A Language of Charades

The past couple of days have shown to be funny yet frustrating ones. Sometimes, I don't think we realize how much we take for granted when it comes to the spoken English word. Although Jonathan and I are practicing to improve our Portuguese, it almost seems like the day will never come that we will lose that 'deer-in-headlights' look when someone asks us a question (I say this after having been in the country for only what, a week now? ;)). Seriously, most of the time we stare at people talking to us, and then say, "Que?" ("What?") or, "Nao falo Portugues." ("I don't speak Portuguese.") The only thing that usually follows this is the person repeating exactly what they just said, but slower. Still. Nao falo Portugues.

It's a good thing that a combination of sign language and broken English/Portuguese can get you somewhere. Well, most of the time. There are, however, some situations where something that seems quite universal, is really, well, QUITE ONLY AMERICAN. For example, let's look at the common hand signal meaning O.K., perfect, great, etc.:


AMERICAN way of signaling O.K., perfect, great, etc.



BRAZILIAN way of signaling O.K., perfect, great, etc.

On our first day in Brazil, we were told: Do NOT use the American signal for O.K. in Brazil; this is because in Portuguese, it means F-YOU (equivalent to giving someone the middle finger)!! You are always supposed to use the 'thumbs-up' sign.

Even knowing this information, do you know many people in Brazil I have told to F-off?! Seriously, I did not realize how often I automatically give that American signal! Every time I do it, I immediately change my hand signal to the 'thumbs-up' and say, "Desculpa! Eu estou Americano estupido!" (I'm sorry! I am a stupid American!). Most of the time the person's look goes from 'Excuse me?!' to 'Oh, I see.' Jonathan just looks at me like really? REALLY?

It's a hard habit to break. But, moving on.

We went to get cell phones yesterday with people that work with Jonathan and speak English. Mariana, one of Jonathan's co-workers and her sister, Renata, also took me to a few shoe stores (MY LOVE). I promised myself I would only buy shoes that didn't look like something I could buy in the U.S. So, here is a peek at one of the pairs I bought yesterday. It's definitely not the greatest picture setup you've ever seen:

As we were shopping, I asked Mariana about the stove that is in our current apartment (we may be moving). The stove top has a very thick, solid piece of glass on top of the gas burners:

When I first saw the stove, I tried to jiggle the glass. It didn't move, so I said to myself, "Oh, you must just turn the burners on, it will heat the glass up, and that's the equivalent to an American glass-top stove." WRONG AGAIN! Mariana informed me, through fits of laughter, that you must LIFT the glass and cook on top of the burners. Otherwise, the glass will shatter!

Wouldn't THAT have been a great blog post?

In my defense, Mariana did say that the reason she knows this is because another American friend of hers did the same thing ;).