Trying to say yes correctly

I thinks "YES" is the word I hear the most in English. And your variations, like "Yeah" and "Yep". In German, "yes" is "ja", but you say "yah". In Russian - since now I'm living in Moscow - "yes" is "da", or "Да" - cyrillic alphabet.

It feels for me a little hard to say "Да" more often. Even almost every Russian don't speak English, they understand "yes", but I try to not say it all the time. Then, there's the German "ja" or "yah". What makes it hard? "Yah" is the "I" in Russian, like "I am ...", "I can ..." - Я, in the cyrillic alphabet.

On my first shopping or whatever that involved money spending adventures, I could process questions like "Do you want a bag?" or "1 ticket?", so, what was my answer? "Я" - "yah", because even "yes" or "Да" weren't coming out.

My landlord doesn't speak English. Whenever we talk, we do through online translators. Me with my computer and him with his smartphone, since my computer doesn't have the cyrillic alphabet. Whenever I ask a question and "yes" is the answer, he uses "yes" instead of "Да". Thank you for confusing me even more!

I confess that "Да" is coming out more often than "yes", "yeap", "yeah" and "ja"-"yah". Even happier that what confuses me with the yes isn't sounding like "I want to have sex with your monkey".

Eu sou, I am, ia ...

Here in Brazil, learning English at school is reviewing the verb To Be all the time. If you get lucky, you can learn some verbs in the present, past and gerund. That's why attending a language course is the thing to do.

It has been a long time I don't go to school anymore. I went to college, improved my English in an intensive English program in Boston, I attended Miami Ad School in USA (Miami Beach, San Francisco and internship programs in Chicago and New York City). On June 14th, I'll finish my basic Russian program. I learned some words, expressions and a new alphabet.

On my 9th class, I learned that in Russian, there isn't the verb To Be in the present. Afters years of learning the verb To Be in English, I get the notice that there isn't the verb To Be in Russian, in the present.

So, what am I in Russian? I Brazilian. Where am I in Russian? I Brazil. It seems in Russian I was and I will be, but I am not. In Russian, I eat, I drink, I think, I speak, I listen, I dream, I make, I play, I know, I show, I ... I ... I ..., but never I am.

I don't see it was the end of the world, because I'll have more space in my mind to Russian words, a language that as long as it gets complicated, it sounds beautiful :)

In English is one thing. In Russian is another thing

I've taken private Russian lessons here in Rio de Janeiro. Most of the Russians don't speak English, but where I'll work, English is the main language. I won't stay at work the whole time, so, learning Russian is necessary.

I remember my first day at "Instituto de Cultura Eslava" (Slavian Culture Institut) that I wouldn't have problems learning Russian because there are some words that sounds Portuguese - my native language. But some of the words I learned so far I learned in English, but what they mean changes in Russian. Check it out:

Most - Bridge
Glass - Eye
Machina (Machine) - Car
Rradio - Radio
Magazin (magazine minus e) - Store
List - Leaf

And to make me even more lost in translation, Russians use the cyrilic alphabet. This is subject for the next posts, because I'm 2 lessons to complete learning the Russian alphabet.

Beef cuts names

I had never been curious about beef cut`s name before I moved to Miami Beach in 2006. Why? Because I had to go grocery shopping and I wanted to be aware of beef cut names. It was a little beat hard in the beginning because I had no clue about beef cut names in English. I knew this one: ribs. But how about "picanha", "contra-filé" and "alcatra"?

On my first shopping, I looked for a cut map at the supermarket, but there wasn't one there. So, I picked the first one I thought it would be good: skirt beef. First thought: is it a cut from a cow and not from a bull? All I remember is it as chewy and juicy cut. And back to Brazil, I found out that skirt is the needle tip - ponta da agulha.

