Posts tagged with "TV"

Big Brother is by far the most popular reality show in Brazil, when millions of viewers tune in to watch seventeen contestants live together in a house in Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, and get voted off one by one until there’s one person remaining, who wins R$1.5 million. Cameras watch the contestants’ every move, and viewers can order a special 24 hour channel to watch different cameras throughout the house and yard at any time of day, if they can’t get enough of the regular programming.

Today, Globo announced the contestants for Big Brother Brasil 2011, who range in age from 22 to 40 who come from various parts of the country, although the majority are from São Paulo and Rio. Candidates were asked to send in videos explaining why they should be on the show, and thousands of people applied for this season.

Here are some of the applicants who posted their videos on Youtube, both for your listening comprehension practice and your entertainment.

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The 2011 season of Big Brother begins on January 11th on the Globo Network. Even if you’re not in Brazil, you can watch videos from BBB here.

There are two relatively new novelas out on Brazilian TV: Araguaia and Ti-ti-ti, both on the Globo network. Not only are Globo novelas among the most watched television programs in Brazil, but they are also a lucrative export: Globo soaps are translated and shown in countries around the world. So while these two shows are now on TV in Brazil, it’s only a matter of time before they pop up in Mexico or Russia.

Araguaia is a story that takes place on the Araguaia River in the Central West region of Brazil. The protagonist’s ancestors were cursed by an indigenous tribe, and the central theme is of course, a love story.

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Ti ti ti is actually a remake of a popular novela of the same name from the 1980s. The new version stars some of Brazil’s biggest names in TV, including Claudia Raia, Murilo Benicio, and Caio Castro.

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TV shows are a fantastic way to practice listening comprehension and to learn slang and new vocabulary. So watch more video clips, see photos, and get more info here and here!

Since being in Brazil, I’ve been getting my American TV shows fix online.  Since I have the privilege of speaking English and having a great internet connection, I don’t have to wait until the episodes get to cable tv in Brazil in order to keep up with my American friends’ Facebook comments on different shows.  So the other day, as I was looking for a House episode on Sidereel.com, I opened a video that was dubbed in Spanish!  I thought the opening was actually supposed to be in Spanish until House walks in speaking Spanish as well…

Which got me thinking – this is a great way to learn!

Have any of you tried watching your favorite TV shows or movies dubbed in Portuguese or even with Portuguese subtitles (for beginners?).  It’s a great practice to watch sentence construction while assimilating words in Portuguese with those in English and just watching your favorite characters speaking Portuguese (it can also be quite funny)!

For those who are beginners, Terra TV is a great place to start because there are tons of episodes in English with Portuguese subtitles – they have all sorts of great shows like Lost (after last night’s finale, you can watch it all over again, but subtitled in Portuguese!), Scrubs, Ugly Betty, and more!

There are also some documentaries and movies both in Portuguese and English with subtitles on there!

Another place to go is YouTube! All you have to do is look up “TV show + dublado” if you want to watch the show in Portuguese or “TV show + legendado” if you want subtitles! It would also help if you searched on YouTube Brasil – it gets you better results ;-)

Happy Watching!

Brazilian novelas, or soap operas, are famous the world over and are broadcast in countries throughout Latin America, Africa, and Europe. Watching novelas is an excellent way to work on your listening comprehension skills, as well as to build your vocabulary.

Luckily, many novelas are now available on YouTube, and you can watch entire episodes there. One of the big novelas in Brazil right now is Viver a Vida. Let’s take a look at an excerpt:

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Questions (from 0:00 – 3:15)

1. What does the woman threaten to do to the little girl?

2. The maid tells the man in pajamas that his mom is worried. Why?

3. Who is the writer of the blog the women are looking at?

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Watching TV is a great way to learn Portuguese, and though they may not seem important, commercials are also helpful ways to learn new vocabulary words. Let’s take a look at a few commercials as an example:

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Keywords to listen for in Portuguese: menu, dip/sauce, vegetables, ice cream, discount, percent, broadband, calls

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