SPOILER ALERT! I don't mean these things are weird, OBVIOUSLY, they are just different 😉 And a different way of life is why we move, right?! What had surprised you about life in Portugal??

I love how some of these weird facts apply to life in Sweden too 🙂

Just moved here from South Africa thanks for the Tips keep it up Great Info CARS are Pricey compared to rest of Europe

Yes, thank you, Liz…an episode or two on driving vocabulary would be lovely! …or if you have already, will look it up. Thank you!

Much of this is the same as in Scandinavia, so for us it's just like home.

At first we all in Europe and we use 1 to 24 for hours and celsius NT like American – British Fahrenheit and am and pm just 1 to 12!!!
The green man for cross means to cross and there are on many streets allowed for right side crossing to see at a yellow blinking men light and those means for driver to be carefully, et people cross at first and then they allowed to drive not earlier. Passager first which works in several countries well but some driver ignore it!!!

Jorge Quinta-Nova há 1 dia (editado) As a Portuguese, I do believe dubbing foreign movies is a crime against world culture. A TV channel (SIC) tried to dub some ER drama back in the late 1990s and there was a general outcry against it

I agree with Jorge. The firsts episodes of "Friends" were dubbed and each time I came across it on TV I immediately changed the channel to avoid throwing the tv through the window

Dubbing It's really really bad I can't stand it… there is not a single good reason for dubbing that I remember, this is all about actor lobbying.

I have cultural shocks even inside my own country… just by moving 100km

3:40 You will be treated like VIP players… who doesn't like it?

4:30 I don't know many English speakers and already knew 3 Dave's

5:25 That's a myth…it's much easier to censor with dubbing

8:27 If you don't like cod fish… you are not suitable to marry… actually you are not even a good a person

you didn't mention Manuel

Em Alemanha todos os apartamentos e as casas têm placas com os nomes familiares dos occupants, em Portugal não se encontra nenhum nome aos apartamentos ou às casas. Em ãlemão the form of adress people is in the third person plural ("plural majestatis") "Was machen Sie, Frau….?" I think this came up with the increasing of the bourgeosie after feudalism, when the form of adress a more humble person by a person of nobility was by "Er" or "Sie" (3. person sing.) The form of adress persons in Portugal remembers in this way of the times of feudalism in Germany. – Another "weird" thing: in Germany people is been adressed in a formal way with "Herr" (Mr.) or "Frau" (Mrs.) and the family name. In Portugal people are adressed with their given names and sometimes even without the suffix "Dona/Senhora" or "Senhor", only with the given name. When I'm waiting in the centro de saúde f.e. and are being called out, I here only my given name.

The ticket system is far better than forcing people to queue for a long time, which can be especially hard on older people. With the tickets, you choose the service that you want, get your ticket and, especially if you see that you have many people ahead of you, you can decide to go and sit down, go outside, even go for a coffee, and come back later. It's never 100% accurate, but in many places the tickets show the estimated time to be served, as well as the time you got the ticket, so you can manage your time accordingly. Also, at the Loja do Cidadão, for example, you can (or could, at least – I haven't been to one in a while) send an sms to a number in order to be notified when there are only 3 people ahead of you, so you can star to make your way back.

Re: cars being allowed to go when it's green for pedestrians if they are turning left or right, I always thought that was the case everywhere… I lived in London for years and never noticed that it didn't happen there. So, yes, if a car is coming from a street and turns left or right, the light will be green for the car and red for the pedestrians that want to cross that street, but not for the ones on the perpendicular streets. In that case, there will typically be a blinking yellow (amber) light with a pedestrian symbol, warning drivers that they are goingo to turn into a street where the light is green for the pedestrians, and so they must give way to them (it is always mandatory for a car turning right or left into a street to give way to pedestrians who are crossing it, regardless of zebra crossings, or any other considerations, except if the pedestrians do have a red light). So, in a nutshell, you have to be careful when crossing a street on a zebra crossing with a green light on a street corner if cars can turn into your street, although they are still required by law to give way to you. But, better safe than sorry.

Great vid, as always. Welcome back Liz! I love the idea of the senhas. Means you can grab a ticket for the meat counter at the supermarket, then do the rest of your shopping while waiting to reach the front of the butcher queue.

The subtitles thing is frustrating. It's really hard to find TV shows in Portuguese with PT subtitles. RTP have a few, but not many, and the subtitles are on Teletext so you have to know this in order to find them. And they rarely work on the RTP Play app, but they do work on the RTP website. English shows with PT subtitles are easy to find, for anyone that wants those.

