Posted by Rachel
Here’s a great video for intermediate speakers, since there are subtitles and the narrator speaks in English. It’s a fantastic short documentary about Curitiba and its high quality of life, due largely to excellent city planning and making people–not cars–a priority.
Check it out!
Questions: Checking Understanding
1. How do you say “a person from Curitiba?”
2. What is “qualidade de vida?”
3. How do you say “efficiency” in Portuguese?
4. How do you say “that’s fine” or “that’s ok” in Portuguese?
5. What is “obra” in English?
Posted by Rachel
Today, we’re going to do an upper intermediate listening comprehension exercise using a short documentary filmed at a Brazilian festival in Japan. There are subtitles but surprise! They’re in Japanese. So you’ll have to listen very carefully to answer the questions.
Questions
1. What is the woman featured in the video asking Brazilians to do?
2. What is “vida digna” in English?
3. How do you say “pride” in Portuguese?
4. What holiday is the festival in honor of?
5. How would you translate “como sinto sua falta” into English?
6. What do many of those interviewed cite as an advantage of living in Japan?
7. What do many of the Brazilians interviewed swear they are going to do?
Posted by Rachel
Today, we’re going to do a listening comprehension activity with a great thirteen minute documentary on graffiti art in São Paulo. Watch the video clicking the link above (which has subtitles) and then take a look at the questions to see how well you picked up on vocabulary in the video.
Photo: Alexandre Orion (artist featured in the documentary)
Questions:
1. What’s the word for “flashlight” in Portuguese?
2. How does the artist say “I could go on forever” in Portuguese?
3. There’s a shot of a graffiti painting with the message “Please don’t throw trash.” How is it written in Portuguese?
4. What’s the difference between the Portuguese words for “tunnel” and “tunnels?”
5. What’s the Portuguese word for “skull?”
Posted by Rachel
Released in March, Beyond Ipanema: Brazilian Waves in Global Music, recently premiered in New York at MoMA’s Annual Brazilian Film Festival. The documentary is about the popularization of Brazilian music outside of Brazil, and how different genres of Brazilian music have been popularized. The movie includes interviews with some of Brazil’s biggest stars, including Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Seu Jorge, and Os Mutantes, amongst others.
Check out the trailer and a clip from the New York premiere below!
Posted by Rachel
Today on the video learning series, we’re going to take a look at a type of Brazilian dance/martial art form called capoeira, which originated during the colonial period from the African slaves. This documentary originally aired on ESPN Brasil and discusses the development of the dance form, the music and instruments used to accompany the dance, and its modern popularity. Check it out and practice your listening skills! It’s split up into seven parts, so be sure to click the links below to see the rest.
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
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