Portugese anyone?

Apparently I can read Portugese now. In my hostel in Turkey they have a library and one of the books was a guide book on Istanbul. I grabbed it to read while they were making lunch and was doing not bad reading it.

However I did think that the book was written using very poor Spanish. I was finding lots of spelling mistakes and then I finally clued in. This definitely wasn’t Spanish I was reading. But if it wasn’t Spanish, French, German, or English, how was I able to read it?

Turns out the book was Portuguese and with my Spanish I was able to read it. I have never been able to understand Portuguese or carry on a conversation with someone from Brazil using my Spanish. However apparently I can read it. I was very excited at this discovery. I will make Brazil next year much easier!

One other language learning I had was that “Skase” in Greek means “Shut-up!” On the bus ride to the aiport in Athens at 4:30 am an elderly Greek man hit me and barked “Skase”. I was merely talking with some Aussies on the bus but apparently he wasn’t having it. I don’t blame him really, it was very early, but I didn’t really appreciate being hit in the back of the head. It is one word I won’t soon be forgetting.