Portuguese abroad

I may have mentioned that being among the foreigners here you usually learn some few sentences in many languages... and teach some things in your own language.

And people always learn bad things very quickly.

Although Portuguese may not be so popular here as Chinese, English, German, Korean, Spanish, Italian or French, sometimes I listen to some people saying one sentence or two they know in Portuguese.

The range goes from a simple "obrigado(a)" ("thank you") to some soccer-related words ("goleiro" - goalkeeper or "elastico" - rubberband). Sometimes sentences like "eu te amo" ("I love you"... yes, it was a little strange listening to that one. And, no, the person didn't really mean it... fortunately) or "eu não falo português" ("I don't speak Portuguese").

(I'm obviously excluding people who can speak Portuguese from these examples)

There are also some names of stores or places with strange names in Portuguese (sometimes not only Portuguese, though). Quick examples would be the depertment store in front of Kyoto station named "Porta" ("Door") and one at Himeji station called "Caspa" ("Dandruff"). Or perhaps a cafe named "Tanto Kuwanto" ("Tanto Quanto" - "As much as"). I'm sure I've seen even better examples, but can't remember them.

Now to the part "learn bad things quickly"...

Among the expressions I hear in Portuguese, some of them are actually swearing. I've heard people coming saying things like "c**alho" ("s**t"), "p**a que p**iu" ("holy s**t") or "va tomar no c*" ("shove it in your a**"). The translations may not be accurate, since it's not actually easy to translate those. Not only that, people learn to recognize those expressions really quicky.

Another thing is when a French came to tell me he could sing a Brazilian song. That's usually either Bossa Nova, samba or forro, so I asked what was that song...

"Namorar Pelado"...

Not only that, he KNOWS the meaning of the lyrics... I'm not teaching that. Don't even like that genre...

Nevertheless, the most amazing "WTF situation" was during a birthday dinner, when a Japanese guy came out of nowhere saying:

"Tu é muito boa."

WTF!?!? I was floored by this one like I haven't been in a while...

Of course, he didn't really mean it, but two things we (me and another Brazilian who was talking to me at the time) had to teach him fast:

1- NEVER EVER say that to a man.

2- Even girls may not find this nice.

For those wondering about the translation, it would be something like "You're beautiful" or "You're sexy"... but with a very strong sexual connotation. Although there is also another "inofensive" meaning for this sentence ("You're very good") we concluded that he surely had the previous meaning in mind.

Since we wondered where he heard that one, he said that a Brazilian girl taught him, so he could say it to her.

I can't stop wondering what kind of person was that...