Sunburn, Paulista
As planned I made my way to a hostel near Paulista. Unplanned was how I got there, who I met on the way, and a sunburn covering my face, head, ears, and probably neck. Despite being untouched the previous two days, the sun came out in full force today. I did not use any sunscreen which I will remedy in the future. While my sunburn heals I have a plan to learn the rest of Portuguese in less than 2 days. Rather than explain it in detail, I will explain what led me here, show you a preview of my new method and move on.
The problem that led me to being unprepared to speak or comprehend Portuguese is that all of my comprehension is from mp3s of the learning material which lacks real context. Conversational Brazilian Portuguese is very different from my learning material. Not to harp on it, but it wasn't designed for getting me into a restaurant or to survive my first encounter. How do I fix it? Rather than engage Brazilians in conversations that I cannot understand (wasting their time and mine), I plan to read grammatically correct data in bulk using statistical analysis and my very own artificial intelligence. I've been telling people about my Language AI for years but now it's time to hand over some books to this beast. The Language AI was always designed for large amounts of data. The reason I limited it to tweets was because I wanted to make the data relevant and connect people at the same time. Try it, I mean it's crazy easy.
So how do I show you a preview of my new method without violating a book's copyright? How many Brazilian books are Public Domain? Brazil's copyright is the author's life plus 70 years, so that limits it significantly (pre-1941). Librivox has 139 audio books which would be perfect for comprehension. Since the text should be available, it is also a reasonable place to find popular Public Domain books. Of course I must warn you that these are in Portuguese and may or may not be Brazilian Portuguese. This one is. Gutenberg has 520, the most popular Brazilian one is Historias Sem Data by Machado de Assis (1884). One may argue that any book written before 1988 does not reflect current Brazil. In fact, one can easily say that a non-timeless book written before 2001 probably doesn't reflect current Brazil.
So here's another question: how many Brazilian books are are Creative Commons? Bingo! Creative Commons has a wiki to advertise Books licensed with CC. The top of the list of books is Intratext which has a Portuguese section. This gets better and better.
Here is the histogram for the first story from Historias sem Data, "A Egreja do Diabo". You can easily see that all 1112 words from the story are there. There are a few mistakes but that's inevitable with machine learning. Update: I found an interesting bug in NLTK which I fixed to get a much better result.
