Dia de Reis, or Epiphany, is celebrated on January 6 in Brazil. It commemorates the day when, according to the Christian tradition, os Três Reis Magos, the Magi, visited baby Jesus. Another note-worthy event that takes place on that same … Continue reading
azilians like to celebrate o Ano Novo, or Réveillon, New Year’s Eve outdoors. The end of year holidays come in the summer, right at the beginning of the academic summer vacation, creating the ideal period for people to travel to the beach … Continue reading
Christmas greets Brazilians four days after the first day of summer, so celebrations call for less eggnog and more cold beer. Living Language interviewed Dona Ana, a 45 year-old Brazilian math teacher from São Paulo and asked her to describe … Continue reading
Today is the winter solstice. Solstices and equinoxes are astronomical phenomena connected to the seasons and describe the relationship between the sun and the Earth. An equinox happens twice a year. The word comes from Latin, meaning aequus (equal) and nox (night). An … Continue reading
False friends, falso cognatos, are pairs of words in two different languages that look the same, or sound the same but have different meanings. For example, in English the word actual means in fact, real, but in Portuguese the word … Continue reading
First things first. In Spanish if you study Information Technology, estudias informática, and if you work in IT, eres informático/informática. More specifically, you can be director-a del departamento de informática (IT manager), ingeniero-a informático-a (IT engineer), desarrollador-a de software … Continue reading
Capoeira, a creation of Afro-Brazilian slaves in the 16th century, is now a recognized sport and form of martial arts. Jogar capoeira, literally play capoeira, involves using acrobatismo, acrobatics, dança, dance and música, music in an incredible display of physical … Continue reading
October 24, 2014 was رأس السنة (ra’s al-sana, the first day or “head” of the year) in the Islamic or هجرية (hijrī) calendar. it is called هجرية (hijrī) in Arabic because the first day of the Islamic calendar commemorates الهجرة … Continue reading
On October 5, Brazilians went to the ballots to elect a president, but since the candidate with the most votes did not receive more than 50% of the total, the two first contenders, first-term President Dilma Rousseff with 41.6% and … Continue reading
Today is International Coffee Day. In celebration, let’s learn about coffee in Brazil, the largest coffee producing country in the world for the past 150 years, harvesting a third of all the coffee consumed in the planet. Café, coffee, is … Continue reading
