The Brazilian Wax

Originally posted on Jaime's blog on Moving to Brazil.

I didn't particularly want to blog about my first Brasilian wax in Brasil by a Brasilera... (Dad, don't read this!!). But when I was researching more info when we came here on holiday in 2006, and before we moved here this time I couldn't find any information so wanted to make sure there was something out there for the next person. For me, what was nerve wracking, was the language barrier so I had to make sure I was prepared.

I had the chance to ask one of my new friends on the weekend. So here's the lowdown - you can get them done at most cabeleireros (hairdressers), and for a 'completo', which is everything as in legs, brazilian, underarms it should cost about R50-70. A brazilian wax should only cost abut R15-20. 

I had picked out a cabeleireros around the corner on one of our daily walks. My portuguese is basic enough to ask if I could have a depilação, and after waves of portuguese rattled off at me and me nodding my head and smiling I was ushered into a small room in the back. Sophie was being 'muito linda'd' at by the receptionist so I left her there. First bonus, she used hot wax rather than strip wax (evil evil strip wax!). Secondly, she was super fast and thorough. Thirdly, I learnt some new portuguese words (see below).

Eu gostaria - I would like

depilação - depilation

quente - ow, hot!

ligne - line

pinçer - tweezer 

anus - anus (not 'anos', I thought she was asking me how many anos (years) we were going to live in SP..)

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

Learning Portuguese

I have been learning Brazilian Portuguese off and on for the past year. Now that I have arrived in Sao Paulo the focus on learning has become much more urgent and intense. Very few people speak English here, which is great as it forces me to use my most basic Portuguese to try and communicate. I am currently looking for a Portuguese teacher but in the meantime am left to my own devices to learn.

English – Portuguese / Portuguese – Ingles Dictionary

Grammar Book

Verb Book

JAM FLASHCARDS

STICKIES AROUND OUR APARTMENT

Pimsleur

Brazilian Podclass

Music

A great blog is http://eyesonportuguese.wordpress.com

Watching TV, in particular Globo novelas (shows dubbed in Portuguese or with Portuguese subtitles)

Children comic books

But the best way to learn is to communicate! Every day I set myself a task where I have to communicate with taxi drivers, information counters, waiters, check out assistants etc. This week I've managed to send a letter at the post office, book flights to Curitiba and deposit some money at a bank!

Obviously this list is not exhausted but would appreciate any other ideas that have worked for others learning a language.

Also, I am looking for a Portuguese teacher in Pinheiros, Sao Paulo. Please contact me if you are a teacher or if you are interested in doing a language exchange.

I ♥ SKYPE

Skype makes my world feel that little bit smaller. Maria and I skype weekly regardless of where we are in the world – we have chatted from London, Dubai, Miami, Hong Kong, Venezuela, Argentina, Yemen, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, New Zealand, Madrid and Sao Paulo (yes, despite all the time differences!).

Skype allows my mother in Hong Kong watch her granddaughter grow each day.

Skype allows me have a heart-to-heart with a friend in New York nursing a broken heart.

Skype allows me communicate daily with my husband at work (Moema to Pineheiros).

Skype allows me to meet a brand new baby in London.

Skype allows me to live in Brazil but still live life with family and friends. 

Spaglishtalian

My friend and "Jefe de Publicidad" for Esquire Magazine Spain, Cristiano Badoch and I have discovered “Spanglishtalian”. It is essentially, the fusion between Spanish, English and Italian. Cristiano is Italian but his mother was partially raised in Venezuela. This compiled with a few years in the UK and current residence in Spain, Cristiano manages English, Spanish and of course Italian.

And so our conversations start in Spanish (we make a conscious effort) regress to English and then ultimately Italian. Keeping in mind that my Italian is limited to one semester in University, you can see where this is going! We try to stick to one language, notably Spanish, but any personal questions from Cristiano and I revert to my comfort zone of English. He starts in Spanish, hears my reply in English and unconsciously switches to English too. And of course any personal or envelope pushing questions from me and he reverts to Italian. Hola Guapo! Dove Siete? Still looking for Bob Dylan? 

JAM FLASHCARDS

Why should people care?

I have blogged about my friend Krsna before.

She was recently promoted to Planning Supervisor at CNN International and is in this week’s edition of PR Week.

