The challenge

Okay so here it goes.  We have been living in Lisbon for three years come this August.  I have gained employment, our son is doing well, and my wife loves her job.  However I want to be better at Portuguese, specifically I want to take the DIPLE, which is an acronym for the intermediate level of Portuguese, in November.  The DIPLE is the Portuguese test which corresponds to B2 level.  C1 is more or less fluent but you have a strong accent and you get lost occasionally, with C2 having essentially native skill in the language.  In theory I could take the C2 in May 2013 should the spirit move me.
Now I have been thinking how to get there.  The US State Department estimates that it takes on average between 500-600 hours of instruction for a motivated English speaker to get to this level, or do the math, 15 weeks going full time.  I am embarrassed to say that I am not there yet after three years.
So here it is, my challenge, for the next month, July 20th, I will post a notice in Portuguese every day, complete sentence.  Então, o meu desafio, proximo mês, até vingismo de Julho, vou escrever uma noticia, em português, cada dia em frase completo.   

So here is crazy - one ca

Camões, or Luís de Camões is the other pillar of Portuguese literature.  As is the case with most works deemed literature it is important to have a handsome bound copy that you never read sitting in your library (I have a complete works of Shakespeare that is very impressive).  However I am one of those crazy people who has picked up and moved to Portugal and through no fault of my own has decided it would be fun to learn Portuguese.  Ha!
So I thought I might take these two things and try them together. 
Os Lusíadas is available in Portuguese and English as a public domain and a complete wiki in English as well though the English translation is the Mickle version done in 1775 which is supposed to be okay.
So here is the goal:  a verse a week

Canto Primeiro

1
As armas e os barões assinalados,
Que da ocidental praia Lusitana,
Por mares nunca de antes navegados,
Passaram ainda além da Taprobana,
Em perigos e guerras esforçados,
Mais do que prometia a força humana,
E entre gente remota edificaram
Novo Reino, que tanto sublimaram;

More Portuguese language stuff

This week has been a little bit of a short week, with Mardi Gras.  I spent Monday working on getting enrolled in "recibos verdes", green receipts which is the system in Portugal for free lancers to pay taxes.  Up until this year it was more or less an account book you bought from the government, now it is electronic.
Boring immigration part: I don't have a social security number (don't make any money, don't pay into social safety net, don't take from social safety net) so I thought I needed to get this first.  After 5 hours of waiting I found out this is wrong.

Good news is that I had a lot of time to work on my worksheets.  This week I got six done.  Which is a little bit behind schedule, since I slacked the rest of the week.  My biggest hurdle thus far has been committing the irregular verb conjugations to memory for the present and simple past.

I haven't found more language partners but I will be trolling the electronic boards looking for people to practice with.  I have also been posting signs up around the local campuses but this may not work too well either. I have thought I might instead try to use the power of the printer (impressora de computador) and make up a sign to post in one of the student cafes, (procuro pessoas para practicar português) while I do my worksheets.  I have this vision that I will get someone like Phil Hartman's character Susan in Love Werks but it could be really cool too.

I have also been slacking pretty hard core on doing my own random speaking opportunity generation.  I have asked a few folks and had a cool conversation with a woman and her son. He wanted to know what soccer team I liked, (que clube?) the mom had to explain.  I said "benfica" I hope that was right.  I usually do better on multiple choice questions anyway.

So to recap I need to finish about 20 worksheets in 18 days, find a few more people to speak with, random conversation generation, and job hunting.

Portuguese - the language

I was reading The Language Hacking Guide website put together by Benny Lewis. I went ahead and bought the book he has put together based on his experiences learning to become fluent in a language within three months as an adult.

I am about half way through the text in English and I would describe it as good but not fantastic. I would say his 'new' idea is not to let the polish of speaking in a native fashion get in the way of enjoying connecting with people in another language. Then he follows this up by identifying (correctly in my mind) that the difference between the polyglot and the monolingual is not some innate talent or brains but rather treating language learning as a project with specific, actionable and time sensitive goals and a classroom setting may or may not be helpful towards those goals.

