Ronaldo dressed as a nun!

If you’re a fan of football, or even if you’re not, you have to watch this video! Ronaldo, now at Corinthians, is once again a hero after he scored 13 goals to help Corinthians to the state championships here in Brazil. Here is Ronaldo singing a number from Sister Act. Someone has helpfully subtitled the song back into Portuguese. Pay attention to the appearance of Brazilian president Lula on piano…

And, if you haven’t seen this already, this is what happened when Corinthians lifted the state championship trophy. Fireworks + streamers + raised platform = potential health and safety hazard. But, in true Brazilian form, once the fire was out everyone just got on with the business of being in a party…

Madonna

Madonna performed to 70,000 people at the Maracana last night. Apparently, it rained for some of the show prompting Madge to reach for an umbrella at one point. Click here for a bunch of the news reports and pictures about it.

Two videos with subtitles of Madonna here. Just search “Madonna legendado” for a whole lot more including some interviews.

CARAS

If you`re ever in a waiting room in Brazil, you`re bound to have copies of CARAS lying around. CARAS means faces (or, in slang, it could mean “guys” or people). It`s the Brazilian version of Hello! or OK magazine, filled with pictuers of dream houses, weddings, fashion and celebrities.

The CARAS website has some good content for all ages and if Hello! magazine was your thing in English you should definitely check this out to help your Portuguese: http://www.caras.com.br/

What I really, really want, though, is a link to CARAS International which is a weekly publication from the same people with bilingual English-Portuguese articles about celebrities from around the world. I`ve only seen the print edition (pictued above) so keep an eye out for it if you`re in an airport somewhere, or in a Brazilian waiting room.

But, I can`t find an online edition for CARAS International… If anyone knows of one, post the link here please?

R.E.M. in Brazil

R.E.M. have been touring South America, with several shows in Brazil – their first since 2001. Sadly, I wasn’t  able to make it as they’re only playing some 3000kms away in the south of the country. Anyway, here is a good-quality Brazilian-Portuguese-subtitled video of the band performing their hit Everybody Hurts.

Michael Stipe reportedly wrote the chorus to the song Imitation of Life with the line “that sugar cane that tasted sweet” after his visit to Brazil in which he tasted a drink made from sugar cane. The song is very popular in Brazil and here is a subtitled version of the track. The only problem is that the lyrics don’t make a lot of sense in English, let alone in Portuguese, so good luck…

The  press have been covering R.E.M. coming to Brazil. Here is an interview with leadsinger Michael Stipe from Folha Sao Paulo and here is a report from Globo about R.E.M.’s support of Obama (including a subtitled video clip). And here are some photos from their Sao Paulo show. Stipe’s only televison interview came with Globo news and you can watch it here (dubbed).

McFly in Brazil

McFlymania is hitting Brazil this week as the British outfit play their first shows in Brazil, in Rio and Sao Paulo.

Here’s a few links about it to read if this is your thing: 1) a set of photos from their show in Sao Paulo, 2) A report on what’s been going on here. And, why not a couple of subtitled videos of their songs…

And there’s actually quite a lot on YouTube in Portuguese about McFly including several documentaries and interviews with subtitles. Have a look here.

Globo quizzes

The Globo website G1.com.br has some nice animated, interactive quizzes on different topics. They only take about 5 minutes to do.

September 21st was International Day of Peace so there’s a Q&A on famous peacemakers of our times. Click here for that.

And if you’re keeping a close eye on the US President election. Test your knowledge of who’s who with this short interactive quiz in Portuguese. Click here for that one.

Friends with Brazilian Portuguese subtitles

I’ve been getting back into Friends recently, for some reason. When I was looking online for some stuff for my English students I found a few clips from Friends with Portuguese subtitles. Here they are.

1. The theme tune from the Rembrandts. Man, it all looks soooo 90s! The cast are looking fresh-faced too.

2. A compilation of Phoebe’s songs from the show along with subtitles (surreal, I know).

3. Clips from “the boys” of Friends – Ross, Chandler and Joey. Enjoy!

And, actually, there’s loads more – just search YouTube under “Friends legendas” and see what comes up.

Reading the Olympics

Olympics 2008

So, the Olympics start tomorrow – the Opening ceremony will begin at the unhelpful time of 9am in Brazil. I recently read a series of short interviews in TAM Nas Nuvens Magazine which were with Olympic debutant Brazilian athletes. It was a good read – of special interest was one of them, Rogerio Clementino, who will be the first black competitor in show-jumping (hipismo) ever to compete at the games.

The interviews can be found on the TAM Nas Nuvens magazine. It takes a bit of getting used to navigating this website, but basically click here to access the site. Then click on the pictures of the magazines on the right hand side. Then click on Outros Ediçoes at the top of the page. Click on the No.7 July 08 magazine (with a picture of two brothers on the front). Once the magazine opens you have to navigate to pages 69-79 by clicking on the page numbers below. There is a indice at the top which helps a bit too. Found it? If so, then have a read of the 5 short interviews – using the English translation along side to help with any words you don’t know – and see if you can do this quiz.

