Yappr.com

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that ted.com have videos with subtitles, sometimes in Portuguese. This week I discovered a website that goes one better – yappr.com. It is built for the language learning community and has a selection of videos from many genres and topics that you can watch with two streams of subtitles – English and another language. The subtitles are generated within the community of users on the site and then peer checked and approved. There seems to be a large Brazilian Portuguese presence on the site and I’ve already watched a few videos this way with a Brazilian Portuguese stream of subtitles. Fantastic language resource, check it out here: www.yappr.com.

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.

Vagalume gap fill (or how to learn Portuguese through pop songs)

There’s a very cool website called Vagalume in Brazil which has lyrics for thousands of songs, both from Brazil and internationally. But Vagalume excels where other similar sites might fall down… it often includes the music video to watch at the same time AND it has a snazzy function called “Aprenda” which hides a random selection of the lyrics. Your job is to listen to the song and write them back in – then check your answers at the end to see how you did.

English teachers love this website because it provides ready made examples of “gap fill” activities but there’s no reason you couldn’t use it for learning Portuguese. Just pick a Brazilian band or singer (such as Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Ivete Sangalo or whoever), click “Aprenda”, play the video and try and fill in the missing gaps.

Here’s a link to the top 100 most popular artists. Scroll down, find a Brazilian name and see what you think of the music… http://vagalume.uol.com.br/top_artistas.html

(ps. The site also has some good interviews, games and other resources – all useful for people learning Brazilian Portuguese)

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.

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).

Another globo quiz…

Test your geography with another quiz from Globo. Can you tell the difference between two countries with similar names in Brazilian Portuguese? I got 9/10. Click here to access the site.

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?

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.