Colloquial Portuguese is a Great Gift

What would you answer in the following situation? You are in Brazil and you meet your friend to go out for dinner:

YOU: Oi, tudo bem?
YOUR FRIEND: Nossa! Tô um bagaço. Bati perna o dia todo resolvendo coisas.
YOU: O quê?
YOUR FRIEND: Vamos? Estou verde de fome! E hoje vamos colocar o papo em dia :)
YOU: Ummmm... OK.

Colloquial expressions are a big part of life. In Brazil, they challenge even advanced students who often feel frustrated when they are among their Brazilian friends and participate in dialogues that are always full of idiomatic expressions.

The situation above between you and your friend is a good example of how colloquial expressions may prevent an advanced student from understanding the most basic interactions. Think about it for a moment. How many times a day you say things like “What’s up?”, “I pulled an all-nighter”?, “I’m a wreck”, “We need to catch up”?

I remember when I first arrived in San Francisco to spend three months studying English. I was living in a resident hotel full of international students. Fun times :) I had studied English in Brazil for many years and was fluent in the language. However I felt pretty lost when speaking with Americans. I remember one particupar morning at the hotel when one of the young staff members greeted me with “What’s up?” All I could do was stare and say, “Excuse me?” Later I could not believe that during all those years studying English no one had ever taught me something as simple as “What’s up?”!

My experiences learning English and teaching Portuguese inspired my passion for the real spoken language. That’s what Street Smart Brazil is all about. Yes, there are things that only living your life in the new language will be able to teach you, but we can take action to bridge the gap between what you learn and what you live when you travel to my beautiful Brazil. You can speak Portuguese that is modern and real, yet elegant and correct.

It was this same respect for the need to communicate well that led professora Renata and I to publish 51 Portuguese Idioms – Speak Like a Brazilian. We wanted to show colloquial expressions in the context of real-life situations. By the way, all the expressions in the opening dialogue above are in the book :)

51 Portuguese Idioms is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble as an e-book. But wait, you do not need to have a Kindle or a Nook. You can read our book anywhere with free reading apps for your iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mac, PC, Blackberry or Android:

• Free Kindle reading app
• Free Nook reading App

To give your friends the gift of good Brazilian Portuguese, simply click the Give as a Gift button on Amazon.com. Você vai botar pra quebrar :)

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For professional Portuguese lessons and intercultural coaching, visit StreetSmartBrazil.com. We offer one-on-one and group classes in person and via webcam for individuals and organizations.