Last night I did Lesson 8 (of 16) of Pimsleur's Portuguese I, introductory conversation. We finally got to two important sentences: "I want a beer" and "Where is the bathroom?" The other useful statement I've learned from this course and have actually used successfully is "I don't speak Portuguese."
I am frustratingly dependent on Angela for many practical issues. For example, the hotel sends someone in every day to clean (washes the dishes, makes the bed, sweeps the floor), but the sheets on the bed and the towels in the bathroom weren't changed after a week. So I put the dirty towels on the floor and the clean sheets, which someone had thoughtfully delivered, on the bed. The housekeeper changed the bed and put the dirty sheets on the floor with the towels. Who is supposed to wash the linens? This is something I can't negotiate in Portuguese, so Angela is trying to straighten things out between the hotel, the rental agent (a totally separate person), and the university (who is supposed to be paying the rental agent).
Other little things I have had to negotiate by myself: how to open the milk carton (no instructions, no "affordances"), how to flush the toilet (again, not totally obvious!), how to get and pay for food in the cafeteria in the hotel (that's one where I could watch others and learn from them).
1 comment:
OK, you can get a beer and find your way to the bathroom. Now look for the lesson on how to say "I want a very dry Plymouth martini, straight up with a lemon twist."
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