The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 12:28 am
Iguanas are all over the place on the island where I live. We see them crossing the road. Their gait is hilarious. I've seen them in the mangroves, on the tops of walls and even swimming from time to time. The iguana's tail is long- longer than he is, and so is my tale. With the situation at HTLAL still up in the air, I have decided to make this my new home. That doesn't mean I won't go back and visit our old home from time to time, but I still can't access old HTLAL via the domain name from here. We're always on island time.
I plan to write about my languages and what I am doing with them to improve. My Portuguese and Spanish are advanced. My Haitian Creole is at basic fluency and I am actively improving it. Ladino is for fun, though, I am at basic fluency in it too. I will update some of my most popular posts at HTLAL here. Moderators have my full permission to use myHTLAL posts here.
Lately, I have been working on Portuguese and Haitian Creole quite a bit. Portuguese, because I want to build on what I have accomplished and Haitian Creole, because I would like to get it to a better level. M ta renmen pale kreyòl. I have managed to find sufficient resources to improve it through books, some tv, twitter, news sites, music and blogs. I am enjoying the process very much right now. It's fun. Resources aren't as easy to find for HC as they are for Portuguese and Spanish but they're out there. It's a fascinating culture to learn about and the people are very friendly. I doubt that my Haitian Creole will ever reach the level of my two main languages, though, simply because of the fact that there aren't quite enough resources available without living in Haiti.
I've been going through a few series in Portuguese in the past few months. One that I have really enjoyed is "Toma lá dá cá"
.
It's a well written comedy about two(?) totally dysfunctional families. Two families live across the hall from each other in the same condominium complex in Rio but... The husband in Unit A (Arnoldo) used to be married to and has children with his ex wife (Celinha) in Unit B. Celinha's current husband (Mario Jorge) used to be married to and has children with his ex wife (Rita) in Unit A who is married to his current wife's ex husband. It's a hilarious mess. Add in a crazed nymphomaniac grandmother, a nutty condominium manager whose husband is omnisexual, a beautiful daughter with the IQ of a tomato plant, a maid shared between the two families who revels in telling stories from her hometown in Paraná (lá em Pato Branco...) and a teenage boy who just wants to be normal and... hilarity ensues.
I have finished all 91 of the 40 minute episodes over three "seasons" ("series" for the UK). There are no subtitles. This was a real challenge because of the slang and vocabulary unique to Brazil, not to mention the Carioca accents. Thanks to the help of Brazilian friends and Dicionário Informal i got much better as the series went on. The show has a lot of "bordões" or "catchphrases" like Dona Copelia's "Prefiro não comentar", Celinha's "Ta-na-na", and Mario Jorge's derogatory nickname for his daughter, Isadora- "Olho junto" and "Mau Caráter".
I have also finished all the episodes of Preamar
Preamar is an HBO Brasil series about a family man who loses his job as a high powered corporate banker by having made some dubious trades, goes back to his family and lies to them by telling them he's on a "sabbatical" from work. Their apartment faces Ipanema Beach in Rio. He soon notices the rather large underground economy taking place on the beach and starts to get in on it by providing the local boss with marketing tips. Of course, his kids are messed up and the wife still thinks they have money. Wouldn' t you if you had a maid and cook and lived in a highrise apartment overlooking Ipanema Beach? "Preamar" means "high tide" in English and the show has all the consequences of that word.
Right now I am watching "Magnífica 70" another HBO Brasil Original
This series is only up to 9 episodes at present but it is majorly cool. It's set in 1970's Brasil , during the military dictatorship. Films were censored. The main character, Vicente, is a federal censor. He also moonlights by directing "pornochanchadas". A pornochanchada is a sort of Brazilian very soft core porn with just a tad of nudity and lots of suggestion, very tame by modern standards but scandalous to the military regime. Think "Mad Men" in Brazil. The show is quite well produced and acted with a high quality of production.
