Portugal! Our friendly neighbor to the North! Home of the diggeridoo, fine mustard yards, beautiful beaches and hand-rolled cigars, the world's finest chocolates and cuckoo clocks, ruled over by Victor von Doom and headquarters of the JLP...The Justice League of Portugal!: Grande Boca, Crânio, Tia Biquíni, Churrasco, Sabonete Líquido, Voleibol, and Portuguese Man-of-War! Yes, this country has a rich, exciting culture of the sort generally only seen in 1960s View-Master reels. Because of the Portuguese UN sanctions of 1968, you and I can never visit this secretive, closed country, but we can enjoy its hearty native foods like cravinho, guarda-chuva, and verniz de unhas! Of course, on December 2, everyone in the friendly and bustling Little Portugal communities in every major US city gather to celebrate the Feast of Nelly Furtado, and it's a grand time for all until the last of the traditional nine thousand fireworks have gone off.
Yes, we here in America obviously know pretty much everything about Portugal! But do you know how to speak Portuguese? Why, I'm betting you don't know anything more than the few basic words it takes to communicate with the Portuguese squid fisherman who shares your carpool each morning. Be sure to greet him with a hearty slap on the back and a friendly feliz Páscoa! each and every day as he slides into the Toyota Camry alongside you. But for those of you longing to learn more conversational Portugeuse, perhaps to impress former Manchester United footballer Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, why not do what I do...
Learn Portuguese with Mary Jane Watson!
Now, we could consult special Portuguese to English dictionaries or perhaps phone up our pal, Portuguese-American actress Danica McKellar (formerly "Winnie" on the hit TV show The Wonder Years and now the superheroine 'Math Maiden' of the Philadelphia Avengers). But translation is easy when you pull from your own collection the corresponding issue of the American Spider-Man comic...in this case, Spectacular Spider-Man #220!
Cover of Spectacular Spider-Man #220 (January 1995), art by Sal Buscema
See, comparing these two comic book covers makes it simple to read Portuguese! The word Peter, or, as we say in English, Tiger, is easy enough, and comparing the highlighted words in red we can detect that the word "papai" means "news." Hence, I would imagine the Portuguese J. Jonah Jameson would work on a "papai-papel." I bet he is shouting for Parker to take him photographs of cork oaks all day long!
The rest of the phrase immediately falls into place: "você vai ser" can be translated as "here, please accept this" or "O am happy to present you with," or, most colloquially, "catch!"
Therefore: Peter, você vai ser papai! can be translated as Tiger, do I have news for you! Why, thanks, Mary Jane...or as we say in Portugal...muitíssimo agradecido, María de la Iva!
Hey, girls! Got a Portuguese boyfriend? (Sure you do!) Surprise him tonight when he comes home by tossing your arms around him and declaring happily "Você vai ser papai!" That look of shock and surprise on his face is pure delight that you've taken time to learn his romantic, old-fashioned language!
Tune in next time when we learn Norwegian with Namor the Sub-Mariner!
I think they're arguing about ham.
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7 comments:
Cool :) Its a great way to learn Portuguese. Thanks for the tip.
Juan
Hahahahaha, hilarious!
But dude... that's the brazilian edition.
Brazilian edition indeed. In fact, I don't know if there even were European Portuguese editions back then.
That was great. And I learned so much about Portugal!
Ola, I'm a Portuguese Tourito, or Bully to you.
You're as right about Portugal as we Europeans are about you nutty yanks by watching your everyday lives in movies and TV series...boy, it must be exciting living dangerously all them 24 hours of the day, cavorting with desperate housewives or living in a gigantic fun-house with the ever lovin' ghost of Michael Jackson watching exciting 5 hour sports like baseball.
Anyway, just wanted you to know that the foreign edition of portuguese you're showing is actually Brazillian, who speak a sort of klingon portuguese, but who aren't quite the real deal.
Well it's a good opportunity to learn something about their culture, with their samba soccer carnaval super powered girls and all those cliches.
Adeus e beijinhos à prima from your portuguese cousin
TOURITO
For those that didnt get it, a tip: "Você vai ser Papai" means "Youre gonna be a daddy"
Its a spoiler in fact, spilling the beans, probably trying to sell more books.
"Brazillians speak a sort of klingon portuguese" love it!
Greets from Brazil!
But this is the cover for the brazilian edition. In the portuguese edition there is another sentence in the cover. And in Portugal we don't use the "você" very often (is more usal in the portuguese spoken in Brazil).
If you want some Portuguese (Portugal) covers tell me and I will send you some.
Cool post
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