by admin | 25 Mar, 2019 | Uncategorized
Learn Portuguese + App for iPhone by Vidalingua Are you looking for way to practice Portuguese when you are not in class? Smartphone Apps can be a great to way to complement what you learn at school. Vidalingua is one of the leading developers of language apps with over 12 million users. We partnered with Vidalingua to bring you a special offer at the end of this review. Learn Portuguese + is a new app by Vidalingua that includes 101 lessons, 1190 phrases and 3536 exercises to help you become fluent in Brazilian-Portuguese. It’s a fun way to learn because it includes interactive exercises to perfect your language skills. The Vidalingua method focuses on phrases that you can use immediately in class or on a trip to Brazil. Lessons like Greetings, Essentials and Useful Expressions can teach you how to get a conversation started. If you are preparing for a trip to Rio de Janeiro, lessons such as Buses, Youth Hostels and Directions will help you organize your stay. Once you are ready to hit the town, lessons like Eating Out, At a Café and Nightlife will help you make the most of your trip. Understanding Portuguese is a good start but speaking is critical. Learn Portuguese + includes advanced speech recognition to help you master pronunciation. Your can practice speaking at your own pace until you build the confidence to talk to others. When you enter the Pronunciation exercise screen, you hear the phrase spoken in Portuguese. You can tap on the phrase to hear it pronounced again. When you are ready to try to pronounce it yourself, tap...
by admin | 19 Jan, 2019 | Blog, Uncategorized
The secrets of acarajé After practical experience Greg felt inspired and decided to share what he learned. By Greg Grassi Sometimes, my constant talk about food pays off. I was supposed to meet Luciana, one of my Portuguese teachers, for an individual class when she sent me a Whatsapp message (the preferred method of communication for most Brazilians) with a simple question: “Have you tried acarajé yet?” While I am fluent in the basics of Brazilian cuisine, I am still a novice when it comes to regional foods so I only had a vague idea that acarajé was something from Bahia. Luciana suggested we meet for a “practical class” instead to try acarajé from a street vendor in our shared neighborhood of Botafogo. Vamos lá, I thought. Let’s do this! Luciana and I met at a cafe in Botafogo (near the subway) and talked about the history of acarajé before we tasted it. Luciana encouraged me to talk to Anna, the Bahian proprietor of the stall and while I was a bit intimidated at first, Anna was extremely patient with my questions (and my Portuguese) and turned out to be a passionate advocate for her native cuisine. We learned other facts about the dish all while Anna helped a steady stream of regulars at her immaculate station. As a result of the conversations with Luciana Anna, learn the following information: Origens Acarajé is a Bahian delight with a long and colorful history. Acarajé has religious origins and represents one of the best known Afro-Brazilian dishes in Brazilian cuisine, although many Brazilians I know admitted they...
by admin | 24 May, 2018 | Blog, Uncategorized
The family and the bank “The bank manager asked about my family!!! What?!? Why?!?” I heard this at a conference for entrepreneurs from all over the world held in Lithuania. The speaker was Simon, an American who is currently one of the world’s largest agricultural producers. He has business in Chile and works with people globally. The audience was made up of many different nationalities and all were really surprised that the bank manager asked Simon such a personal and seemingly irrelevant question when he was just trying to open a bank account. Yet for me, this was not in the least bit strange or out of place, because you’d get the same kind of questioning in Brazil. In the United States it is no longer common to have a bank manager; the whole banking system is online, people are not used to going to the bank in person anymore. In Brazil, I insisted on having a manager for my account, both for my personal and business accounts. When I’m abroad, I often have problems that the call center cannot solve, so I talk to my manager on WhatsApp and he sorts it out for me. My boyfriend is American. When he saw me doing this he couldn’t believe it! When I lived in Australia, I was able to open a bank account in just two weeks. In Brazil, I have students who have been trying for 2 years. I have other students who tried to open a legal account for their company and didn’t succeed. They then open one in their own name only to have it blocked...
