Portuguese Blog

I bet you’re all on pins and needles waiting for this post on tough stuff to pronounce that I promised on Monday.

From what I saw in the comments, the hardest sounds tend to be: ”-lh,” “-ão,” “-em,” “r,” & “ões” – So let’s see if I can help you all out, and once I’m through, please let me know if you still have any more doubts!

- LH - Just a couple of weeks ago, Adir posted a video on the “lh” sound. Did you guys get to check it out? “The Sound of LH”

- ÃO – This is the toughest one for non-native speakers. I feel like it’s the Portuguese version of getting back at English speakers for the “rl” sound. The only way I’ve ever been able to teach English speakers this is with using the “ooohhh” comparison. Pretend you’ve just learned something you’ve been trying to figure out for the longest time. You know that long “Oooohhh, that’s what it is!” that always comes out kind of nasaly? Not the “oooh shit,” or the De La Soul “Oooh.” It’s the “Oooh,” Ross from Friends would always use when he finally got something!  Well, that’s the kind of nasal you need for “-ão.” Focus less on the fact there’s an “a” there, and more on the nasal.

- EM – This word ending is also one where you must neglect the actual letters it contains. You musn’t ever forget in Portuguese, that it is by no means a phonetic language. Pronouncing this, I always felt, sounds similar to a Canadain “Ay,” or “Eh,” or however you spell it.

Let’s use some examples:

- Massagem = Mah-sah-jay (smoothing out that “j”)

- Homem = Oh-may

- Comem = Coh-may

Get it?

- The “R” – A lot of people seem to have trouble with the Portuguese “r.” And all I have to say to that is – How the heck is that a problem? 

Let me explain something about the Portuguese “r.” It can be pretty much pronounced however you wish because it is the sound or letter that most changes from state to state and country to country in the Portuguese language. Let’s try to say “Porta,” our most famous example, shall we?

I pronounce the mineiro “r” that sounds like an h or sometimes just a wind of breath.  So I say pó-h-tá. It’s one of those sounds that’s almost like your blowing your breathe from the back of your throat.

Cariocas tend to extend their r’s a little further and say pó-hhhh-tá. The h is almost like the beginning of the word Chanukah where “You gotta huh when you say it.” (Rugrats Chanukah special. Anyone? Bueller?)

Then there are paulistanos, whose r’s are almost Spanish speaking where they roll it off their tongues like the t’s in the word “kitty” when said by an American.

Paulistas & Paranaenses make it easy for Americans to pronounce their Portuguese r’s because they say “porta” as an American English speaker would see it. Except maybe it’s more of a “pour-tá” sounding word.

See where I’m getting here? Don’t stick too much to your teacher’s, friends, or whoever your Portuguese influences’ accent if you think that’s what the problem is with your r’s.  Take advantage of the fact that you can’t go wrong!

Hope this has helped you all! I know I didn’t touch upon some things in the comments from my previous post, but I have taken notes and will be sure to touch upon them in upcoming posts! Thanks for all your inquiries and let me know if you still have any questions for me regarding the above.

Beijos!

Yesterday afternoon, one of my friends invited a bunch of us to her house for Sukiyaki, a traditional Japanese dish her family makes every once in a while, owing tribute to her father’s  Japanese ascendance. This friend of mine is what we call here, mestiça. We use it to define someone’s race as “Brazilian,” and anything else “not-Brazilian.”

A fun fact about Brazil is that the country has the biggest Japanese population outside Japan. Japanese immigrants have been here for over 100 years, and the culture has been deeply infiltrated into a number of communities in the country. In São Paulo and other places where there are a lot of Japanese descendants (best sashimi I’ve ever had!), we have become used to some Japanese words and they’ve been infiltrated into our day-to-day as well just as words from European and African languages have!

Before you get upset at me teaching Japanese on a Portuguese blog, I’m going to teach you some words as they’re used in Brazil – so it’s almost as if it was Portuguese, and at least Brazilian culture!

- Nipo-Brasileiros / Nikkeis – Japanese descendents in Brazil

- Nisseis – 1st generation Japanese in Brazil

- Sanseis – 2nd generation Japanese in Brazil

- Hashi – chopsticks

- Yakisoba – similar to Chinese Chow Mein

- Gohan – sticky white rice

- Saquê – sake/i

- shoyu – soy sauce

- karatê – karate

- tatame – mat (like the ones you see at gyms!)

- moyashi  - sprouts

- banshá – green tea

- ofurô – hot tub

- tsuru – paper crane (in origami)