Say What?!

I had a "Say What?!" moment this weekend.

On Sunday we all headed down to a charity Feijoada with the family. I was hanging with the kiddos making sure they only got into innocent trouble when some dude came up to chat with them. Of course he somehow knew that Chatterbox is half American. Random news travels fast when served over rice, beans, and sausage.

The funny part was his reaction. When he talked to Chatterbox, he spoke in Portuguese. Obviously Chatterbox, being surrounded by Brazilian children as well, responded in Portuguese. Then man's reaction:

"WOW! You speak Portuguese really well!"

Say what? The man knows my kid's entire Brazilian extended family.We live in Brazil. His Father is Brazilian. Of course he speaks Portuguese!

And I know maybe for some reason or other, he thought that I would completely ignore the language of my son's home country, the language of his father, and the language of his family. I get that.

But the guy continued with his amazement and then it came out that he was not surprised at all that Chatterbox speaks English. Portuguese, for the half Brazilian kid living in Brazil surrounded by a Brazilian family, was the surprise.

It's moments like these when I wish we were teaching him some random 3rd language and I could say "Sorry, he only speaks Mandarin." 

Easter with Brits: My weekend homestay

I spent my long Easter weekend in the Brazilian countryside with a group of Brits (and a Mexican but she is married to a Brit and thus guilty by association).

It was an extremely fun weekend but also educational. I had heard, while growing up, that they speak English in England but I am here to tell you that they don't.

It seems that they speak a sister language.  Think of it as pig-latin but without the rhyme and reason.  It really was mind blowing. I had moments where I wished I had brought a handy English to British English dictionary. Lucky for me, these Brits could translate into an English that I understood. Phew, crisis adverted!

It's amazing these lovely people manage to communicate with the rest of the world in this "English." I for one was quite embarrassed by my lack of knowledge of it. I mean I do speak ghetto Portuguese and horribly bad Spangish. I thought I was one of those gifted in the art of communication.

Just to clear some things up, I would like to show what my wonderful British friends consider English.  Here is a small list with English followed by the British version of English.

• Line: Queue
• Eggplant: Aubergine
• 2 week stay: A fortnight (I'd like to know the history of this bad boy)
• Cupcake: Fairy cake (??)
• Busy: Engaged (don't know why anyone would ever find a British person pretentious) 
• Pacifier: Dummy
• Trash: Bin
• License plate: Number plate
• Strainer: colander (Pronounced: Call Un Der)

Just to keep things straight between the two countries, I have started studying British English. I figure if Angelina Jolie can do it, I can ace it.

Well I'm off to snog my husband and drink a lager.

Look at me, I'm international already! 

For those interested, here is a handy online dictionary: http://www.travelfurther.net/dictionaries/index.htm