Episode 01 – Solidarity in the wake of tragedy
Intro
Hello and welcome to My Speed News Podcast, your beginners Portuguese News Source.
I’m Vlad, your Brazilian Portuguese teacher and today we’re talking about the flood of solidarity in the aftermath of the horrible tragedy that hit the southernmost state of Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul, in early May 2024.
If you haven’t heard, 80% of the cities of this state have been hit by flash floods and the water level has risen up to 6 meters in 24 hours in some areas.
First let me explain the format of this podcast.
This podcast is aimed at beginners and intermediate students, so if you’re starting to have conversations in Portuguese, this content will be perfect for you for three reasons. It will help you keep up with the latest in Brazilian news, it will expand your vocabulary, and, through tips that I’ll give you, it will equip you with tools to better use the language beyond the topic at hand.
So let ‘s get to it, or as we say in Portuguese, bora lá!
Vocabulary tip 1
The first tip is about word formation. Learning new words is a challenge that every language learner faces, but there are certain patterns that make our lives easier. So, sometimes, when you see a certain spelling in a word, or you recognize a certain sound at the end of a word in Portuguese, you can correctly guess the corresponding word in English.
One example of this is the end T -Y, in words like university, city, versatility. In Portuguese, we tend to have equivalent words with the only difference being the spelling at the end being D -A -D -E, and this ending in Portuguese sounds like ‘dade’.
So, the English word university has a corresponding one in Portuguese: universidade. The word city in Portuguese is cidade, versatility, versatilidade. In today’s story we’ll talk about solidarity. So based on the pattern we just discussed, what would be the corresponding word in Portuguese?
TIC-TOC-TIC-TOC
Yes, it’s solidariedade.
Another tip that will also help is that these words tend to be feminine. A universidade, a cidade, a solidariedade.
A famous exception to this pattern is the word saudade, which not only has no corresponding word in English ending in T-Y, it has no perfect translation into English. So what does it mean? Saudade is the feeling of longing for something you had or a person that you used to be part of your life.
Vocabulary tip 2
Our second vocabulary tip regards the difference in Portuguese between the words for thousands and millions. In English, these two words are very different, but in Portuguese, the word for thousands is ‘milhares’. and the word for Millions is milhões milhões. The spelling of these two words is with an L-H which in Portuguese has this LH sound.
The Double L in the word million in English is very similar to The Sound we’re going for here in ‘milhares’ .An important difference between the two words is that the word for millions, milhões, has a nasal sound and the word for thousands ‘milhares’ has no nasal sound.
Pronunciation tip
Talking about sounds, let’s get to our pronunciation tip for today. Because Portuguese has a different word order when compared to English, the word for NGO, Non-governmental organization, in Portuguese it is actually spelled O-N-G but the pronunciation can be surprising to some. The word ONG in Portuguese is pronounced ONG ONG, and its plural form is ONGs, ONGs.
Cultural tip
Some words can’t be easily translated, and cultural and historical aspects need to be understood for their meaning to become clear, so here you have our last tip.
This one is about the word Quilombo.
Slavery in Brazil was only abolished in the late 1800s, but from 1600s enslaved people that managed to run away from their enslavers, were known to have organized in communities called Quilombos and the people that live in them are called quilombolas.
These communities still exist and can be found throughout the country and versions of them can be found across the continent.
Only with our latest constitution, in 1988, one hundred years after the abolition of slavery, part of these communities became officially recognized.
Nowadays they can be urban or rural and they can have hundreds or sometimes thousands of people. The south of Brazil is known for its strong European immigration history, yet Rio Grande do Sul has almost 50 Quilombos.
And now to today’s story.
Intro da história
With these tips in mind I invite you to listen to this 2-minute story regarding solidarity networks, or in Portuguese: “redes de solidariedade”, This story is about their role in facing tragedies like the one that took place in Rio Grande do Sul.
História em português
No Brasil, as redes de solidariedade são muito fortes. Associações, movimentos sociais, e ONGs sempre ajudam em momentos difíceis.
Por exemplo, durante a pandemia, brasileiros de todo o país, através de milhares de iniciativas, fizeram doações de alimentos, roupa e dinheiro. As campanhas ajudaram milhões de pessoas que perderam seus empregos.
Atualmente, com as enchentes no Rio Grande do Sul, iniciativas locais estão ajudando a levar informação, socorrer pessoas, coletar e distribuir doações. Isso é importante porque as chuvas atingiram 80% das cidades do Rio Grande do Sul, inclusive a capital, Porto Alegre.
Mas além da capital, as chuvas atingiram comunidades camponesas, indígenas e quilombolas.
Essas comunidades rurais têm pouco apoio do governo em geral. Quando eventos extremos acontecem, as redes de solidariedade são especialmente importantes para elas.
De acordo com cientistas, eventos climáticos extremos vão ser mais comuns. Por isso é necessário encontrar soluções para reduzir os danos no futuro.
Comunidades camponesas, indígenas e quilombos têm muito conhecimento da natureza. Esses conhecimentos tradicionais, com a ajuda da ciência moderna, podem ajudar a encontrar soluções para problemas ambientais.
Enquanto não encontramos soluções, temos que apoiar e fortalecer nossas redes de solidariedade.
Prática extra
Now, if you want to take this practice further, I’ll give you the meaning of some of the words and expressions that you might have missed. Write them down and, as you listen again to the story, tick the ones you managed to understand the second time around.
Atualmente = currently = Atualmente
enchente = flooding = enchente
socorrer = to rescue = socorrer
Por isso = because of this
reduzir os danos = to reduce the harm
conhecimento = knowledge
Atingir = to hit. Also means to reach in this context
Now you can go and listen again paying close attention to these words.
That’s all for today, thanks for listening. Até a próxima!
