The Word Mergulho Posted by Rachel on Nov 23, 2010
Mergulho has few different meanings, so it’s a useful Portuguese vocabulary word to know, especially when traveling. 1. Scuba Diving This is the noun used for scuba in Brazilian Portuguese. Here’s an example: Durante as férias, gosto de curtir a praia e fazer mergulho. During the holidays, I like to enjoy the beach and go…
Portuguese-Speaking Countries Posted by Rachel on Nov 19, 2010
While Transparent’s Portuguese Blog’s main focus is on Brazil and Brazilian Portuguese, it’s also important to know where else Portuguese is spoken in the world! Here are the countries where Portuguese is the official language: 1. Portugal (population: 10 million) The birthplace of this beautiful language, there are around twelve dialects, ranging from Açoriano…
Brazilians Fighting Autism Posted by Rachel on Nov 18, 2010
This week, an interesting story came out in the news about Brazilian scientists working in the United States on an autism study. They discovered an autism “neuron” that they managed to fix in a laboratory experiment. The ground-breaking study, led by Brazilian molecular biologist Alysson Muotri, showed that there may be a possibility to treat…
Sloth in Portuguese Posted by Rachel on Nov 16, 2010
While you may remember that preguiça means laziness, it can also be used to describe a famous Brazilian animal: the bicho-preguiça, or the sloth. This animal, which in Portuguese is pronounced bee-shoo preh-gee-sah, not only lives in the Amazon, but also throughout Brazil, particularly in the Mata Atlântica. This sweet, slow-moving creature prefers to hang…
Proclamação da República Posted by polyana on Nov 15, 2010
As you’re reading this on Monday morning, I will hopefully be lying on one of the beaches of Búzios in Rio de Janeiro! Today is a holiday in Brazil, Dia da Proclamação da República in which marechal Deodoro da Fonseca led Brazilian revolutionaries in a coup d’etat against the monarchy and put an end to Brazil’s…
Breaking Dawn in Rio de Janeiro Posted by Rachel on Nov 10, 2010
This week, the stars of the Twilight Saga are in Brazil filming scenes for the final film in the series, Breaking Dawn. While some teenage carioca girls were overjoyed, not everyone was happy about the shoot. Today we’re going to read two stories about the film production in Rio de Janeiro from Brazilian news sources…
Brazilian Skateboarding Documentary Posted by Rachel on Nov 9, 2010
While soccer, volleyball, and Formula 1 are hugely popular in Brazil, there’s another lesser known sport that is very popular amongst urban youth: skateboarding. In fact, one of the world’s most famous skateboarders is Brazilian. To help understand this phenomenon, I’m going to share a really cool documentary available online called Dirty Money, a Portuguese-language…