Language Lessons
“Bome Gia,” the girl behind the counter of the Sampa — a colloquialism for Sao Paolo — says.
It’s “bom dia” in the book. The Lonely Planet Guide to Conversational Portuguese. It’s not likely to have words like “tessellated” or “rubious” but useful for life-saving operations like bathroom seeking and finding bank machines. “Gia,” with an undeniable J sound that slithers through her softly vibrating teeth as it comes out. It’s the first odd pronunciation of a language that on paper looks like a close cousin to Spanish, yet upon recitation comes out as a miasma with equal parts Spanish, French and Russian thrown into the mix. Perhaps some middle eastern flair like Hebrew or Farsi as well.
So “D” turns into a soft “G” sound. I can work with that.
Except that there are rules in play that no one’s clued me into. “Cidade,” the Portuguese word for “city,” is pronounced “sih-Dah-je.’ A “D” is a “D” when it wants to be, apparently.
“T” also loses its edge, becoming a lispy “ch.” If a word ends in L and is made plural, the L sound is replaced with “AYES.” The L is still there on paper, of course.
After grilling the Sampa girl for information on local restaurants, attractions and other things that can’t be missed — “you have to try the acai [pronounced "ah-Sah-EE"] — I use her undivided attention to get a better handle on Portuguese.
“First off,” I say, “Look at this:“ I pull out the barely touched Lonely Planet Guide, turning to the hip ‘At a bar…’ section towards the back. “Here’s rum, see. The drink? I like it. And in English — R U M. No problem. Portuguese? R U M. Perfect! Easy. Except they’ve got a phonetic section, you know, how it’s actually pronounced, right? And they spell its pronunciation H O O N G–”
Speaking of things being lost in translation...
“Si! Hoong!” She interjects with a smile. The ‘g’ at the end is almost silent, adding a nasally quality to the word. Nearly every sentence I’ve heard spoken here has the silent ‘g’ attached to something or an “oosh” sound that makes far too many words rhyme with “douche.” Most people are too mature to make this connection.
“Well,” I say in an only mildly condescending tone that immediately betrays my US nationality with my ability to turn ignorance into arrogance, “isn’t it weird to spell a word R U M, but then have a spelled out pronunciation that doesn’t have an R, U or M in it?”
“Oh nooo,” she explains with an overwhelmingly sunny smile. “You just don’t understand how our letters are pronounced! The R letter? It is pronounced like your H.”
“‘M’ is ‘Ng’ and ‘R’ is really an ‘H’? That makes sense…”
She smiles, cutting through my sarcasm with innocuous agreement.
“So Rio is actually pronounced “Hio”?”
“Si!” (actually, “SEENg” but there’s no confusion over this trivial change of speech).
“Why not just spell it with an H?”
The question apparently does not warrant a response, as it does not get more than the continuation of a smile that has yet to waver through my scrutinous assault on her language. As we discuss Rio — Hio– I’m reminded of another question I’ve had for some time about another popular Brazilian city whose pronunciation varies from person to person.
Every section of town I visited had plenty of strange, mildly disturbing murals like this.
“So how exactly do you say S A O Paolo? Some people say ’san’ Paolo, while others say ’sow’…”
“‘Sawng‘” she says, again with that silent ‘g’. “‘Sawng’ paolo. Any time a Portuguese word ends in ‘ao’ it gets that same ‘ohng’ sound.”
“…ok…”
It makes no sense to me, though I´ve wondered about the pronunciation of this city for years, so I appreciate the correction.
I´m here for three weeks. It´s not enough time to justify attempting to really learn a language, but some words just make life easier. I´ve seen others put together far better lists of the “need to know words”. Here´s all I cared to know for three weeks in Brazil:
Shopping: Numbers 1-1000, I Want…, How much is this?, Do you have…?
Directions: Right, Left, Street, Block
Basic Needs: Bathroom, Food, Water, Beer, Rum, Map, ATM Machine, Where is…?
Conversation: Please, Thank You, You´re Welcome
I´m probably missing a few, but one can get around passably with the above.
Surprisingly, “Thank you” gave me the most trouble. “Abrogado.” Every time I thanked someone, I inevitably said “Gracias…. uhhh, I mean, ABROGADO!” I never once said Abrogado first in all my time in Brazil.
