Book Review: Ron Martinez – Como se diz chulé em inglês?

Como se diz chulé em inglês? (How do you say “chulé” in English?) is a book written for Brazilians learning English, but in my opinion its just as useful if not more so for English people learning Brazilian Portuguese.

Some time ago, Ron Martinez (who has a background of teaching English in Brazil) started a group on the social network site Orkut for learners of English. Students posted questions about words in Portuguese they couldn’t find an equivelent for in English. This book is Ron’s attempt to answer those queries. Basically, it’s a fascinating study of phrases and words that are common in Portuguese which no English word seems to quite capture.

The best way to illustrate this is through some examples. An oft-cited Portuguese word that has no English translation is “saudades” which roughly translates to “longing” – basically the feeling we have when we miss something. Other useful words which Martinez picks up on – Picanha (the prime cut of meat so popular at Brazilian barbeques/churrascos which butchers in the northern hemisphere don’t use!), caprichar (sort of means “to embellish”, “to treat well”, “to put extra effort in”), cadê (that wonderful word which doesn’t need to be conjugated which means – Where is/are..?) and, from the title, chulé (smelly feet!).

As the book is written in Portuguese you will need at least an intermediate grasp of Portuguese to get everything, but the chapters are short, witty and the examples clearly laid out in boxes. A great way to get under the skin of both English and Portuguese and how the two languages actually work in practice…

Here is a listing for the book on submarino.com.br

Book Review (part 2): Muito Prazer, Fale O Portugues do Brasil / Speak the Portuguese of Brazil

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned this book and said I would write a review. Here it is.

I guess it’s natural for me to approach Brazilian Portuguese textbooks for English people in a similar way to how I view English textbooks for Brazilians. I do this in my job as an English teacher, and there are many, many poor textbooks but a few excellent ones too. “Muito Prazer” is, fortunately, a Brazilian Portuguese example of the latter, in my opinion. I would have no hesitation recommending this publication to learners of the language. It was certainly the sort of book I’d been hoping to see and use.

I’m going to be quite objective about this and list the many pros and few cons below and then conclude, briefly.

Why I like this book (the pros):
- The book is substantial (400 pages long), nicely presented (something you can’t take for granted in language textbooks) and nicely illustrated.
- The 2 CDs-worth of listenings are short, sharp and generally reflect possible real-life situations well.
- Explanations of new language are clear and simple, don’t rely on linguistic jargon and are rarely given in isolation without examples. New Grammar or vocabulary is introduced in small portions, tested with useful and appropriate exercises and activities and then slowly built on through the book. In other words, it is an integrated approach to learnign the language and this is a good thing.
- Students are not expected to “remember” everything and so helpful hints and reminders with references to pages earlier in the book are given.
- helpfully notes anomalies and irregularities to the principal rules.
- The activities only test what has been presented (which is not always a given in other textbooks).
- Authentic material is used in the readings. Articles are sometimes pulled from real website pieces.
- Each of the 20 units addresses a related theme – sport, health and body etc.
- The book does NOT forget pronunciation and includes some helpful pages on the topic.
- The book uses examples of Brazilian culture, geography and history to teach the language.
- The new language is presented in practical situations – buying tickets, viewing an apartment, meeting people.
- Useful reference sections at the back, scripts, answer pages and so on make it possible for someone (with a reasonable grasp of latin languages or previous exposure to Portuguese) to use this book without outside input and expect to attain an Upper Intermediate level appreciation of the language by the end of the 20 units.

Things that could be improved (or the cons).
- The readings are often far too short. Basically, make sure you are reading widely in addition to the material in the book. But, this is not surprising as the writers probably didn’t want to waste space in the 400 page tome.
- Related to the above, the questions for the readings are often too easy. For example, the reading might ask what the cost of an item is from the menu. Attaining the answer does not really demand comprehension of Portuguese – a child who only knows English would easily work it out.
- Occasionally, vocabulary is presented as a list with no explanation as to meaning. (This is when I have to call my wife to help! – or keep a dictionary handy!)
- Not really a con, but the book is designed for group use. Several activities involve talking to partners and this may not be possible.
- Related to the above, the answer section provides no clues as to what answers may or not be right when it involves the opinion of the reader (or his partner). For example, the book might ask you to write about your favourite colour. You want to check how you did, but the answer pages only say “Answers may vary” instead of giving examples of possible responses.
- Just a small thing. The book relies on Dialogues to introduce or present new language. Generally, they’re quite good and they’re not long but it would have been nice if there was some kind of task to do with these dialogues (fill in gaps / listen for an answer to a question) – otherwise, you may find yourself asking “why am I listening to these people?” or “why am I reading this?” which undermines motivation to learn.

