beer drinking is big in Brazil, as is bar culture in big cities. In Rio de Janeiro, for example, botecos are a fun place to have a chopp (beer on tap) and some delicious aperitivos (bar food, or appetizers) with friends. Here’s a fun song, in the forró style, about going drinking with friends in…
How to “make time” to study languages Posted by Adir on Mar 19, 2012
Olá, pessoal! Tudo bem? My good friend, Brazilian EFL author Ulisses Wehby de Carvalho has so kindly allowed me to use one of the texts in his successful blog Tecla Sap. It’s about how to “make time” to study a foreign language. The text is in Portuguese so you can read good and authentic Portuguese…
Gardening in Portuguese Posted by Rachel on Mar 16, 2012
Here in the northern United States, spring has nearly sprung, when plants start blooming again and people start to think about gardening. So I thought it would be a good time to learn about gardening terms in Portuguese. First off, a garden is a jardim. Next, there’s jardinagem (gardening), to grow flowers and plants, and…