Upon eventually leaving Brazil to head southward, on into Argentina, I spent a week thanking people inadvertently in Portoguese. Without meaning to, this place set me back a month or more on my Spanish.
Culture Shock Never Gets Old
A truly frugal traveler would’ve put some time into figuring out the local shuttle system, but I’m jetlagged and confused, have a new language and currency system to make sense of and I still feel marginally guilty for not saying goodbye to my temporary Peruvian girlfriend. There’s a wad of Brazilian cash in my pocket I’ve yet to make sense of. A truly intrepid traveler would’ve looked up exchange rates in advance and known how many dollars each local bill equates to. I haven’t been terribly intrepid lately.
Sao Paolo's Cathedral. It's impressive, but every major city down here seems to have its own, equally impressive cathedral. I think I'm starting to get a bit jaded.
I stare down at the rainbow of bills to find every major color represented, making money sorting decidedly more easy, except for the fact that the 2 and 100 Real — a word meaning both ‘Real’ and ‘Royal,’ it’s pronounced “ray-AHL,” except when pluralized it becomes “ray-EYES” — bills seem to be the same color blue. It’s some of the weirder cash I’ve seen so far; all fronts identically carry “The Effigy of the Republic,” a soulless female bust representing the country’s pro-republic stance. In a move surely lauded by Greenpeace, the bills’ backs portray some of Brazil’s indigenous critters, ranging from the Sapphire-spangled Emerald Hummingbird to the Golden Lion Tamarin.
And who could forget the Dusky Grouper? He gets the pristine placement on the 100-real note.
The cab ride to Sampa’s over an hour, even with little traffic. It’s hard to tell the personality of the city from my vantage point along its highways. True to its #6 spot on wikipedia’s “world’s most populous cities” list, an endless cluster of similar buildings flow by like a cheap animator’s repeated backdrop. Concrete Jungle Grays and Urban Planned Park Greens blur by under the overcast Sao — Sawng — Paolo sky.
I Get Around
Despite barely scratching the surface of the enormity that is Sao Paolo, I had little desire to discover more. Some cities just compel me to keep delving further into their personalities. Others push me away. The region of town I stayed in had all the charm and character of the village in New York City: young, hip, eccentric, arty, great restaurants and super-expensive to live there. I talked with young restaurant owners about setting up shop in the city after past lives working standard 9 to 5s. At a club, a Brazillian band played American monster rock ballads of the 80´s (sung with perfect American accents, only to switch into incomprehensible Portuguese between numbers.
The bustling town center. See how it bustles.
Cities are hubs of life and culture, the crossroads of a country of where history happened and is being made. Long-term traveling tends to make one jaded, and boundless access to museums of every variety become commonplace. Another Monet? Pssh. Every major city’s art gallery’s got one of those. Nice statue of a guy on a horse! But I saw one just like it in Quito, and I’m told the artist was an orphan with a clubfoot. Your Santander Building is cool, but it’s such a copy of the Empire State Building that brochures handed out upon entry explain “This building was designed as an imitation of the Empire State Building.” Nice park…
Actually, Sao Paolo does have one of one of the better urban parks I’ve come across. Even with a map, I got comically lost for close to an hour, finding myself in the same spot accidentally on three separate occasions. Multiple lakes, museums and fields for every major sport, all meticulously maintained. After riding the riverboat down to Peru and noting that it lacked garbage cans because everyone — crew included — used the river as a dumpster, finding not only rampant trashcans but recycling as well was a nice treat. Don’t get me started on the easy access to public water fountains that don’t induce explosive diarrhea.
A view from within Sao Paolo's central park
Some travelers are bored out of their mind by this city. Others have told me it’s among their favorite in South America. Maybe it’s got a quirky personality. Or maybe I just didn’t go to the right places…
Views From The Empire Sta– Santander Building
Despite admittedly being architecturally modeled after The Empire State Building, The Santander Building is less than forty stories tall. It still offers a fairly spectacular view of the city from its observation deck.
I’m fairly sure there’s no overlap of buildings between these pictures taken from atop Santander.