To sum up, the cons are not very weighty if you are self-motivated in your learning, augment your use of the book with authentic reading material and have someone (a teacher? a native speaker?) to talk to and quiz about the tricky bits, and check your writing. I’m already half way through the whole thing and really enjoying it. So, if you’re learning Brazilian Portuguese, put this on your Christmas list.

Book Review (part 1): Muito Prazer, Fale O Portugues do Brasil / Speak the Portuguese of Brazil

A new book has been published recently by the Brazilian publishing group DISAL. Its a 400 page textbook, with 2 CDs, for estrangeiros learning Porruguese. I can honestly say its the best manual for learning Brazilian Portuguese I’ve laid my hands on so far…

You can actually browse the first chapter here: http://www.disal.com.br/mtoprazer/

And, tomorrow (Friday 13th!) of March there is an e-lecture on the DISAL website by the authors on how to teach past, present and future to foreigners. Useful. I’m working at that time so I hope it will (and my friends assure me it should) be available for download afterwards.

More info on that event here: http://www.disal.com.br/html/eventos/ev7.html

I’ve written a full review of the book here.

Book Review: Haraldo Maranhão – Dicionário de Futebol

If you’re a fan of football you’ll love this book. And, let’s face it, even if you’re not but you want to find out a bit about what makes Brazilians tick then a dictionary of football terms is a good place to start.

Haraldo Maranhão – a jourmalist and writer who has worked for various prestigious Brazilian newspapers and co-authored several titles about Brazilian football and the World Cup – has set about putting in one place all those little words, phrases, expressions and idioms that make talking football seem like talking a new language altogether. At 274 pages long he’s not skimped on his duties. If you’ve read football reports and been confused by the expression “holding the lantern”  then this is going to help a lot. (Holding the lantern = the team in last place in the table). The definitions are clearly written and often contain examples from newspapers and real uses of the words or phrases in question.

I genuinely think non-football fans would find it interesting as it has a lot to say about how flexible Portuguese is and how slang is generated from other more common words . For example, “Comer a Bola” = to eat the ball is “to jogar excepionalmente bem” = to play very well. Similarly, as football is so fundamental to the makeup of Brazilian identity football slang is often also the slang of everyday life. For instance, “pontapé inícial” = kick-off (=lit, I guess, the first contact of the foot!) is used throughout life as an idiom to mean the start of anything. Lastly, if you’re intersted in etymology you’ll see a lot of words that have been incorporated from English or other languages and been “Portugesised” along the way. So, words such as “baque” and “alfe” are distortions of the English words “back” and “half” respectively and are occasionally used in Brazilian Portuguese football terminology.

To conclude, this book may not be the most useful reference book you’ll ever buy and I wouldn’t recommend reading it from cover to cover. I also have no idea how possible it is to get hold of outside Brazil but it’s certainly a lot of fun and would make a great Christmas present for a serious Portuguese-speaking fan of football or the Brazilian Portuguese language.

Click here for more information about the book.

Book Review: Jack Scholes – Quebrar o galho / Break the branch

Jack Scholes is a language practitioner and a man with a great wealth of experience teaching English and learning and speaking Portuguese in Brazil. He recently spoke at a conference I attended and this was one of his most recent titles. A colleague of mine bought this book so I had a chance to read it and I thought I’d recommend it on here because it’s quite helpful for learners of Portuguese.

The book lists alphabetically various Brazilian Portuguese phrases and idioms or unusual words and usages and provides explanations in context for an English-speaking audience. The title of the book - Quebrar o galho (Break the Branch) is one such Brazilian idiom meaning to improvise, to do something any-old-way. It’s a great little reference book and quite a fun read – what I would call a great “toilet” book, something to leave by the loo (UK)/ jon (USA) and flick through when you’re doing your business.

Having said that, the book is possibly a bit too concise as I think there are multiple meanings and nuances to some of the phrases involved. For example, dor-de-cotovelo (pain in the elbow) is an idiom which, according to Jack Scholes, just means “jealousy”. My wife, a nordestino Brazilian, claims that the expression really refers to jealousy between lovers – in other words, it’s quite an adult phrase and used in only specific situations. Equally, at one point, Jack Scholes lists a variety of uses for the word “mal”, (which he says means “not well”) but neglects to mention that the word can also be used to stand for wicked or evil.

I’m not sure how easy it is to get a hold of this in the UK or the USA as the version I have is published in Brazil, but for intermediate learners of Brazilian Portuguese it would make a handy addition to your textbooks. In any case, I’ll list it in the Links & Resources page. Click here for more information on the title.