Re: Advice for a Newbie from an expert like Porker etc.
Webmaster: HombrePosted by Catocony on May 18, 2004 - 5:35 am
In Reply to: Re: Advice for a Newbie from an expert like Porker etc. posted by Suzuki on May 18, 2004 - 0:05 am
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Suzuki, No problem, as you'll see there's a good number of us on the board who aren't politically correct. Now, the Portuguese never enslaved the Indians, they killed most of them instead, either directly or through disease. Just like the Spanish did with theirs and like we did with ours. The reason I brought up Spanish is that my Spanish is pretty good, and on several occasions, including 3 weeks ago, I've been with native Spanish speakers while roaming a terma or at a restaurant. The kid 3 weeks ago was from the DC area (where I am) and was on his first trip to Brasil. He's Salvadoran (we have a huge Salvadoran population here) and was amazed that, while he understood written Portuguese fairly well (very similar to Spanish, many common words and roots), spoken, he didn't have a clue. He ran into the same problem I did on my first trip down, when I used Spanish with the garotas. They understand some words here and there, and vice versa, but the pronunciation and diction of the common words is so different, you would never believe they were the same on paper. My point is, which I constantly make to new guys, is that Portuguese is a wholly seperate language. It isn't Spanish with a funny accent! You wouldn't think to use Spanish in Paris or Montreal, would you? Well, in spoken form, Portuguese is about as similar to Spanish as French is. Many, many mongers, including myself, make the mistake of believing the Spanish or at least Spanglish will get the job done. It doesn't. Now, my definition of getting the job done may be different than some. Hundreds of mongers are in Rio almost every day, and most speak little or no Portuguese. Can you get by with just English? Sure, it's not that difficult to find a Help girl who speaks enough English to close a deal. However, those are the exact ones you want to avoid! You'll do fine without speaking the language, but you will miss out on quite a bit.
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