When I arrived to Brasil I had no prior knowledge of the Portuguese language. I´ve been communicating with pronunciation modifications of Spanish, thumbs up and the universal high-5; but obviously I´d like to actually be speaking correct Portuguese so I borrowed the book ¨Fluent Portuguese in 7 Days.¨ Yes, in just one week you too can be fluent!
DAY 1: Greetings
DAY 2: In a restaurant
DAY 3: In the airport
DAY 4: Speak Portuguese well
DAY 5: Speak Portuguese better than ever
DAY 6: Speak fluent Portuguese
DAY 7: Day of rest
A couple of days ago I had my first conversation in Portuguese with Izabela at Polo Timbo. We talked about impunity for sex offenders. Powered by my linguistic inertia from that conversation I continued on my quest for Portuguese fluency last night when we were out for dinner. I found out the word for ¨napkin¨then asked the man at the restaurant ¨Can I have a napkin please?¨ He acknowledged and nodded. I asked two more times which yielded no result. After the third time that I asked I realized that his nonchalance was neither incompetence or defiance. It turns out the man I was asking wasn´t our waiter. He was our bus driver.
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Mel, one time I asked for a napkin in switzerland and the guy told me "napkins? napkins? zose are for babiez." wondering if maybe its true in south america too?
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