Many Portuguese people speak excellent English, and apparently they learn it by watching English shows that have had PT subtitles added. As an A2/B1 learner I guess that what I really need is Portuguese shows with English subtitles. But there simply aren't any. Maybe I need to be looking on the BBC and other English stations for these, rather than on Portuguese channels.

Thanks for correcting me aboutK, Y and W Hugo.
And I have heard the same view, from Portuguese friends, about why shops are given English names in Portugal. It makes me feel a little sad that Portuguese shop names aren't considered prestigious enough.

Just discovered this channel! I'm going to have to dig back through your archive. I hope to complete my move to Portugal by the end of June from The States and I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

Two more odd things about life in Portugal – for a language that doesn't, as far as I'm aware, use the letter W, why are toilets called WCs? And many shops have very English names but are 100% Portuguese?

I can't imagine a movie without an intermission, I have a small bladder 😂

Obridada Liz! The coffee thing is always really weird for me too. I don’t know how they can sleep. 🤔 Also dinner time is sooo late.
If you come from Germany the 24 hour clock is common. Also the traffic light thing and public holidays in the week are common here. Bridge days rocks but you can also to be unlucky to have a public holiday on a Saturday or Sunday in one year. So funny to compare!

The dangers to pedestrians extends to the sidewalks! In Porto anyway, many garages are on the "minus" floors with a vary steep ramp up that terminates at the sidewalk so they continue to zoom ACROSS THE SIDEWALK and on to the street.
What's also weird about almost being struck in the crosswalk, is that IF they realize they almost killed you they give you an "oops my bad" kind of wave. Aw… they didn't mean to break my legs!

4:00 In my opinion that is the weirdest thing in our language. Sometimes I don't know if I should treat someone by "tu" or "você", it's a mess, even for me. English is so much simple.

I'm portuguese and I loved the video 🙂

I've certainly experienced the ticketing system at the Spanish post office and Belgian registry office as well.

At first I thought people talking in the third person when addressing someone right in front of them was unique and strange… then I remembered that it's what MPs do here!

I prefer subtitles to dubbed media content, but there are 3 major films I've only ever seen dubbed in Spanish and 2 more in German, because I happened to be on the continent when they were out in cinemas.

In Germany, Austria and Slovenia I found that pedestrians would wait for the little green man at road crossings even if there was no traffic (so, the opposite of what happens in Portugal) – and they'd never jaywalk either.

I think the 24hr clock thing is more of a culture shock for Americans than Brits. Hearing people talk in it might be unusual but we at least see it every day here.

Bank Holidays only ever falling on a Friday or Monday seems to be a purely British thing. In Austria I noticed just how many they seem to have between August and Christmas, a time of year when we Brits get none!

Moita sorte na escola de condução!

Funny, the green man crosswalk situation is like that here in America. If no people are walking you can proceed. Often proceeding even with pedestrians walking😵‍💫

The ticket machine exists in some supermarkets in the USA. Also cars can turn in the USA when it is green for pedestrians, which I didn’t know was a thing in Portugal. I stand corrected.
I was just delivered food by a girls names Yoarmy and speedy. Lady was the name of a lady at the supermarket. Twins at a friend’s school that was named usnavy and usarmy. I love the law that limits parents from naming their kids whatever they can think of. Believe me it is very necessary!!!
Also intermission at the movies shows our social nature. I miss that so much, you get to talk to your friends, see other people you also know. So much fun! Also this is where you can get all your food without missing any of the movie!
Love how you say: bacalhau even on Christmas Day. As a Portuguese abroad you go out of your way and pay a small fortune to buy bacalhau and make sure you have it at least on that very important holiday! Portuguese people that don’t like bacalhau will still have it for Christmas, it would probably be considered a heresy not to have it! Just to put things into perspective. 🙃

I'm first generation American, my parents/family are all from Portugal and I never heard the third-person address when I was growing up. So if I was to visit Portugal and were addressed in the 3rd-person, should I respond in the 1st person or continue in 3rd? (Maybe that's a silly question, LOL?)

Shout-out to 1986 babies
(8/17/86)

Hi Liz. Such a great and useful video.
If you don’t mind, can I please ask a bit more Ona few of the points in your video?
1) with the green man, and cars being allowed to turn; is that reserved solely for right turns (like in some places within N. America)?
2) would VO films still be subtitled?
3) Bacahalau; is it always salted and dried? How difficult / easy is it to get fresh cod (at shops/ fishmongers/ in restaurants)?
Thank you again for a fun, and informative video.

Good luck with the driving. I've managed to avoid it for 47 years and counting!