I found the opening theme on youtube. The "groovy" music of the intro theme is from 1973 and called "Sangue Latino" (Latin Blood) by the group Secos e Molhados
That's enough for now, I just got a copy of Hamlet translated into Haitian Creole in the mail today and can't wait to start reading it.
I plan to write about my languages and what I am doing with them to improve. My Portuguese and Spanish are advanced. My Haitian Creole is at basic fluency and I am actively improving it. Ladino is for fun, though, I am at basic fluency in it too. I will update some of my most popular posts at HTLAL here. Moderators have my full permission to use myHTLAL posts here.
Lately, I have been working on Portuguese and Haitian Creole quite a bit. Portuguese, because I want to build on what I have accomplished and Haitian Creole, because I would like to get it to a better level. M ta renmen pale kreyòl. I have managed to find sufficient resources to improve it through books, some tv, twitter, news sites, music and blogs. I am enjoying the process very much right now. It's fun. Resources aren't as easy to find for HC as they are for Portuguese and Spanish but they're out there. It's a fascinating culture to learn about and the people are very friendly. I doubt that my Haitian Creole will ever reach the level of my two main languages, though, simply because of the fact that there aren't quite enough resources available without living in Haiti.
I've been going through a few series in Portuguese in the past few months. One that I have really enjoyed is "Toma lá dá cá"
.
It's a well written comedy about two(?) totally dysfunctional families. Two families live across the hall from each other in the same condominium complex in Rio but... The husband in Unit A (Arnoldo) used to be married to and has children with his ex wife (Celinha) in Unit B. Celinha's current husband (Mario Jorge) used to be married to and has children with his ex wife (Rita) in Unit A who is married to his current wife's ex husband. It's a hilarious mess. Add in a crazed nymphomaniac grandmother, a nutty condominium manager whose husband is omnisexual, a beautiful daughter with the IQ of a tomato plant, a maid shared between the two families who revels in telling stories from her hometown in Paraná (lá em Pato Branco...) and a teenage boy who just wants to be normal and... hilarity ensues.
I have finished all 91 of the 40 minute episodes over three "seasons" ("series" for the UK). There are no subtitles. This was a real challenge because of the slang and vocabulary unique to Brazil, not to mention the Carioca accents. Thanks to the help of Brazilian friends and Dicionário Informal i got much better as the series went on. The show has a lot of "bordões" or "catchphrases" like Dona Copelia's "Prefiro não comentar", Celinha's "Ta-na-na", and Mario Jorge's derogatory nickname for his daughter, Isadora- "Olho junto" and "Mau Caráter".
I have also finished all the episodes of Preamar
Preamar is an HBO Brasil series about a family man who loses his job as a high powered corporate banker by having made some dubious trades, goes back to his family and lies to them by telling them he's on a "sabbatical" from work. Their apartment faces Ipanema Beach in Rio. He soon notices the rather large underground economy taking place on the beach and starts to get in on it by providing the local boss with marketing tips. Of course, his kids are messed up and the wife still thinks they have money. Wouldn' t you if you had a maid and cook and lived in a highrise apartment overlooking Ipanema Beach? "Preamar" means "high tide" in English and the show has all the consequences of that word.
Right now I am watching "Magnífica 70" another HBO Brasil Original
This series is only up to 9 episodes at present but it is majorly cool. It's set in 1970's Brasil , during the military dictatorship. Films were censored. The main character, Vicente, is a federal censor. He also moonlights by directing "pornochanchadas". A pornochanchada is a sort of Brazilian very soft core porn with just a tad of nudity and lots of suggestion, very tame by modern standards but scandalous to the military regime. Think "Mad Men" in Brazil. The show is quite well produced and acted with a high quality of production.
I found the opening theme on youtube. The "groovy" music of the intro theme is from 1973 and called "Sangue Latino" (Latin Blood) by the group Secos e Molhados
That's enough for now, I just got a copy of Hamlet translated into Haitian Creole in the mail today and can't wait to start reading it.