Very impressive blog about learning languages

Here is another good post about Brazil!
http://www.lexiophiles.com/english/brazil-much-more-than-samba-rio-and-football/comment-page-1#comment-41376

I liked the 'more than samba' Blog... I must say I have never thought Brazilian girls would be 'easy'  I thought it would be the opposite! Unfortunately Brasileiras have that super sexy stereo type... everyone even from Australia mention the pretty girls down there when I talk about my travel plan. Unfortunately people who don't know, make up there own mind about how other countries work... even to ridiculous lengths.... Do you know how many times I have had to quell the stories that us Aussies ride kangaroos to work???
The blog made me feel good about my learning experience with Brazil, it's good not to be the typical gringo.
Luciana, your first post contained a link to the, "Change your keyboard to Portuguese" not the promised irishmans blog.
 

Bom dia, Species
 
Thaks for letting me know about the wrong link. I fixed it. It is worth reading his post.
 
Did people really ask you if you rode a kangaroo to work? I have a few Brazilian friends who were asked if we have monkeys and other animals on the streets. Luckily this does not happen often.
 

Fair dinkum, I was asked if we ride kangaroo's... personally I haven't been asked if I ride them to work... but it's been asked. I have been asked if we have the internet, even if we speak english!
This is not an isolated incident: http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070609221120AAH2Vlg
I get it though... sometimes you just can't know about every country in the world.
 
Monkeys in the streets!! yeah I could imagine that in Sao Paulo, along side the 230+ Heli-pads. But then again Rio does have that 'central' park with all those animals that the city feeds.

All I have to say about Benny's blog is WOW.
I spent a couple of hours reading that and it rocked my world.... After such an intensive time at the computer, squeezing the last bit of moisture from my tear ducts I am going to change how and where I plan to travel in Brazil. It inspired many ideas to make my portuguese smarter before I go. I realised that I have such a great advantage over the regular traveler and I am now determined to take advantage of it. Thank you so much for finding that, it was very encouraging!
Muito obrigado por sua maior inteligência
kkk

Yay, I am so happy that you enjoyed, and benefited from, the blog. I would love to learn about your new ideas to learn Portuguese!

Well they are kinda for me and my situation... But I will share a few things.
I love to ride my bike for exercise and I live about 2 miles from the Churrascaria, so I will do both.. ride to the restaurant, help them with preparing for the day and convince them to speak nothing but Portuguese to me while I am there... so I get both!
I was also going to try and think of my answer in portuguese when talking to my english speaking friends, it doesn't help with correcting my mistakes but for me it's about building confidence. Also using google search for translation and correcting grammar. (as long as it is at google.com.br) The highest number of hits wins!
I went through a lot of his posts.. he has so many though and I learned a lot about learning a language.