www.almanaquebrasil.com.br

I recently checked out this website. It claims to be an almanac of Brazilian popular culture. It certainly has a lot of content on many strange and interesting aspects of Brazilian people and life. For example, I discovered that there are parts of Brazil with their own currency – a measure designed to keep money in the local economy. I also read an article about an incredible British lady called Margaret Mee who spent years cataloguing flowers in the Amazon, and so on…

Anyway, short, pithy, well-written Portugese articles are here.

40 ways to make the world a better place

To celebrate 40 years of their publication, Veja magazine has invited specialists from different fields to comment on how to make Brazil a better place. The list, with short explanations, is an excellent mini-manifesto on how to make the world a better place. Apart from being very interesting, it’s also packed with loads of essential vocabulary!

You can read it here: http://veja.abril.com.br/100908/p_110.shtml#17

Radiohead in Brazil

Radiohead have a huge following in Brazil and are playing a number of shows here as part of their tour for In Rainbows, their latest record. One of my English students from here in Natal got a flight down to Rio to see them on the weekend and he was on cloud 9 when he got back. He said it worth every centavo!

I read this report last week which was quite funny. The address for picking up Radiohead tickets was given out wrong resulting in much confusion for desperate fans. Click here for that.

Here’s a report with links to photos and other stuff about their concert in Rio. Click here for that.

Here’s a video of one of their earlier songs – Fake Plastic Trees – with Portuguese subtitles.

Finally, quite a few international artists have been coming to Brazil recently, including Keane and Iron Maiden. Pictures of these and others are here. For videos of them in Portuguese, just search “legendado” with the name of the band on YouTube.

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).

Dictionary of the financial crisis

Found this handy article which has a glossary of words used in describing the present financial chaos. It was put together by the magazine VEJA and does quite a good job of explaining both English and Portuguese words in a fairly simple way. Useful if like me you’ve read everything there is to read about the recent crash and still come out scratching your head. Read it here.

Nobel Peace Prize winners

As a break from all the stories of financial krakatowa, here’s an article about the recent winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. This year’s winner was announced last week with the Finnish ex-president Martti Ahtisaari taking the honour for his conflict resolution work in different parts of the world. Globo’s run-down of past winners is interesting. Click here to access the article. As usual, I’ve included a short quiz to test your comprehension. No word help this time though!

Quiz questions

1) Which two winners were awarded prizes principally for their work with the environment?
2) Which winners won awards for their work in reconciling people of their own nation with a neighbouring enemy?
3) Which winners idea was exported to 58 countries?
4) Which two candidates are highlighted for their work with human rights?
5) How many other UN Secretary Generals have their been before Annan?
6) Which TWO organisations are winners of the Nobel Prize in the list?
7) How is “The Good Friday Agreement” translated into Portuguese in the article?

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

Uma chance de viver (Animal Prosthetics)

I read a genuinely fascinating article recently in the print addition of Veja on prosthetics used for animals. It raises some interesting questions – are animals worth the time and expense of top scientists and developers when the human need is still so great? But, as the article explains, maybe the developments in animals prosthetics will benefit humans too. The text has some complex and technical words but is rich in the vocabulary of the animal kingdom, body, health and science. I’ve included a short glossary below and then some T/F questions to see if you’ve comprehended the text well. Click the Answers page above to see how you did. You can read the article here: http://veja.abril.com.br/180608/p_140.shtml

A short glossary of words from the article:

águia = eagle
bico = beak
cachorro = dog
cão (pl. cães) = big dogs/hounds/canines
cauda = tail (i.e. flipper on a fish)
ceifadeira de trigo = scythe, large knife (lit. chopper of wheat)
desafio = challenge
golphinho = dolphin
doença desconhecida = unknown illness
leve = light
osso = bone
osséa = bony
parafusos = screws
pata = animal foot/paw
tiro = bullet

True or False?

1. The eagle lost part of its beak as a result of human action.
2. The eagle has a permanent beak made from nilon.
3. The elephant lost its foot by stepping on a land mine.
4. The elephant already has a prosthetic foot much lighter than 10 kilos.
5. Two dolphins are mentioned in the article – one is from Fiji, the other Florida.
6. The dolphin called Winter was injured by a speed boat.
7. The suction gel developed for a dolphin proved to be useful for an American soldier.
8. Fixing prostethics to bones involves a high risk of infection.

Ronaldo

I found a great little mini-site dedicated to the former best-in-the-world football/soccer player Ronaldo, the “baby-faced killer”, the “Fenomeno”. If you like football, or even if you don’t, read on.

Click here to get to the Veja website. Then scroll down and on the left, under Espiciais, click Ronaldo. Make sure you have your sound switched on – watch and listen to the slideshow, see some video clips, read the chronology and look at some of the stats of his playing and scoring record then attempt the quiz at the bottom. Everything’s there for you to have a very nicely presented 20 minute Portuguese lesson.

Here is a short glossary to help you with some words which come up in the chronology section:

acima de seu peso = overweight
anunciar = to announce
careca = bald head
joelho = knee
marcar = to score a goal
longe das gramados = (lit. far from the grass) off the pitch/out of action/away from football.
madrugada = after midnight, the early hours of the morning
palhaço = clown
partida = match/fixture
perna = leg
sofrer = to suffer
torcedor = a fan/supporter
travestis = transvestites
xixi = urine/pee