Chatting in Portunhol

Every trip to Brazil was a special kind of social experience for me. Although I speak only a few words of Portuguese, and many Brazilians only a little English or Spanish, I found it easy to strike up conversations with the locals everywhere, whether by the supermarket shelves, at the beach, on the bus, or in the middle of the street. What starts with “Tudo Bem?”, “Olá amigo” or simply a thumbs up is almost always the pleasant start of a friendly conversation. After the three men waiting for the bus in Praia da Pipa caught me surreptitiously taking pictures, they looked at me cheerfully and one of them began to chat warmly with me. In which language? – Portunhol, a useful mixture of Portuguese and Spanish, which many Brazilians can switch to at lightning speed.

Praia da Pipa (Brazil), April 2018