Comments for The bamboo raft

Comment on Accent reduction and the Brazilian way of speaking English by Wilton Capucci

Wilton Capucci — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:01:13 +0000

Great post! I enjoyed so much, keep it up!
Well I did not learn from schools, my english was learnt from 15 americans from TX, I also want to mention here, you wrote that very good!
Well I lived together them for 1 year and half, so they taught me everything as well, all my doubts were clearly explained. Though I had difficult in every now and then, when they spoke faster, but as long as times went by I could understand everything they spoke. Accent, i must confess it is a lil’ bit different from those who learnt from school, TX’s got a diff’rent way to speak some words, they swallow up sometimes and simplify everything. Easier sometimes but tougher others..

Comment on Santos-Dumont, The Wright Brothers and Innovation by Cummings

Cummings — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 20:23:09 +0000

Is it accepted that because Wilbur Wright flew so well in France in 1908, he and Orville Wright were the first to fly in 1903? That doesn’t compute for me. It is never mentioned that they had ordered French engines in 1906 or 1907 (there are many who say the Wright engines were inadequate). Also, it’s a fact the Orville crashed in 1908 at Fort Myer VA, killing Lt. Selfridge of the Aerial Experiment Association. As usual, the accepted reasons for the crash were never really proven, only the Wrights’ statements. It is documenteded that.Orville had had a lot of engine trouble before the Ft.Myer flight (overheating, etc.)

Comment on A Time to Meet: The Book by Tatyana França

Tatyana França — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 14:50:57 +0000

Great book, it`s one of my favorites! I read for the first time when I was 16 and, since then, I don’t know how many times I read it again. It is a book that makes you think about mistakes, promises, past, future, life at all… Every time I finish reading, I miss Eduardo.

Comment on A Time to Meet: The Book by Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 23:58:44 +0000

Sure, how can I help?

Comment on A Time to Meet: The Book by Andrea

Andrea — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:50:47 +0000

Hi Aaron, I’ve just found your blog. I was searching for the translation of “Encontro Marcado” and I couldn’t anything on the web. I’m not very skilled in translating literature, and it wouldn’t be fair with the author. Do you thing you can help me? My brother wants to use it to welcome a supporter at the company he works for tomorrow. (Aug 24). If you still have the book, and you have some time to help me, I appreciate. Thanks anyway. I liked your blog.

Comment on Sao Paulo and the street smarts of its crowd by Aaron

Aaron — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 03:51:25 +0000

Hey, Sarah,

I hope you enjoy your stay there!

Comment on Sao Paulo and the street smarts of its crowd by Sarah Siegel (@SarahSiegel)

Sarah Siegel (@SarahSiegel) — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 02:33:26 +0000

Helpful. Thanks Aaron. On Friday, going there for work for the first time. My fave part of your post was the part about the book automats in the subways.

Comment on Accent reduction and the Brazilian way of speaking English by Jean flores

Jean flores — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 03:12:13 +0000

I just wanted to add, that in brazil every different region has its own unique accent, the same happens in the uk, which is a country much smaller than brazil.
Once I have read an article which mentioned that once you learn a second languages after your teens, you won’t lose your accent at all. However my experience has proven that it might not be true. Let’s see a few more years into the future.
I don’t usually get this thing about accent, what everyone should try to do is to have a great pronunciation.
Picture yourself with an English accent ( somewhere in the world) you might sometimes construct your sentence slightly different from a English speak person. Therefore someone will realize that you are not a native speaker.
By the way I think accent are hots, I have been told!
English speakers somehow tend to like Brazilian English accent very much.

Comment on Accent reduction and the Brazilian way of speaking English by Jean flores

Jean flores — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 02:59:07 +0000

Hello guys, I really like the posts. Once that has been said, I would like to share some of my experiences.
I have been living in Australia over 4 years, and accents do change by time.
For example, words which I have learned here sound totally Australian, on the other hand, my partner is brisith and some words taught by him, sound really British when it comes put of my mouth. So practice as much as you can, and I must add the living overseas does improve your listening as well as your pronunciation.

Comment on Accent reduction and the Brazilian way of speaking English by Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 29 May 2012 03:03:20 +0000

Julia, thanks so much for bringing those to my attention! I wish I had a tutor all the time to help me improve my writing skills

Comment on Accent reduction and the Brazilian way of speaking English by Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 29 May 2012 03:01:39 +0000

Hi Paul, I don’t have any hope anymore that I’ll sound like a native speaker, but I do want to keep improving my communication skills. Whenever I make a grammar mistake, the effectiveness of the communication is partially broken. It’s like listening to music with some background noise. On the other side, I agree accents are OK. I actually love listening to foreigners speaking Brazilian Portuguese, as I often find things about my own mother tongue that I never imagined were there.

