Eyemaze

Checking my friends's blogs, I found something interesting. It's a site with puzzles (Eyemaze). Interesting Flash puzzles. I stayed for hours trying some without finishing yet... I'm not giving up yet, though.

This link will lead to one of them, but you're free to try any other. Definitively worth a look... and a try.

Portuguese != Spanish

while searching some YouTube videos, I remembered that many people ahve asked me in Japan how close are Portuguese and Spanish (or Italian, or French). One comment really amused me that was if one could undrestand all those languages knowing only one of them...

LOL

His point was that "if that was possible, it would be nice to know one of those languages, since it would grant comprehension of many languages at once".

LOL again.

Well, I'd dare say that it is possible to understand a little of Spanish, Italian and French from Portuguese. But I wouldn't trust those similarities for anything more than an informal chat or some "smart guessing" when there's no other way. Spanish and Portuguese really "look alike", even for some who know one of those languages. But some caution is needed.

One reason is because of false cognates. One example is the English word actually. It looks like the Portuguese word atualmente, which means nowadays. Some years ago, a Spanish language school released very clever ads using false cognates between Portuguese and Spanish to create embarrassing situations due to the "misunderstanding".

I found one of those ads after some YouTube searching.



And for those not familiar with either Portuguese or Spanish, the words that cause the misunderstanding are:

* la (a)buela
The player says that his nickname "Matador" comes after his ability to control and kick the ball. For "to control", he uses the verb "to kill", which is said reasonably often in soccer. But the word for "ball" in Portuguese is "bola" (I believe it's "pelota" in Spanish), and the player says "the ball" as "la buela"...(because many words have that sort of change from Portuguese to Spanish) and "la abuela" means "the grandmother" in Spanish.
So, "control the ball" turns into "kill the grandmother"...

* zurdo y fresco
The reporter says that the player will enter because the team needs a lefty and "rested" player. So, he uses the words "zurdo" ("canhoto" in Portuguese) and "fresco" ("descansado"). But the word "zurdo" sounds like the Portuguese word "surdo", which means "deaf", and "fresco", although it also exists in Portuguese, isn't likely to be used in that kind of situation. It looks like the reporter called the player... uhhmmm... I can't give the exact meaning but it is something like someone who's always complaining, or that doesn't like to do physical effort, or who likes things only as he/she says, or some kind of gay person (that word is used with that meaning only as slang).

Actually I'm not so sure if the second word is really "fresco", and even my "translation" of how that word was interpreted by the player is not exactly correct... If someone could confirm or correct the information, I'd appreciate it.

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Added on December 21st

I found a word that matches well with Portuguese "fresco". Think that "picky" is a good one.

Year-End Events

Well... this was surely a busy week... But one of the best of this year.


Tuesday night

Time to play futsal! But this time, a friend that comes to Londrina only occasionally was interested in joining. So, I invited him to participate the carnage. Fortunately, I was defending kinda well that day (I play as goalkeeper, just as a reminder)...

He even found some long lost friends there (that friend is from Londrina, but he studies somewhere else)... But, hey! Next time stay longer here, clone! I'll tell if we're going to play again!


Wednesday night

I was invited for another friend's (William) graduation ceremony (and party!). Since it was a high school ceremony and party it wasn't so wild as some may think, but it was very good. An oportunity to see my friend wearing a formal suit (LOL) and meet another friend (Juliano) who was invited as well (and whom I haven't met since I returned from Japan).

And also some memories of my high school times... As I was way shyer back then, guess I enjoyed more that party than my own... Well, at that time I was among friends, and that was all that mattered.

Ah... of course. And be scared with the amount of food that those two friends can eat! They've almost vacuumed the food...

Bed at around 4 a.m.


Thursday

At noon, a lunch at a mall with the two same friends from Wednesday. That was a better chance to chat and stroll around with them (... stroll around remembers me of Jon... I still miss those weekends around Himeji).

Evening. Time for my former Japanese school's year-end party! And at a restaurant that I like, too! Grilled meat, chicken and fish!! Yummy! Some new faces and some old classmates. And what a small world...