So the first step is broadcasting one's goals, so here they are for the month of March:

1) Complete grammar book, Gramática Activa nível A1/2 by end of month. That is 35 additional worksheets and I must complete them with 95% or better.
2) 1 random interaction on the street in Portuguese every week day for a month.
3) Find two additional language partners - enough to meet 4 times a week

Caving in the Iberian Peninsula

Caving in Portugal and Spain.
Today we went to the cave complex at Maire d'Aire(grunta). This is a cave in the Serra de Aire and Candeeiros about an hour north of Lisbon via the A1. Tickets were around 6 Euros.

Over the past weekend we went to the Caves in Nerja on the Costa del Sol in the south of Spain along the Mediterranean coast.

I would describe the two caves as similar in kind. Spain has a well developed (perhaps over developed) complex complete with an amphitheater in the cave and the obligatory gift shop and restaurant. In Portugal the caves struck me as decidedly less developed. Both are worthy of a visit. The Portugal caves do not have prehistoric drawings but you don't get to see the drawings in Nerja so that doesn't really matter. In Nerja there is the obligatory display showing an artist rendering of how the people who lived in the cave lived and played in the stone age including some colorful drawings of funeral rites (haunted caves haunted by cavemen [and women and maybe a cave dog]). In Portugal there is a glass case containing some animal bones that where found in the cave. I recognized some grazing animal jaw bones however it was pretty much a leftovers from the dustbin and no explanatory effort.

The other big difference is humidity. In the Nerja cave it was a bit damp with some collected water. In Maire d'Aire this is really an underground river so it rains underneath. Nothing to worry about - just don't wear stuff that cannot get wet. The other thing - and this was a little fun - is that Portugal emphasizes that humans are visitors in this world, there is some obligatory safety lighting but the lights are on a timer. IF you lollygag you will find yourself in the near darkness. I don't think this is to protect the cave fauna (which was not present) but to prevent any flora from the outside setting up shop and contaminating further down the watershed.
The difference between the two experiences was stark but probably indicative of the differences between the countries.


As far as taking a child to go in the cave it was fine but I or my wife was carrying him the whole way. He liked feeding the goats and donkey so the petting zoo was definitely a win.

I got to figure out just how badly my Portuguese has gotten over the past week of not speaking because there was a short 5 minute film about the discovery and exploration of the cave in the nineteen forties and fifties that was totally in Portuguese. I had gotten the high points from reading about the cave in the guide book but it was still hard. Fortunately our guide spoke wonderful English and was able to give us the run down of the cave in English after explaining to the Portuguese family what was going on. It was essentially the same thing.

Lisbon FAQ

How will you do without knowing the basics of Portuguese?
Well this is a small country and a large amount of the revenue comes in through tourists. Not speaking Portuguese is not much of a handicap as the reverse would be in the US. Most people under 40 and who have a decent education will be able to speak well. For example, my son is in preschool and he has an English lesson once a week. People are very willing to help here and charades can accomplish a lot. The basics are pretty easy. You can go online and search or purchase a book like Lonely Planet's Phrasebook (make sure it is European and not Brazilian). You can get very far with please, thank you, Do you speak English?, excuse me, I apologize, I don't speak Portuguese, 1-10, No, Go away, help, I am allergic to...., Does this dish contain...., Memorizing these phrases can be done on the plane. Another trick is to figure out your request and write it down. A little notebook and a pencil are a good thing.

I have heard of the skating rink so I did some research. It hasn't been cold enough for ice. In fact, the 'ice' is made of plastic, I think it is Teflon sheets that have been put down. The municipal office (the bureaucracy that runs the city) called it ice in a press release. It is open through the Jan 9th I think. There is also a French Carousel. I couldn't find a price for entry; it could be free. I might get to go down that way this week. I'll let you know if I find out anything.

Most museums are free on Sunday mornings (except for the Orient Museum which is free on Friday evenings) and closed on Mondays.