by admin | 1 Apr, 2018 | Partnership, Uncategorized
How to write a good chronicle Last Wednesday, the writer Daniel Cariello met with students and alumni of Fala Brasil School who are writing chronicles for the book “The Look of the Other.” The book is a new project of Fala Brasil and aims to gather chronicles of writers from various parts of the world about the culture of Brazil and Brazilian life. The idea behind it is to enable an exchange of intercultural perspectives from different points of view. In this meeting, the writer and chronicler Daniel Carriello, author of “Chéri à Paris – A Brazilian in the land of fromage” and “City of Dreams, Chronicles of Brazil” explained how to write a good chronicle. Here is a summary: – A chronicle will always be the story of a specific event or fact that is the center of the narrative. – In the chronicle the characters are not developed. They have no past or future. They make up the story by helping in the narrative of a fact that should be the central theme of the chronicle. – A chronicle may or may not be personal. It may be an account of an event that occurred with the author himself, an observed situation or something that happened to another person. At this point, the rule is not to have rules! 😉 – Imagination is free! The chronicle can be an imagined dialogue, a hypothetical situation, something that almost happened or happened in the author’s head. It also can mix fiction with reality. – A good chronicle size is between 2 thousand and 4 thousand characters (counting letters, punctuation...
by admin | 28 Sep, 2017 | Uncategorized
Cultural adaptation – steps and challenges Adapting to a new country and a new culture is no easy task. Unless you parents are ambassadors – and you grew up accustomed to moving – living in a different place, which includes working, socializing, etc, demands patience and persistence. According to the Global Mobility Effectiveness Survey, the worldwide rate of unsuccessful expatriation is very high. About 55% of expatriates return to their country of origin ahead of schedule. That means business losses and a lot of headaches for the HR manager. According to the survey, the greatest difficulties faced by the expatriate are issues related to personal and family adaptation (47%). Cultural shock is already perceived as an occupational hazard and is known to reduce productivity and dry up the creativity of even the most experienced executives. That is why it is so important to have good support in the adaptation period. In this period full of challenges, we break the barrier of a new language, understand the social codes of the new culture, and often the internal (tacit or explicit) codes of the company for which we work. Even international companies with a well-standardized policy have particularities that vary according to the culture of each country. In addition to cultural, behavioral and language barriers, there are practical difficulties, such as identifying and creating a home away from home through the daily routines that life demands. According to the anthropologist Kalberg Oberg, the curve of cultural adaptation happens in three stages: First stage: appropriately called “Honeymoon”, the expatriate lives a moment of euphoria and excitement. This phase is relatively short, about... by admin | 15 Jun, 2017 | Uncategorized
Pontualidade Era uma segunda-feira de manhã, quando o inglês João, como ele gosta de ser chamado, chegou à aula extremamente irritado com o Brasil, o que foi uma surpresa para mim. Ele trabalhava para o comitê olímpico, que estava construindo a cidade Olímpica para hospedar os jogos Olímpicos Rio 2016. No dia a dia de seu trabalho, ele tinha problemas frequentes com a falta de estrutura, burocracias e a falta de prazo, mas ele sempre entendia tudo e, por gostar muito do Brasil e dos brasileiros, sempre mantinha o bom humor. Ele me falou, inconformado, que eles estavam recebendo a delegação inglesa; e toda a equipe nacional e a internacional deveriam se encontrar em Niterói no sábado de manhã. Os ingleses, que eram os diretores, chegaram pontualmente e os brasileiros chegaram quase uma hora atrasados. Para João, quando a questão era somente dele com o Brasil, ele conseguia suportar, mas quando envolvia a equipe inglesa, o problema era muito mais sério. Niterói é uma cidade próxima ao Rio, à qual é possível chegar de barca ou por uma ponte que está frequentemente engarrafada. Os cariocas raramente vão para essa cidade e, apesar de ser vizinha, eles têm a impressão de ser muito longe. Eu perguntei para ele se a equipe de brasileiros sabia que precisava estar pontualmente no sábado de manhã em Niterói. Ele me olhou com uma cara de espanto e perguntou: “Claro. Por que você está me perguntando isso?” Eu perguntei se ele havia verbalizado para a equipe a importância da pontualidade. Ele falou: “Claro que não. Isso é algo óbvio, não precisa ser falado.” O fato...
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