Brazil Travel Info

Airlines Offering Non-Stop Flights to Brazil from Various US Cities (as of August 2009)

—Miami—
To Sao Paulo:
TAM
AA
United
To Rio:
AA
TAM
To Salvador:
AA
To Recife:
AA

–Los Angeles–
To Sao Paulo:
Delta (Seasonal)

–Houston–
To Sao Paulo:
Continental
To Rio:
Continental

–Atlanta–
To Sao Paulo:
Delta
To Rio:
Delta
Northwest
To Fortaleza:
Delta (Seasonal)
To Recife:
Delta (Seasonal, Canceled?)

–Dallas–
To Sao Paulo:
AA

–Charlotte–
To Rio:
US Airways (Seasonal)

–Chicago–
To Sao Paulo:
United

–NYC–
To Sao Paulo:
Delta
United
Continental
TAM
AA
To Rio:
United
TAM

Some cheap deals can be found at www.atiflights.com.  This website includes connections to Gol which is not possible with Expedia and Priceline.  However, I would suggest flying on TAM rather than Gol.

For a multi-city vacation in Brazil, special deals can be had if you fly internationally with TAM out of Miami.

Portuguese in my life these days…

I haven’t posted to this blog in a long while, …mainly because I finally became more or less fluent!

Several months ago I walked up to my boss and told him that either I quit, or he can allow me to take a 3 month vacation.  He said I could take the vacation!  So, I went to join my girlfriend in Minas Gerais.  She returned to Brasil after staying in the US for over one year.  So, I spent 3 months in a town near Ouro Preto and took a Portuguese class at UFOP.  I was lucky enought to also teach English at a local school.

So, now I’ve been back to my real life (Arizona), I’ll explain how I keep up on my Portuguese lately.

1. MSN.  (duhh)  …No friends?  Go to a language exchange site (see list to left).  Hell, go to a dating site!  Remeber, there are at least 10X the # of Brazilians wanting to learn English than people like you.  Use this to your advantage.
2. Skype.  Speaking is essential.  Get past the fear, speak for an hour a day for two weeks, you’ll see a huge difference.
3. Spell checker!  Install the PT-BR addon in Firefox.
4. Movies.  Try this: www.downsbrasil.net
5. MP3’s. Try this: www.4shared.com
6. Orkut!  Essential for online relationships with Brazilians.  Very easy to make friends in the English-learning groups.  Just be aware of the horrible Orkutanisms like “axei” instead of “achei“, “kra” em vez de “cara“, “naum/ñ” em vez de “não“, “xau” em vez de “tchau“, etc.
7. Blogs. For example, with funny/disgusting pictures with just a few words: lolhehehe.com , about learning english: teclasap.com.br , interesting with beautiful pictures: avenidacopacabana , etc.  Good way to come across new words.

Good luck!

Even more Brasilian TV channels…

It seems that internet TV is taking off and for some reason is very popular amongst Brasilians. Check out the program SopCast, and also the website (which only carries Brasilian channels) TVZuka.

Finally, the internet is giving people direct, and perhaps entertaining, access to spoken Portuguese. See also my post regarding Mogulus.

Skype Community

Within the Skype community forums you’ll find a link called “Learn Languages and More“.  Pretty much just another language exchange site, but anyway, I thought I’d post the link since I’ve always liked Skype.

Project Gutenberg

One of the more popular free ebook sites called Project Gutenberg has over 50 books in Portuguese.

Portuguese Channels on Mogulus

A site called Mogulus has many Portuguese channels which are constantly streaming user content, including novelas, popular movies, etc…. Very cool site.

Take this channel for a test run.

EDIT: Not as good as it used to be …

Easy Way To Download Brazilian Subtitles

The program Subdownloader allows you to easily find subtitles from any video file or DVD, i.e., first you download a video/DVD, then you use this program to download Brazilian subtitles.  The link provided has some video tutorials on YouTube, or the figure below may suffice…

I configured the program to only search for Brazilian and English subtitles.  I also configured it to work with mplayer, which allows me to launch the movie in MPlayer by right-clicking on the subtitle. 

If you’re just starting out, this might not be so useful.  I would suggest you work at a slower pace and look at my Movie Subs page or look at the Grammar links on my blogroll.  However, if you understand about 80% of the subs, then it could be useful to read along with the sub while hearing the English audio.

Livros em mp3

In the Orkut group Livros em mp3 you’ll find links to audio books and video to download (you must be a member of Orkut).  Perfect in case you’re running out of practice Portuguese material to throw onto your iPod.  In there, you’ll even find links to advanced Portuguese lessons.

One of the more interesting links I found was to Loquendo, it’s a computer synthesized voice service.  The website offers a free example.  It’s not too bad.

Another free language course online – Mango

Here: Mango

I gave this a test run.  Very impressive.  I’m surprised it’s free (for now anyway, it’s in Beta).

There are over 100 lessons with about 100 slides per lesson.  The audio is very clear.  Give it a try!

There are 10 other languages to choose from.

Reading Exercise – 4

Pedro paquera Clarice em ‘Sete Pecados’

Uma troca de casais vai agitar os próximos capítulos de Sete Pecados. Tudo começa quando Ágatha sugere que Pedro conquiste Clarice.

O ex-noivo de Beatriz não pensa duas vezes e parte para cima da mulher de Dante.

Enquanto isso, Bia investe pesado no taxista, que não resiste e acaba confessando que sente desejo pela dona da boate. Pedro convida Clarice para jantar, o que irrita Dante, que a proíbe de ir.

Do outro lado, Beatriz e Ágatha armam plano para fazer o taxista passar a noite fora. Elas mandam Dante buscar um licor em uma fábrica muito longe e ele acaba dormindo por lá. Clarice fica furiosa e cobra explicações ao marido, achando que ele pulou a cerca.

Palavras e Frases

paquera = (he) flirts with, checks out
casais = couples
agitar = to stir up, to aggitate
capítulos = episodes
sugere = (she) suggests
conquistar = to win over, to achieve, to conquer
ex-noivo = ex-boyfriend
parte para cima de = (he) leaves to the side of
taxista = taxi driver
dona da boate = club owner
irrita = (it) irritates
a proíbe de ir = forbids her from going
armar = to set up, figure out, put together
um licor = a liquor
fábrica = plant
pulou a cerca = (he) betrayed her

Tente Dizer (Use of the verb “Dar”)

1. We’ll find a way to stir up the party!
2. The club owner twisted her leg and ended up in the hospital.
3. She suggests that Pedro should drop by Clarice’s house.
4. My ex-fiancè wants to take a walk with me tomorrow, taking a stroll won’t hurt me.
5. The car broke and the taxi driver didn’t think twice before giving the door a kick.
6. Any little kid is a hell of a lot of work.
7. The couple rented a room that faces the sea.
8. I need to be alone, can you excuse me?
9. It was on tv that Pedro cheated on his wife, he does that when it gets in his head.
10. The couple likes to take a look at the neighboor’s life.
11. I’m not good at asking for favors.
12. It’s impossible to understand, there’s never enough time for conversing and drinking a good liquor.
13. João works a lot but his money is never enough, nothing works out in his life.
14. I get irritated easily and sometimes I feel like starting a fight and killing someone.
15. It’s very hard to write the final episodes of a soap opera.
16. If she wants to go running back to her ex tonight, it’s not my problem.

LISTEN TO THE MP3 FOR ANSWERS!

Reading Exercise 04.mp3