I traveled to Brazil thinking that I would be able to understand enough Portuguese to get by - after all the language on the surface is very similar to Spanish, in terms of the vocabulary and the grammar.

This was a rather naïve assumption on my part – I should have paid more attention to some of the many Brazilian songs in my I-tunes library and I would have realized that the pronunciation of Portuguese is quite different than Spanish!

I received my baptism in Portuguese shortly after arriving at Passo Do Lontra Lodge in Brazil’s vast Pantanal region. Call it Portuguese 101! I was in manager’s office at the lodge when I tried to make some conversation with him. I had learned a couple of basic phrases from a tour guide prior to walking into his office. So I asked him in Portuguese - Como Su Nome? (What is your name?) which is very similar to Spanish - Como se llama or Como es su nombre?

He replied - Mi nome is Hosheh (that’s what it sounded like) and I asked him in English (someone translated for me), What kind of name is Hosheh? That is a very unusual name, how do you spell it? To which he replied, R O G E R. OH, you’re name is Roger, I said.

Lesson One: The R in Portuguese is pronounced more like a guttural H. Can you believe that the correct pronunciation of RIO (short for Rio de Janeiro) is Hio!

Lesson Two: D in Portuguese is pronounced more like a G. For example – Buen Dia (Good day) is pronounced Bon Gia!

Portuguese has many other nuances – but bottom line the sound of the language is completely different than Spanish although many of the words are similar. EG. Daughter – in Spanish it is hija, in Portuguese it is filha, Son is hijo in Spanish while in Portuguese it is filho.

To the naked ear, Portuguese sounds very romantic - sort of a frenchified version of Spanish!

Funny thing - I met a young couple from Colombia who were fully bilingual in Spanish and English, and even they had a difficult time understanding Portuguese. However if you have 100% facility with Spanish, you’ll probably comprehend at least 60% of Portuguese after awhile – after all the Brazilians I met understood at least 60% of my Spanish!

Bon Gia from Hio!