Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2013/05/brazilians
May 24th 2013
Inspired by a popular guide to Understanding the British, I've put together a few entries in a
Foreigners' Guide to Understanding Brazilians. Portuguese speakers and
Brazilianists are invited to add more in the comments. Hat tip to Brazil-based
journalists Andrew Downie and Dom
Phillips, who contributed items, and
Olivier Teboul, a Frenchman living in Belo Horizonte whose list of "Brazilian curiosities" (in Portuguese) has generated a huge response
from amused, and sometimes bemused, locals.
What Brazilians say: Yes (Sim)
What
foreigners hear: Yes
What
Brazilians mean: Anything from yes through perhaps to no
What Brazilians say: Perhaps (Talvez)
What
foreigners hear: Perhaps
What
Brazilians mean: No
What Brazilians say: No (Não)
What
foreigners hear (on the very rare occasion a Brazilian says it):
No
What
Brazilians mean: Absolutely never, not in a million years, this
is the craziest thing I've ever been asked
What Brazilians say: I'm nearly there (Tô chegando)
What
foreigners hear: He's nearly here
What
Brazilians mean: I've set out
What Brazilians say: I'll be there in ten minutes (Vou chegar em dez
minutinhos)
What
foreigners hear: He'll be here soon
What
Brazilians mean: Some time in the next half-hour I'll get up
off the sofa and start looking for my car keys
What Brazilians say: I'll show up later (Vou aparecer mais tarde)
What
foreigners hear: He'll be here later
What
Brazilians mean: I won't be coming
What Brazilians say: Let's stay in touch, ok? (A
gente se vê, vamos combinar, ta?)
What foreigners hear: He'd like to stay in touch (though, puzzlingly, we
don't seem to have swapped contact details)
What
Brazilians mean: No more than a Briton means by: "Nice
weather, isn't it?"
What Brazilians say: I'm going to tell you something/ Let me tell you
something/ It's the following/ Just look and you'll see (Vou te falar uma
coisa/ Deixa te falar uma coisa/ É o seguinte/ Olha só pra você ver)
What
foreigners hear (especially after many repetitions): He thinks
I'm totally inattentive or perhaps mentally deficient
What
Brazilians mean: Ahem (it's just a verbal throat-clear)
What Brazilians say: A hug! A kiss! (Um abraço! Um beijo!)
What foreigners hear: I've clearly made quite an impression—we've just met
but he/she really likes me!
Waht
Brazilians mean: Take care, cheers, bye
What Brazilians say: You speak Portuguese really, really well! (Você
fala português super-bem!)
What foreigners hear: How great! My grammar and accent must be coming on a
lot better than I thought
What
Brazilians mean: How great! A foreigner is trying to learn
Portuguese! Admittedly, the grammar and accent are so awful I can barely understand
a word... but anyway! A foreigner is trying to learn Portuguese!
