Do you like Brazilian Portuguese?

Cittanova   Fri Jan 27, 2006 5:56 pm GMT
''I woull say that American English is less prestigous than UK English in the EU. ''

That's ridiculous. European use American English when they sing in English. Even 99% of British pop artists prefer American English when they sing.

And if you're from a country that exibits programs and movies with original sound (instead of dubbing), you are more likely to get familiar with the American English.

Here in Slovenia, everyone says [evribadi] and [daens], not [everibodi] and [dans].
Alison   Fri Jan 27, 2006 6:09 pm GMT
>>>Any more questions Alison? By the way, are you from the Internet police? <<<

Yes how did you guess?
You know that exaggerated imagination is a serious offence?
Mariana   Fri Jan 27, 2006 6:25 pm GMT
Alison

»»You know that exaggerated imagination is a serious offence? »»

I don´t claim to knowing everything. So how sould I know? Are you going to take me to court?
Guest   Fri Jan 27, 2006 6:37 pm GMT
Larissa

As far as TEACHING AND LEARNING in SCHOOLS, people in the EU will prefer the British accent over the American accent because British English is still perceived to be more prestigious than American English.
Paulista   Sat Jan 28, 2006 1:43 am GMT
I think that the Portuguese language ought to be reformed. I would hate to see how in 100 years from now the European and African portuguese would be difused from the Brazilian portuguese. This happens because of the lack of importance portuguese-speaking countries give to their language, very different from the perspectives of Spain and its hispanic ex-colonies. They wanted to make Spanish a strong language, capable of being understood by anyone who spoke it around the world. They established a determined vocabulary, one grammar, and one phonetic, and yet, in an act of modesty, they could preserve each individual form of accent, many vocabulary words, and made it possible for each country to prevail with its own way and uniqueness of writing. In other words they unified a language, and yet, they preserved the many ways of speaking it. This is what portuguese needs. It needs a strong reform that won't allow Brazilians say "abridor de latas" and the Portuguese "abre-latas" (can opener), which then opens a whole distinct branch of words. Until this reform is made, portuguese will still be this segregated languages, where difference is not an example of richness.
Bossa Nova   Sat Jan 28, 2006 5:00 am GMT
I'm Chinese.

I have always wanted to learn Portuguese, and I know that Portuguese mainly divides into European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese.

So I would like to know, which I should choose to learn, and which of the pronunciation sounds more euphoniously, nasally and Frenchified?

And I tend to spend more time to learn Brazilian Portuguese, because I love Bossa Nova so much, I like female singer- ONO LISA.

Thank you for your patient reply, I wish I could get some good advice.

And please introduce something about the different pronunciation between European Portuguese and Brazilian Portugues, Thanks!!!
Chinese   Sat Jan 28, 2006 8:27 am GMT
Larissa   Sat Jan 28, 2006 6:50 pm GMT
"Did you check your dictionary? Where does it say it is American? Americans just use a synonym." yes I did and it says "cart" is used by Americans while "trolley" is used by the British, but it also says "baggage' is used by Americans, you can also find "luggage" but less often than in British English. So you can't say that BrE is the most used in Europe!
Larissa   Sat Jan 28, 2006 6:55 pm GMT
Cittanova Fri Jan 27, 2006 5:56 pm GMT
''I woull say that American English is less prestigous than UK English in the EU. ''

That's ridiculous. European use American English when they sing in English. Even 99% of British pop artists prefer American English when they sing.

And if you're from a country that exibits programs and movies with original sound (instead of dubbing), you are more likely to get familiar with the American English.

Here in Slovenia, everyone says [evribadi] and [daens], not [everibodi] and [dans].
Absolutely, I agree with you 100%
Mara   Sat Jan 28, 2006 8:08 pm GMT
Aqui se falou muito dos (sobre)nomes portugueses no Brasil. Vou contar minha estória pra vocês:

O que acontece é quando os imigrantes chegeram ao Brasil, muitos deles eram analfabetos (não sei se é o caso de seus avós, mas foram o caso dos meus), e no porto quando davam seus nomes e sobrenomes, o escrivão escrevia como bem entendia.

Meu sobrenome, Caseli, tem grafado de várias maneiras "Caselli, Cazeli e Cazelli" - sendo que o original é mesmo Caselli com ele duplo.

Mas o caso mais esdrúxulo é o sobrenome de minha mãe Detomini . O original era Detonni. Por algum motivo, o escrivão do porto de Santos, entendeu /detômini/. O pior é que quando as pessoas liam, acabavam por ler /detoMÍni/ e o sobrenome de meu antepassados mudou de "Detoni" para "Detomini".

Meu bisavô "Giuseppe Detonni" acabaou virando José Detomini
Alison   Mon Jan 30, 2006 2:23 pm GMT
>>>Mariana
»»You know that exaggerated imagination is a serious offence? »»

I don´t claim to knowing everything. So how sould I know? Are you going to take me to court? <<<

No one knows everything and most people forget what they learned after some time. Only teachers have to keep on repeating the same stuff all the time.

"Are you going to take me to court?"
What court? This is the XII century, probably public flagellation and then thrown to the dungeons is more likely. :D
Alison   Mon Jan 30, 2006 2:45 pm GMT
Larissa wrote:
>>>"Did you check your dictionary? Where does it say it is American? Americans just use a synonym." yes I did and it says "cart" is used by Americans while "trolley" is used by the British, but it also says "baggage' is used by Americans, you can also find "luggage" but less often than in British English. So you can't say that BrE is the most used in Europe!<<<

It is just about who uses more what word, but it is not an American English word it is British. I have a British dictionary it does not say anything about americans using the word.

Yes British is more used but hardly no one manages to get a British accent, England is much closer than the USA that is another reason to prefere British.
Alison   Mon Jan 30, 2006 2:50 pm GMT
Cittanova wrote:

>>>Here in Slovenia, everyone says [evribadi] and [daens], not [everibodi] and [dans].<<<

No matter how you pronounce the words, unless you have a special talent for languages, no one will notice how you pronounce it. That is because you will sound like a Slovenian native speaking English not a native English speaker.
Mariana   Mon Jan 30, 2006 3:21 pm GMT
Alison

@PEACE@
Naldo   Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:09 pm GMT
Hi Chinese,

Having learned Portuguese myself I think I may give you my opinion.
Brazilian Portuguese is easier because of the stretched vowels.
There are about 18 times more Brazilian speakers than Portuguese Portuguese. In business you are eventually more likely to meet Brazilians than Portuguese. LIke you can read in this thread , a number of Brazilians 'feel' they don't understand Portuguese PT, while the Portuguese have no problem understanding the Brazilians.
Over and above that many Brazilians don't pronounce the 'r' which maybe handy for a Chinese speaker.
They say Hio de Janeiro, falah ( falar) etc.
If you like Bossa Nova as well, go for BR Pt.

When I moved from Brazil to Portugal, I took me a few days to get used to their way of speaking but really it never caused me any problem whatsoever.

Here in Portugal there is a Radio station that broadcasts in Mandarin, I don't know how often.

As they say: very much my 2 cents