More language adventures
I had several very long conversations with Brazilians in Portuguese that were great fun and made me realize that I know a lot more Portuguese than I think I do.
My worst linguistic blunder while I've been in Brazil was as follows. On the subway (Metrô), a little girl was in my way. "Aha!" I thought. "I'll ask her politely in Portuguese to move over so I can get out." But I suffered a momentary memory lapse about the irregular verb ter. I meant to say
Com licença, senhorita, tenho de sair do trem agora!
(Excuse me, little girl, I have to get off the train now!)
But instead I said
Com licença, senhorita, tem de sair do trem agora!
(Excuse me, little girl, you have to get off the train now!)
Clearly it must be disturbing to a little girl to have a large foreigner randomly say this rather loudly. I hope the experience wasn't too traumatic for her.