I wanted to take note of her being in PR Week not just because I’m really proud of her but because I usually hold a rather pessimistic view of the news reporting industry. I think a lot of news organisations focus too much on shocking their viewers and not caring about what the viewers really want to see. But I think her first paragraph is key, and what any journalist / producer should ask – Why should people care? I think that “they” have a duty to report responsibly. Not only is content important but they way they report it. They impact the way people think, feel and do at any given moment.

I take faith in having people like Krsna filtering our daily news. Think twice before you offer her a story!

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

Porto-Inglês Language Exchange

London is a difficult place to strike up a conversation with a complete stranger. I can understand how difficult it is for a student who has just moved over to learn English to find native English speakers to practice with! We met in a pub in Holborn and would speak in Engilsh for one hour and Portuguese for the second hour. It was a great way to meet people from such a variety of backgrounds and to practice my (very basic) Portuguese.

I’ve made some good friends through these evenings who I would’ve never met otherwise. Brazilians who had just moved to London to learn English, English who were traveling to Brazil, people who just wanted to meet other people. I liked that I could take an assignment with me to have it checked over by a native speaker, or just have a casual chat with a new friend.

The evenings take place at Penderel’s Oak pub in Holborn at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings and it is free! Sign up to their meeting group here for updates each week.

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

Bump into

(New Chums Beach, Coromandel)

It wasn’t until I did my TEFL course in January 2009 that I realised how difficult it is to teach (and learn) English. I had always assumed that being a native English speaker it would be easy. It only took me a day to realise that I had no idea why I said things in the order I did and I could only reason that ‘it sounds right’ or ‘that’s just the way it is’!

Trying to explain ‘bump into’’, or for that matter, any phrasal verb, to a group of intermediate students was hard without any experience. Not only did they not know the words I wanted to use to describe the act of ‘bumping into’. The Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘bump into’ as ‘to meet someone you know when you have not planned to meet them’.

I bumped into an old friend yesterday when we were walking to New Chums Beach in the Coromandel and her and her husband were just leaving. We are not even supposed to be in NZ anymore (our flight via Santiago was moved post-earthquake) and I had expected to not see her as they had just gotten married the previous weekend. You expect to bump into friends if you live in the same city but bumping into my friend on a remote beach was very random.

I would have once said that one of the hard and fast rules for ‘bump into’ would be that it’s accidental but when it happens when the chances are one in a million I can’t help but think that fate has a little bit to play in it.

I like that life can still surprise me.

Have you bumped into an old friend recently?

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

My Poh Poh

As some of you may know we are currently enroute, relocating from London to Brazil. We have taken the opportunity whilst between jobs to take a couple of months traveling between the two. The main premise of this trip was my ‘Poh Poh’ (Chinese for my Granny on my mother’s side)- it was her 80^th birthday on Valentine’s Day 2010.

I was inspired last year when I was doing some charity work to put together her biography. The inspiration also came from me becoming a new mummy as well. With my sisters and my mum’s help we collated stories, old photos and recipes. As my Poh Poh’s English is not perfect and neither is my Chinese we had her tell her story bit by bit to my mother who then put her notes together in English, which were then edited by me and my sisters and then translated back into Chinese for my Poh Poh to check. As you can imagine, there were a lot of drafts!

Here’s a brief summary of her life….

Wong Sit Fong was born in 1930 in Perak, Malaysia and was second in a family of 9 childen. Her oldest, and closest brother died in a boating accident when she was a teenager. When the Japanese invaded Malaysia in 1941 she remembers holding her 4 year old sister’s hand, carrying her 2 year old sister on her back as well as a small iron and tiffin carrier with all their meagre belongings into the jungle as they ran for their lives.

She met my grandfather who was working with the British Army and he was besotted by her. After a few years or courtship they were married in 1950 and she had her first baby girl in 1951 (my mother!). She had 7 children altogether– 6 girls and 1 boy. In 1988 she immigrated to New Zealand as 4 of her children were already living there and has lived in Wellington since. She is a devout believer of Soka Gakkai (a form of Japanese Buddhism) and has become a highly respected speaker.

After her quadruple bypass surgery in 2003 her life has slowed down and she doesn’t travel as much. She spends her days tending to her rose bushes, cooking up a storm in her kitchen and looking forward to famly visits from one of her 7 children, 11 grandchildren or 4 great-grandchildren (with 3 more on the way!).

She is an inspirational lady who has lived a truly amazing life for the past 80 years and now we have her life story now to share with her great-grandchildren and many more to come.

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!