About midnight. Marco and me joined William and Juliano to play games at a LAN house. Also, during the previous dinner, I called more friends (Gorda, Ku and Ratu). Not exactly a "full house" (maximum number of players in a game), but a good number nevertheless. So we played DotA until... uhmm, 3:30 a.m.?


Friday

Since Juliano would return (and leave us) at noon, we decided to gather again Friday morning to play some PS2 games and table tennis. And eat cheese bread, of course! (Well, that's kinda traditional when they gather at home...) And, surprise! My mother managed to stuff our two "vacuum cleaners" with food to the point they were (finally) full. That's a first.

Even after noon, it went on (with members leaving when their time was due) until late afternoon. After that, the only thing I remember was waking up at 9 a.m.... Saturday.


Sunday

Lately it's damn hot here. Hot hot hot! So, what about a little water fight to refresh? That was the idea of the parkour group. So, instead of a normal training, we had some balloon (filled with water) throwing... Yay!


Also, I received a violin as a "graduation gift" from my parents. Yipeeee! I still suck at playing it though...

More "Japanese Tradition"

Like the post teaching "How to Eat Sushi", these videos (it's divided in 2 parts) teach "Japanese social rules" for men to socialize with women, a.k.a. "how to 'get' a girl".

This one is also very funny... and from the video description:

*warning*
Don't believe everything in this movie!!!

LOL... After reading this, can't help but think what if someone thought this was all true...

Part 1


Part 2

Violin and Japanese Test

This time I'll open with a embedded video. "Kiss me Goodbye" (Angela Aki), Final Fantasy XII theme song. I want to play it! Looks so cool!



I've been thinking about learning a musical instrument for a while. Last week, finally I went one step forward and started taking violin lessons.

Why violin? Well, I can't say there's a true reason. But instruments like guitar, drums or piano never attracted me enough... and dunno why I chose violin... Perhaps because of some presentations I watched... really nice.

Ok, but there's a problem. I have absolutely no notion of music except from listening things I like (also not knowing exactly why) without worring with things like notes. So I'll have to start from the basics... and I mean it.

The class showed me how much I don't know. And that's good. So that means I'm at the second stage of learning ("don't know that you don't know" - "know that you don't know" - "know that you know" - "don't know that you know")... more a less.

First problem, I have no musical accuracy. Can't distinguish any note from any other. I'd realized that already during my audio classes. It's hard to equalize without it... not impossible, though (you just listen to the musician's comments and you're probably safe). But it becomes a bigger problem when the second one showed up. To play the violin, some accuracy with your fingers is needed. More than most guitars, for example. Even my ear could notice that missing the point where your finger should be produces "unpleasant-to-hear" results.

Also, I'm left-handed, but there doesn't seem to exist some sort of "reverse grip" for playing violin (guitars have it... the references to guitar / bass are because my sister plays them, so I know a little about them... not how to play, though)...

Guess there'll be lots of work here...


Changing the subject, the Japanese Language Proficiency Test was held this Sunday. I tried level 2, but couldn't study properly (actually, almost didn't study at all) and my Japanese is pretty rusty (guess I'd have better chances if the test was right after I returned from Japan). What can I say? I couldn't finish the first part (characters and vocabulary) in time and "guessed" a lot at the third (reading and interpretation... BTW, the texts for that part were HUGE, especially comparing to the previous level).

The expected but unusual part was thinking that the second part (listening) was the easiest one. For the previous levels I've taken, listening was always the part that I scored less. This time will probably be the opposite.

If I think I'll pass?

Only with divine intervention.

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Added at 11h40min

I forgot to mention that one good thing about the JLPT was that I met a friend that I haven't met for a while. He was trying level 3, so I lent some notes that I used when trying that level.

Well, when I tried level 3 two years ago, and at that time I was under pressure to pass, because it was a condition (kinda informal one, though...) to get my scholarship to Japan. That why I have much info about that level.

But we also used the opportunity to talk about our life in Japan. He also went to Japan for 5 months to work (as a dekassegui). Different experiences, but we both learned something... and want to return someday. Our next idea is wait for our friend that's in Japan now as an exchange student by the same program I went last year (but he's at a different campus) and have that same talk.