As much as I love cultural exchange between Brazil and the US, it's sometimes hard to listen to English and Portuguese get mangled by earnest non-speakers. Here are two prime examples:
The whole Cala boca Galvao movement and Brazilians on Twitter were recent topics at the TED Conference. It's actually an interesting little video (he changes topics after the 4th minute or so, though), but the speaker's pronunciation leaves something to be desired.
Then we have Sabrina Sato, who is already irritating as it is, interviewing Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in English. I swear I couldn't even watch the whole video because it was so awkward and uncomfortable that it was making me cringe. I did love the part where she was attempting to ask Cameron Diaz about the World Cup, and for some reason she answered that she loves Brazilian waxes. I also thought it was neat that Tom Cruise claims he's studying Portuguese, but it's probable he says the same thing whenever he's promoting a movie in a foreign country.
I'm not gonna watch Sabrina because of the aforementioned reasons. But, one thing's for sure: she does know how to speak a relatively decent English (they all have private teachers) yet that would kill her character. She interviewed Ashton Kutcher like that and it became sort of her 'thing'.
Posted by: brazinglish | July 21, 2010 at 10:21 AM
Wow...Sabrina Sato is so obnoxious...I had no idea her English was so bad...and just when I thought Alessandra Ambrosio and Adriana Lima talking to David Letterman or "candidly" reliving their "first kiss" on the VS Fashion show were as painstakingly annoying as it got...that was God awful...I'm speechless...I'm just surprised Tom spent so much time talking to Ms. Sato.
On a more serious note, it just goes to show how important it is that we encourage study/live abroad programs so that we can bridge these sort of embarrassing cultural and linguistic gaps! I for one feel quite proud to be an American who speaks Portuguese and understands Brazilian culture!
Posted by: bzgirl | July 21, 2010 at 04:36 PM
Wait!! Marina, are you telling me she's faking her bad English? Because that makes this 100 times worse. It makes me sad. :(
Posted by: Rio Gringa | July 21, 2010 at 06:53 PM
OMG! Is she that dumb or is she just pretending to be dumb? Tom Cruise was so polite and patient. If I was him I would have told her to go f* herself because I would not waste my time being interviewed by someone so dumb and stupid. I feel sorry for those intelligent ones who are trying to publish a book or be noticed somehow. Nowadays, the Brazilian TV just wants dumb people to work in their shows. I wonder if Stephen Colbert or John Stewart would be so polite with her...
Posted by: Jeanne | July 21, 2010 at 07:03 PM
Tom Cruise is unbelievably patient and gracious!
Posted by: Ray Adkins | July 22, 2010 at 12:57 AM
Sabrina Sato is definitely faking her bad English! She even speaks a little more fluently to Cameron Diaz than to Tom Cruise. I think I've seen her interview people in English a lot more competently than this. I think Tom Cruise just said he was learning Portuguese because he's memorized a few phrases for his trip and wanted to get into the spirit of massacring a language! And I think Sabrina does want to ask Cameron about the bikini wax, but they just interpret it phonetically as 'hexa' in Portuguese in the subtitles as a joke. The whole thing is obviously tongue in cheek and chaotic and silly. To be honest those women sashaying around in bikinis as part of the set of this show and the family-oriented Faustão bother me more than interviews like these :(
Posted by: lindsay | July 22, 2010 at 02:15 PM
that twitter guy was really interesting actually. i've been anti twitter but i kinda want to use it now...
well, i've actually never seen this Sabrina chick (most of my tv is SVU and House, oops) but she makes me feel a lot better about MY portuguese! aiaiai she is annoying evern when she is speaking portuguese...
Posted by: mallory elise | July 23, 2010 at 06:24 AM
That's hilarious this formal lecture was given to a large audience, only to have fallen to prank.
Glad to know I'm not the only one annoyed by Sabrina Sato.
Posted by: Sara | July 27, 2010 at 07:00 PM
What's Sabrina Sato's dialect? catupiry? I forget the name of it...
Posted by: Sara | July 27, 2010 at 07:16 PM
Anyway, I am sure she speaks better English than the Portuguese spoken by 99.9% of the Americans...
Posted by: Verinha | August 03, 2010 at 03:36 AM
Eu nunca tinha vista essa mulher fazer entrevistas, mas tenho que admitir, ela é muito engraçada! Com'on people, lighten up!
Posted by: silva | August 05, 2010 at 02:55 PM