Portuguese people are not at all shy or retiring. When we lived in Uruguay, we found the people to be mostly quiet and not given to outbursts. I accidentally made a workman cry when I told him that my high school woodworking class would have done a better job on the cabinets. Hey... I was angry. Our house in Ilhavo is right on the street and you can hear conversations coming a block away.
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| One of the many local cafes |
Coffee is just an excuse to sit around and talk for hours. When I stop into a cafe... it is to get a coffee. But I learned, today, that the best thing I could do, to learn Portuguese, is sit outside, with a coffee, next to a full table and just sit back and listen. Almost free Portuguese lesson.
The Portuguese have a great sense of humor. They love laughing and that is a great advantage when you are massacring their language. I think they get a laugh out of my poor attempts. I remember when we lived in Germany, that the locals enjoyed teaching us slang phrases, because it amused them when we spoke them. While sitting at a table for lunch, I said (and this is not spelled correctly) "schmeiss mal die butter ubber", which, loosely translated means "toss me the butter babe". The head of the table, gave me a solemn look and said "don't lower yourself, Wally".
A German friend of mine who spent some time with me in New York, learned some phrases and tried them out on his wife. "You know, dear, this morning we had a job that we thought was a 'piece of cake', but it turned out to be 'a real bear'." He was so proud of that, but it was so funny to hear him say it. So I get the humor of listening to my attempts to speak the language.
Anyway... got off the track. So the take-away is that I love Portugal and am very glad we are here.
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