Farsighted Fly Girl

One of the fascinating things I discovered in Macau was the seamless mix of Chinese and Portuguese culture. It shows up in every aspect of daily life but I found seeing Cantonese and Portuguese languages side by side particularly interesting. The mural above instructs on recycling in Macanese style, using both Cantonese and Portuguese. However, I guess not everything translates into both languages. The funny mural below urges dog owners to clean up after their pets but there're no Portuguese words to be found!

As I writer, I 've developed an ear for language. I love to soak in speech cadences and the rhythms of different dialects. Although I've heard lots of Portuguese crooned from my tons of Brazilian, Cape Verdean and a few Portuguese Cd's, I wasn't ready for what I heard in Brazil. I felt like I was pushed into this world that lured me in with familiar Latin words and then shut me down with crazy interpretations. I pride myself on grasping enough of a culture so that I can blend in fairly quickly. Brazilians embraced me first as a Rio C arioca and then as a Salvador Baiana but I felt like a fake as soon as I opened my mouth. My brain couldn't process the sounds of the words and my mouth couldn't spit them out. Nothing made sense to me and I felt mentally crippled more than a few times. It might be a cliche but one thing about Brazilians is that they are genuinely warm and free-spirited. Even though my speech sounded like a clunky blend of grammar school Spanish t...