Just for fun….
https://youtube.com/shorts/CE_bERBs5dY?feature=share
https://youtu.be/_dBPuVBsOJo

Now I know way it so long for me to be waited on during my last visit to Lisbon. 😁
Brian & Stacey

Conheço estrangeiros que tiveram mais facilidade em aprender português, espanhol e italiano, depois que eles aprenderam latim.
Não sei dizer se existe alguma relação, mas achei interessante esses estrangeiros mencionarem isso.

I’d love to learn more about the naming convention and the banned names too. That could be a super interesting video to make. Every time I’m in Portugal, I always just thought the society was really not very creative when naming their kids!

Awesome vid, Liz. I've never been to Portugal nor lived there, but, surprisingly, I knew most of these already aside from the senhas. Probs part due to your vids, so, thanks for the info :). Do you think we'll be getting a Portuguese only vid from you again soon? It's been a year since your last one with your Q&A~.

Great video again. The weirdnesses that you had picked up on made me smile. Some of which I knew about, but not the others, until now. Always an education Liz. Thanks for another interesting video.

Good video… on the public holidays, a weird one is regional public holidays, so a public holiday in Lisbon is not necessarily a public holiday in Porto. That never happens in England (although it does happen across the countries in the U.K.)
And also linked to the names, the rules around taking surnames from both the mother & the father. When I married my Portuguese wife in England, when we went to the consulate in Manchester to register the marriage, she wanted to lose one of her surnames, but they wouldn’t let her. So now she has 4 surnames…
Also, not doing proper tea is weird… especially as Catherine of Bragança introduced tea to England!

The use of the third person with the name and third person is quite fascinating. Familiar enough to use first name, but still some distance maintained. If you think about it, we occasionally use the same form in English, but not as in Portuguese in order to be polite. In English, I think it suggests extra closeness, almost as if talking to a small child…

Great info Liz. We have experienced the evening coffees in our neighbourhood even being driven half an hour away to a river beach in summer after dinner at friends.
Also Saturday afternoon to a neighbourhood shop/ cafe where they have local meat to buy in a freezer in the next room. We buy local honey and olive oil from another neighbour. Delicious. Simple country living is beautiful. Não senhas!

Oh the Names… why do they have such long names?

All you mentioned is the same in Germany 🤣🤣. So no surprise. What was surprising for me is you make an appointment with someone – people who your need for a repair – and they let you wait. 1 hour or 1 day. 🥺 🙄

I think that in the past, in Portugal, they used subtitles because it was cheaper way to translate a movie for the people. I don't think it had to do with censorship (it would be easier and more effective to censor through dubbing).

Obrigada Liz! Yes please to a video or two about the whole process of driving and getting one's licence in Portugal!

I don't know why are there still so many people getting confused by the 24 hour clock…
The baby rule is the same in Czech! 🤷‍♂
The coffee is great… but if you mix it with milk, your expectations should lower. My wife haven't had a good cappuccino so far; I am still looking.
Very interesting factoids!!!

Não posso concordar mais com o quarto facto, ou seja, o de falarem-te na terceira pessoa. Lembro-me quando me aconteceu pela primeira vez: olhei logo para trás para ver se estava mais alguém na sala, mas só estava eu e não percebia porque não me falava de "tu" diretamente hahah

Era fixe um vídeo sobre vocabulário de viaturas e por aí fora!

Obrigada e parabéns pelo teu trabalho Liz, dá-me jeito melhorar o meu inglês através de um tema que me motiva (o mundo lusófono)!

So interesting, I have seen the senha system used in Brazil and thank goodness as it would be carnage without it😁 Only been once just before covid but will definitely go back. As a fluent Brazilian Portuguese speaker I was fine for the most part but some accents were quite challenging. Your videos are helping a lot and really enjoyable to watch.

If you had lived in Portugal before the "senhas" system (a long time ago…) I'm sure you'd have a different appreciation for it. In those foregone times queuing was a mix of art and martial arts. You'd need to:

a) constantly keep an eye on everyone

b) maintain a dialogue with the people around you – 'I arrived just after you, sir, you saw me arriving here, right?' – 'you're the person right after me, madam, aren't you?'

c) create group alliances against anyone trying to elbow their way through the queue, or against anyone questioning your place in that queue – 'I arrived before you, it just happens I went to the bathroom and it took a while…'

Also sometimes you'd need to keep this mix of diplomacy and war posture for HOURS – there was no internet, tax forms were delivered at "Finanças" in person, and there was usually a queue going round the block.

Your generation has no idea how good you have it. When I was young…

Also for the green man crossing – even if there is a red light for the cars and a green light for you to cross: Make sure that you still double check that no car will come speeding down with full intention of running the red light (and running you down!). So many near heart attacks from cars just trying to squeeze through before you get a change to cross in the road, even if you're already halfway crossing. Insane XD