27 de novembro de 2007

In a Country of "Camones"


Now, here is something worthy of inscription in the log (remember, the diary on the web?). Indeed this is one of those occurences that, had we no blogs, and would go down unnoticed in History as just another incident in the daily routine of a desperate housewife.

As such, good ol' desperate housewife here needed to go shopping and off she went to one of those mega supermarkets, not very happy with a chore that involves choosing apples, sorting out packages of soya milk and facing the ever difficult task of deciding which yoghurt flavours to take. The mood was not exactly the best, I confess, but it was put through harder strains on noticing that Christmas decorations are already there and guess what?, the inscriptions on the decorations of that particular supermarket were all in English!
"Merry Christmas" they said! Not one, not two, but a series of extra large balls with fake mistletoe and fake pine folliage hanging over the heads of clients. What a show!

Last time I checked this was still Portugal (I guess it was because some cordial civil servant was charging me 80 Euros for a document that said I'm really Portuguese). And if this is Portugal, how come they have the decorations in English, for goodness sake?

I know I work, speak, write, think and even dream in English (not my fault I'm a product of multilingualism), but this is still Portugal, not an imperial emporium of English!

Will the folks there in Britain write "Boas Festas" in their Christmas decorations? Or will Americans hang decorations with "Feliz Natal" in Times Square? Just a thought on the daily routine of a desperate housewife...

Besides, what's this compared to the excellent, I'd even say visionary, deal the Portuguese government made out of Cahora Bassa or the forthcoming summit between the EU and African leaders?


12 comentários:

quintarantino disse...

Now Miss Blonde are you complaining because the Christmas decorations have all, with no exception, written Merry Christmas?
You? And only you?
Oh, gosh, I get it... you are mumbling because there are thousands who cant't say three words in English without making old Shakespeare wish I could come back from hell to kick some asses!!!
By the way, would you kindly stop drinking that so called soya milk and start having a glass or two of good old portuguese red wine? Or even white wine?
Humpf... soya milk... double humpf!

António de Almeida disse...

-Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Birthday on the postcards, I Love You, Happy Valentine's, My Funny Valentine, we have imported Halloween as gifts and events. But there are also many expressions with english words, and brazilians too. Not so bad, sometimes ago, were the french. Enjoy Quint opinion, portuguese red wine, a nectar of gods.

Tiago R Cardoso disse...

Concordo, temos sempre uma vontade de copiar os outros, Portugal sente-se tão inferior que continua a achar que tudo é cultura estrangeira é que é bom.
Vamos lá fora temos que tentar falar com a linguagem deles ou com a língua Inglesa, os estrangeiros vêem cá e é a mesma coisa, nós que nos temos de adaptar.
Seria a altura de Portugal ter orgulho numa lingua que é uma das mais faladas do mundo.

Patrícia Grade disse...

Now, this post is really asking for portuguese comments, isn't it? So here goes, I aim to please:

Querida loiraça,

O problema coloca-se noutros termos. Caro Tiago, a questão não é a de não termos orgulho na nossa lingua. O problema está no facto de a lingua inglesa se ter de tal forma generalizado, que quem produz os enfeites de natal fá-los para todo o mundo (mais barato!!) e em inglês.
É claro que o Natal português é feito de filhoses e não de egg nogg ou christmas pudding, é feito de presépios e não de árvores de natal ou mistletoe. Podemos sempre recorrer às nossas tradições, ao que temos de verdadeiramente português, mas todos sabemos que as nossas tradições não são comerciais.
Por isso adopta-se o que é mais barato e deixamo-nos dessas palermices de comer as filhoses que dão uma trabalheira a fazer, e compramos árvores de natal de plástico com luz, para não ser preciso comprar luzes e esquecemos o presépio, porque isso de comemorar o aniversário de jesus é uma grande treta. afinal, o Natal há muito deixou de ser uma reunião em volta do nascimento do menino jesus, para passar a ser uma pausa no trabalho.

Blondewithaphd disse...

Quinn dearest,
I'm complaining, not of the use of English, I'm complaining about the soft backbone of the Portuguese, nothing more.

Blondewithaphd disse...

Dear Antonio de Almeida,
Did you know that the over use of English has a scientific name: linguistic imperialism? I guess this means we're linguistic colonies then.

Blondewithaphd disse...

Dearest Quinn and Antonio de Almeida,
What am I gonna do with you? Soya milk has no collesterol, it doesn't make you fat, it tastes better than milk...
(and incidentally, always white)

Blondewithaphd disse...

Dear Tiago,
I couldn't agree more! I know I am not the best person to be saying this, but I'm proud of the Portuguese language! It's a damm difficult language, but a noble language.

Blondewithaphd disse...

Dear Indy,
And you most certainly please!
I see you have a point there, I only looked at one side of the question. Very good point you have. Market Economics really is a culture killer!

quintarantino disse...

Than white shall it be, Mam!

Nuno Raimundo disse...

Hi "blondie"...
interesting point of view...

i never thought about it.
what you wrote make all sense.

kisses

Carol disse...

Well, if the use of English is a form of imperialism, then I must be an imperialism instrument since I'm an English teacher... But I also teach Portuguese! E é tão mais bonito dizer «amo-te» ou «Feliz Natal e um próspero ano novo»...
I totally agree with indomável's comment. You know what they say: Money makes the world go around!