So I got an email this morning, saying "what's tchau?" I had used it in an email, a different spelling of "ciao".
Both of us thought it was a German spelling. But I got curious and did a Google search on it.
It's "ciao" in freakin' Portuguese.
The funny part is that I don't remember ever, ever reading or writing "tchau" while I was in Brasil or in any Portuguese class or email. I have no clue where I picked that up.
You never know what language is going to pop out of my head... it's all scrambled in there. I was trying to speak French the other day to somebody, and halfway through the sentence, I switched to Portuguese, and couldn't remember what the French was. The two languages have a lot of overlap and I learned Portuguese by tweaking my French. Worked great most of the time. But now it's backfiring.
I think it'll be good to make the clean break to German. It'll be a whole lot less confusing!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
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4 comments:
Here's the real question - do the Portuguese have to say it at least 15 times before the conversation is really over?
hahaha I forgot about that lovely Swiss tendency... Jenny and I always say goodbye like that, drives me nuts to think I'm almost hanging up on her while she's still saying "ciao!"
No. The Brazilians do the big hug and a double kiss and then they're outta there with a decisive TCHAU!
Belleza, baby.
I've had a few problems. But then, I'm culturally insensitive, so it kind of makes sense.
Well, it can really be a problem if 15 rounds of ciao make you late for the train. Swiss trains don't seem to have an understanding for this cultural issue.
Maybe you should just tell people you're late for the train - I bet they'd cooperate.
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