Below are a few observations made
by Portuguese people living in Germany and Italy.
Spitting
An elderly Portuguese man was visiting his immigrant
son in Germany. They were walking down a crowded pavement
in the afternoon when the elderly man developed some
congestion in his chest and felt the need to 'cough
it up and spit it out', which he did - out of courtesy,
just a little bit off the pavement into the street.
The son noticed that the other people on the pavement
looked on in disgust
and he even felt a little angry at his father for
having spat in the street.
(Reported by a Portuguese man living in Germany.)
Faré
Portuguezi
Apparently in
Italy, riding on public transport without a
ticket is called fare il portoghese (to
do like a person from Portugal, i.e. cheat)
and is generally applied when foreigners assume
that no tariff is required on Italian public
transport.
A Portuguese man living in Italy, who was slightly
offended at the comment, looked into it and
found that in 1600 and something the Pope at
the time was so impressed with a delegation
from the Kingdom of Portugal that he pronounced
no one from Portugal should need to pay for
transport while in Italy. It made the Portuguese
person feel good to know that a Pope had, in
a way, sanctioned this behaviour.
(Reported by a Portuguese man living in Italy.)
A nun taking a bus in Rome
In the first observation, it is noted that spitting
in the street is frowned upon.
Is that true in your country?
In the second observation, it is noted that some people
use public transport without paying for a ticket. Do
people in your country often abuse the transportation
system?
The
second observation contains an example of what is
common in many languages: there are expressions
referring to foreigners with negative connotations.
"Dutch courage", for instance, is used by
the English to refer to the courage people have when
they have drunk too much. Are there any such expressions
in your language?
Answer these questions
in your worksheet (Task 11 and 12).