One of my favorite cuts is "fraudinha", in English, little dipper. No, it's not a cut near to the cow's intestine or bladder. It's a juicy cut and here it has this name because the metaphor for this cut is "it's heavy and soaked liked like a baby's dipper, without the crap ;)". Would I look for a little dipper beef? No, and I'm glad that in America little dipper beef is flank :)

If you think those names chose for beef cuts, imagine if those were named after people's name. Larry beef? Anna steak? Prime Michael cut? Well, you may find some steaks named after people, but those are recipes :)

Kick the bucket: same words, different meanings

I had a chance to watch "The Bucket List" in theater when I was in America. I watched here in Brazil on HBO, with the Portuguese subtitles. Reading a different translation to "kick the bucket" called my attention. If you translate "kick the bucket" to Portuguese, you'll find and expression for it, but different than "kick the bucket" in English.

When you say in Brazil you want to kick the bucket, it means you want to give up something that is not working in your life. But the feeling you have after "kicking the bucket", relief is the feeling. It can be your relationship, career and thoughts. Isn't your relationship working or your career isn't going ? Kick the bucket.

I did a research on "Kick the Bucket", American way. I thought you first have to do a list of things you would want to do before passing away, like on "The Bucket List". If all the things done you wanted to do, you wouldn't mind passing away. That's what I realized watching the movie. But it doesn't make sense at all. I read that people hanged themselves by standing on a bucket with a noose around their neck and then kicking the bucket away. I don't want to be cruel, but it makes sense.

After this post, I'll be very careful whenever I say kick the bucket. And if you are curious about the expression we have down here for kick the bucket, the answer is to beat your boots.

Impossibility according animals

Once I saw this TV commercial for a beans brand. A guy talks to a dog about how good those beans are and it's family recipe for generations. Dog asks if he can get the recipe. Guy answers yes, when pigs fly. What is the next scene on the commercial? The dog, trying to teach a pig to fly by itself.

There I realize when someone says "when pigs fly", it means it won't happen. Do pigs fly? When pigs are sent to other countries on a FEDEX flight wouldn't count as a yes. Or if you built a giant slingshot and throw pigs. Maybe if MTV's "Jackass" was still in the air, maybe Johnny Knoxville would do a "Hi, I'm Johnny Knoxville and this is pigs flying.". Or maybe Chris Pontius.

Let's get back to the question on the paragraph above. Do pigs fly? Times like this I wish I had a farm. Because if I had one, I would do this experiment with the pigs, giving them Red Bull. Doesn't Red Bull give you wings? Once I gave pork to a baby pig. He liked that. So, if pigs can't fly, they can be cannibals.

What is the expression for "when pigs fly" here in Brazil? If cows cough. Possible? Yes, if a ventriloquist has a cow puppet and makes the cough sounds. I've heard dogs sneezing, but cows coughing? Not even hoof-and-mouth disease made it possible.

Thank the Lord that animals can only explain impossibilities. Otherwise, Einstein would roll over his grave if a partridge contested that the Theory of Relativity is wrong.

When rain used to be about water

When I lived in America I used to rear people saying "it's raining cats and dogs". I tried to figure out what they meant. Looking through the window was very helpful: heavy rain.

So, why would Americans say "it's raining cat and dogs"? Is there a pursuit relation between the raindrops? There is one between dogs and cats. Also, there is one between raindrops and whatever it is on the ground. But who are cat and dog on this pursuit? I would say raindrops are the dogs and everything on the ground are the cats. Come on, we are pursuit by the raindrops. Wouldn't be more interesting if the expression was "it's raining dogs on cats"? No, let's not change the Language.

Here in Brazil the expression is "it's raining pocket knifes". Probably you are thinking we use shield on raining days instead of umbrellas, aren't you? This expression makes sense because the raindrops fall down fast and stingy. But they don't cut. See how many utilities a raindrop has, like a pocket knife: watering the plants and the soil; streets washing; floods, unfortunately.

No matter where it rains, and how. So, if you don't open your umbrella, get ready to get wet.