As far as the rainy season here it means highs in the 40's to the high 50'sF with lows in the 30's F The coldest it got last year was 33F and that made the news. Most places do not have heaters; so coffee and soup are awesome for that reason. It is also rainy. Today for instance it is high of 19C (66F) low of 14C (60F) and overcast. It will probably rain. That could mean a few hours of a light drizzle or 30 minutes of heavy pour or both.

Rain also means that the stone that makes up the walking areas here can be really slippery.

You can probably pick up a cheap umbrella here (chapeu de chuva) at a Chinese shop and if the wind plays havoc with it you are out a few euros.

As far as looking like a tourist I wouldn't worry too much about it; this isn't Paris, Milan, or London. There is not a great deal of fashionistas or at least I haven't run into them. Wearing presentable casual attire is fine. If anything I think Portuguese women tend to wear more form fitting clothes than their Midwestern US counterparts. Boots that go up to the top of the calf are pretty popular as well.

When we first arrived we were told; don't leave things unlocked or out. People will assume you don't want it and take - there is no shame in dumpster diving here. As far as muggings or being threatened that is very rare. Crime statistics put Lisbon ahead of most if not all major cities in the US. As long as you are aware of your surroundings you should be fine. If you feel unsafe you can go into a cafe and ask them to call you a taxi (Pode chamar-me um taxi, por favor?).

As far as getting harassed; I have been witness to one cellphone pilfering and have had a few friends loose pocket books, wallets, etc. The cellphone pilfering happened when two women who were probably Roma (It is an unfortunate stereotype here) came into the coffee shop where we were. They each had lottery tickets that they were offering. One came over, noticed the cellphone and started being louder. Her friend came over and offered us more tickets and the original woman slipped the cellphone into her pocket and left. It was 20 minutes before we noticed the cellphone was no longer on the table. The two women made something like 5-10 euros a piece. Another friend lost a camera. He was on the subway with all his bags and he had draped a camera over shoulder but not in a bag. When the subway doors were closing he felt a tug and he was on one side of the door and the dude with his camera was on the other.

Lisbon in two days

Recently, I got a request for how to spend a few days in Lisbon. Sights to see and places to go that are part of the quintessential city without being too touristy.

Unfortunately the stuff that is easy access and representative is developed around the city. That said it is still a magical and charming place and must be seen by foot as car travel around the city is the slowest option from point to point with in the downtown core.
I recommend a half day in Biaxa near Rua Garret and Praça Camões (This doesn't include the big squares of Restauradores and Rossio and the Carmelite nunnery) followed by another half day exploring Alfama (Fado museum). As far as night life Barrio Alto is the place to go.

The touristy part of Sintra is a pleasant quaint hill town, think Vail or Lake Tahoe area of its day. If you are sporty you can walk up to the moorish castle and Pena Palace which are on the ridge line or you can take the bus and stroll the grounds. There is a really cool garden in Sintra as well.

Belém is really part of the greater Lisbon metropolis now. There is much to see. What makes the high points on the tourist map are the tower (torre) and the pastry shop (pasteis de Belém) but I honestly think it is only worth about 1/2 a day. Other than that there is a carriage museum, planetarium, garden, monument to progress, electricity museum, monastery, and the CCB. The CCB (Centre Cultural de Belém) is pretty cool venue for art. I haven't personally been to the planetarium, garden or inside the monument to progress again it depends on your wishes.

There is one caveat about all this walking: that it won't be raining cats and dogs. This is the rainy season through March. It could rain every day you are here.

One other thing: I am a guy who looks Portuguese. I don't think there are any problems going anywhere as a single female in the city during the day; even one who is obviously a tourist. I have been told that Barrio Alto can be dangerous when the bars close (around 4am) but having a small child at home I can't say that I have been out that late here :).

One other point I would like to make about food: people eat large lunches around 1 or 2 and don't eat dinner until 9. If you are used to having dinner at 6 it is too early for most restaurants. Pregos or bifanas are a nice protein snack (fried meat on bread). If you are a vegetarian who doesn't eat fish you'll have limited options. If you like fish I really like Dourada Grelhada (Grilled Sea Bream) but smaller fish don't come filleted.

Rob