Finally, if the Olympics is your thing and you can’t get enough of it – have a browse of the most recent Veja magazine which has dozens of articles on all sides of the Olympics.

Quiz Questions

Read the questions below and decide which athlete is being referred to (A-E). As usual click Answers at the top to see if you were right.

A = Cesar Cielo
B = Rogerio Clementino
C = Fabiana Murer
D = Bruno Fontes
E = Yane Marques

Which two athletes talk about the importance of understanding animals? 1___ 2___
Which three athletes have trained/will train in a country other than China or Brazil prior to the Olympics? 3___ 4___ 5___
Which athlete entered their sport thanks to encouragement from parents? 6___
Which athlete entered their sport thanks to the hobby of a cousin? 7___
Which athlete sees their humble up-bringing in life as a motivation to succeed? 8___
Which athlete says people often mistake their sport for another? 9___
Which athlete compares their sport to a game of chess? 10___

Strange story involving Gordon Brown

I read this last week and it made me laugh – a strange story involving a protestor and Gordon Brown, the British PM. It contains lots of unusual vocabulary which are tested in the quiz below. Click here to read the story in Portuguese.

If the level of Portugese in the article is too high for you, I recommend reading the same story in English first. Click here for the English version.

Quiz questions

What do you think these words and phrases mean in English?

Be careful! Some words are homonyms – that is, they appear to be the same as other Portuguese words but have different meanings. (For example, a homonym in English is match - football match, light a match).

Click Answers above to check your results.

1) arrancou
2) bolso
3) doeu bastante
4) deu umas risadinhas
5) fontes
6) grades do portão
7) grudar
8 ) manga do terno
9) terceira pista
10) tubo de cola

Imperatives (Look! Enjoy! Dream!)

Imperatives – what are they?

Imperatives are a strange beast in Portuguese. An imperative is a way of forming a verb to add emphasis. It is used for commands and orders, instructions (for example in recipes) and to sell products in advertising or in speech to stress what you want somebody else to do or understand. In other words, it’s what you think is “imperative” for other people to act on.

If you never studied English grammar (like me) I’m sure you’d never stopped to think about them before. This is because in English imperatives are the same as the present simple tense. We say “You look at the shop” and “Look at the shop!” and we use the same word in both sentences “look”. Or, “They read the instructions” and “Read the instructions” have different meanings and stress but the same word “read”.

Yes, but in Portuguese – what are they?

In Portuguese, you change the ending of the verbs like this: -ar verbs finish with e, and -er and -ir verbs finish with a. (Click here to read more if you don’t know what I’m on about). This totally scrambled my brain when I was taught it in Portuguese class a few years ago. It wasn’t until I came to Brazil and it heard it in practice that I could comprehend the strange logic behind it. I now think having this extra way of providing emphasis lends Portuguese a subtlety lacking in English.

Anyway, let’s get to some examples. Common imperatives I have to use while raising my two year old son are:

Olhe! = Look! (from the verb olhar)
Pare! = Stop! (from the verb parar)
Sente! = Sit! (from the verb sentar)
Coma! = Eat! (from the verb comer)

And some from adverts…

Aproveite! = Enjoy! (from the verb aproveitar)
Relaxe! = Relax! (from the verb relaxar)
Aprenda! = Learn! (from the verb aprender)
Sonhe! = Dream! (from the verb sonhar)

An example of the last one is given in the video above. The video is an adidas advert, in English with Portuguese subtitles, featuring famous footballers visiting San Marino. The adidas slogan for this campaign is Sonhe Grande – Dream Big. The video also includes an irregular imperative – the verb ver (to see) which becomes veja and not va. Veja (see!) is also the name of Brazil’s most popular news magazine.

Irregular Imperatives

The are several irregular imperatives which, if you need more help, I recommend looking up in a grammar book. But, here are four important ones:

The verb ir (to go) is vá. For example: A mother says to her child “Vai para cama” (You go to bed) and then when the child disobeys she turns the suggestion into an order “Vá! Agora!” (Go! Now!)

The verb ser (to be) is seja. For example: Seja bemvindos – Be welcome
The verb estar (to be) is esteja. For example: Esteja aqui – Be here
The verb come (vim) is venha. For example: Venha cá – Come here

Portuguese that looks like English

Finally, it’s strange to me that some regular imperative -ar verbs, by losing the -ar and gaining an -e, end up looking exactly like English. The following four verbs appear exactly the same in English as in Portuguese: Imagine! Compare! Ignore! Use! The only problem, of course, is we don’t pronounce them the same…