Comment on Accent reduction and the Brazilian way of speaking English by Julia

Julia — Tue, 29 May 2012 02:14:01 +0000

Hi, Aaron I enjoyed your article. I tutor Brazilians in English, so I found it very helpful. I didn’t have time to read all the comments, but I noticed a couple of things I would change:

(Under Vowels) Particularly embarassing is when I try to say “sheet” or “beach” without blushing everybody in the room . To my knowledge, “blush” is not a transitive verb. I would say, “…without causing everybody in the room to blush”, or just “without blushing”.

The other thing is when you say, “When I say “we”, I actually mean “those Brazilians who, like me, are totally inept to speak English well”. It should be “inept at speaking English”. I don’t think “inept” can be followed by any other preposition. We say we are inept at doing something, so it’s almost always followed by “at + gerund”. I’d also lose the “well” at the end because with the word “totally”, there would obviously be no question of one speaking “well”.

How I would love to be able to speak Portuguese as well as you speak English! Obrigada pelas dicas. Você me ajudou muito.

Comment on Accent reduction and the Brazilian way of speaking English by Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:56:57 +0000

Hi Laura,

Thanks for the visit! My sister actually lives in Curitiba, so I go there often. Hope you enjoy your stay in Brazil

Comment on Accent reduction and the Brazilian way of speaking English by Laura

Laura — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:00:22 +0000

I’ve really enjoyed reading all this. I’m Australian and am living in Curitiba and I’ve come to realise that accents in Brazil vary so greatly from region to region that you almost can’t go wrong. Lucky for me, I came straight to Curitiba where they say the words as they are written. This, however, has caused great confusion when trying to find a Portuguese for foreigners book. Good luck to all of us!

Comment on Accent reduction and the Brazilian way of speaking English by Paul Jackson

Paul Jackson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:18:08 +0000

I’ve taught English in Taiwan for 15 years, and one of the things I tell my students is that speaking like a Native speaker is absolutely not necessary! I’m originally Canadian, so I know that the reason most Canadians don’t correct other people’s accents is that it doesn’t occur to them to do so! The Canadian population is composed of peoples from all over the world. In my opinion, foreign accents are a valid component of Canadian culture. Although there are exceptions, generally we nurture difference, and we love accents. The language goal of immigrants should only be to communicate effectively (eg, not let language difficulties affect communication).

Comment on Moving things vs. moving ideas by Denilson Nastacio

Denilson Nastacio — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 02:41:35 +0000

Lots of useful information and facts. I got stuck on “Whether or not unleashing the economic value of large populations and efficient information flows will ever materialize is anybody’s guess”.

To stay on the analogy, information is a component to a good, either higher-level information or a durable good. Information has to be produced with time/money investment. Now think whether large populations have had any effect on efficient creation and flows of durable goods and you are onto something: economies of scale.

Large populations give you critical mass, but have cultural, rather than geographical boundaries. With the widespread adoption of English, that supra-nation of English-speaking people certainly have more reach than other nations, such as Japan and Germany. Whether the US/UK/Australia are better poised to take advantage of the current situation is anyone’s guess in my mind.

Thanks for the wonderful posting and for getting me thinking. What else can one ask?

Comment on Accent reduction and the Brazilian way of speaking English by Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 05:10:24 +0000

Gustavo, sorry, this blog was collecting dust for quite some time. Yes, I know people from both countries. Hard for me to tell: Brazilians tend to have difficulty with the few cases listed above, and I notice that some folks from Latin-America seem to pronounce “b”, “v” and “w” similarly, when speaking in English, or say “o” and “e” more discretely than a native English speaker. I don’t know Spanish enough to notice the subtle differences between Argentinians and Uruguayans in general, and compared to those from other Latin-American countries, so I may be better off declining from saying much more here

Comment on Moving things vs. moving ideas by What’s next? Social Media and the Information Life Cycle « The bamboo raft

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:45:31 +0000

[...] is the third post in this current series discussing the differences between making and moving information and knowledge versus physical [...]

Comment on The infancy of social technologies by What’s next? Social Media and the Information Life Cycle « The bamboo raft

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:45:28 +0000

[...] is the third post in this current series discussing the differences between making and moving information and knowledge versus [...]

Comment on The infancy of social technologies by Moving things vs. moving ideas « The bamboo raft

Moving things vs. moving ideas « The bamboo raft — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:36:58 +0000

[...] my last Biznology post, I used a comparison between information and physical goods to support an argument that social [...]