Sample Portuguese Conversation

Here's a sample conversation with a Brazil speaking normal-speed Portuguese at me:


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Brazilian: Hey, what's up? Do you ---- -- --- now? ------ --- ---- last night at 8:00. It was really awesome. Where was ----?

Me: ...

Brazilian: Did you understand?

Me: Not everything. Could you please speak slower?

Brazilian: Sure, no problem. It's ------ ----. --- -- ---! Right?

Me: Fuck.

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It can be really frustrating to not understand Portuguese. I'm definitely getting better, but with only 3 months of practice on my own before arriving, it's not very easy to start speaking well. Sometimes I feel like my Portuguese is really good (like when people I meet tell me it is), and sometimes it seems awful. If someone's asking me questions I've heard a million times before (where I'm from, what I'm doing in Brazil, how old I am) it's pretty easy to pass for conversational. But when I'm listening to a group of Brazilians talk amongst themselves I don't understand shit.

The worst part about not speaking well is not being able to understand jokes. If you're with a group of people and you're not really following the conversation, what do you do when everyone else starts guffawing? Your options are pretty much either a) pretend to laugh even though you don't get the joke (though this can be very dangerous if called on it), or b) not laughing, in which case you look like an ignorant baffoon. I generally opt for the broad, good natured smile, which is pretty easy to pull off when everyone else is belly laughing. That way I might have gotten the joke, but if I didn't at least I'm a happy guy, right?

There really is no good answer. Ain't easy bein' gringo.