a 106 o 96 que 94 de 88 e 87 não 48 as 39 do 37 um 37 diabo 35 uma 35 os 28 com 25 em 22 era 21 da 20 elle 20 mas 19 é 18 para 17 por 16 ao 15 se 15 ou 14 egreja 13 mais 13 tudo 12 á 12 das 11 no 11 senhor 11 todas 11 como 10 dos 10 na 10 d 9 aos 8 mesmo 8 outras 8 tua 8 deus 7 seus 7 tu 7 céu 6 franjas 6 minha 6 muitos 6 n 6 nada 6 proximo 6 sem 6 são 6 tempo 6 algodão 5 amor 5 disse 5 esse 5 este 5 foi 5 ha 5 homem 5 homens 5 idéa 5 isto 5 nova 5 pois 5 só 5 todos 5 vai 5 virtudes 5 alguns 4 aquelle 4 assim 4 capitulo 4 cousas 4 depois 4 doutrina 4 ellas 4 espirito 4 essa 4 fossem 4 franja 4 me 4 melhor 4 meu 4 nas 4 nem 4 olhos 4 pela 4 porque 4 proprio 4 póde 4 ser 4 terra 4 teu 4 vez 4 vida 4 virtude 4 vos 4 vou 4 ás 4 agora 3 ainda 3 alguma 3 amar 3 atraz 3 azas 3 boa 3 canhotos 3 casa 3 caso 3 casos 3 certo 3 chegou 3 cousa 3 crer 3 desde 3 deu 3 direito 3 entre 3 especie 3 esta 3 eu 3 fez 3 foram 3 força 3 fundar 3 ia 3 já 3 lhe 3 logo 3 mal 3 morte 3 muito 3 mundo 3 nos 3 noção 3 ordem 3 outra 3 outros 3 porém 3 queres 3 realmente 3 respeito 3 rosto 3 seculos 3 seraphins 3 sou 3 superior 3 tal 3 tinha 3 tão 3 unica 3 velho 3 venalidade 3 vender 3 verdadeiro 3 vezes 3 vosso 3 achilles 2 acções 2 ancião 2 annos 2 apologo 2 applauso 2 aquella 2 ar 2 assumpto 2 benedictino 2 bocca 2 bons 2 braço 2 breviario 2 cabellos 2 cançado 2 capa 2 causa 2 chegava 2 confessar 2 conhecer 2 contra 2 coração 2 dava 2 demonstração 2 desorganisação 2 dia 2 digas 2 discipulos 2 divinos 2 dizendo 2 duas 2 effeito 2 entrada 2 eram 2 escriptura 2 essas 2 está 2 eternidade 2 excepção 2 exemplo 2 exercicio 2 explicação 2 fazer 2 fieis 2 fraude 2 gasto 2 grande 2 grandes 2 gula 2 havia 2 humana 2 indifferença 2 instante 2 instituição 2 interesse 2 interrompeu 2 ir 2 livro 2 manuscripto 2 melhores 2 menos 2 minhas 2 mostrou 2 mãi 2 nega 2 nenhum 2 nome 2 obra 2 odio 2 ora 2 parece 2 parte 2 partes 2 pecuniaria 2 perguntou 2 praticavam 2 presente 2 principio 2 promettia 2 quando 2 quanto 2 razão 2 religiões 2 rhetorico 2 sabes 2 sangue 2 seculo 2 seda 2 será 2 seu 2 si 2 simples 2 social 2 sua 2 suas 2 subtil 2 taboa 2 te 2 ter 2 teve 2 toda 2 todo 2 triumpho 2 tuas 2 turbas 2 vamos 2 veludo 2 vieram 2 vinha 2 virão 2 vista 2 viu 2 » 2 _hyssope_ 1 _illiada_ 1 abalou 1 abençoou 1 aborrecel-os 1 abrahão 1 absurdo 1 abysmo 1 acabava 1 accesos 1 accionista 1 accuseis 1 aceitas 1 aceitava 1 acharei 1 achas 1 achassem 1 achava 1 achou 1 acontece 1 acontecer 1 acudiu 1 adulação 1 adulteros 1 adventicio 1 advertiu 1 affirmar 1 afinadas 1 agitaram 1 agonia 1 agua 1 ahi 1 airoso 1 ajoelham 1 ajoelhar-se 1 alaúdes 1 aleivosia 1 alforge 1 algum 1 algumas 1 alheias 1 alistar-se 1 allah 1 alli 1 alto 1 altos 1 alçou 1 amasse 1 amizade 1 analoga 1 ancioso 1 anemico 1 angariado 1 anno 1 annunciar-vos 1 anquinhas 1 antigas 1 antigo 1 apostolos 1 apparelho 1 applicado 1 ardor 1 arrancou 1 arredal-o 1 aspecto 1 asperos 1 assombrou 1 até 1 avareza 1 avaros 1 avulso 1 azul 1 banco 1 barata 1 basta 1 batalhas 1 batendo 1 beatas 1 bella 1 bellas 1 bem 1 benedictina 1 beneficios 1 benzia-se 1 bibliotheca 1 bigode 1 boccados 1 boi 1 bom 1 botas 1 brados 1 brandura 1 braços 1 breca 1 breve 1 bullas 1 cabeça 1 cada 1 cair 1 cairo 1 caiu 1 calabrez 1 cales 1 calumnia 1 cama 1 camello 1 camellos 1 campanha 1 canones 1 canta 1 canticos 1 capas 1 capella 1 cara 1 caracter 1 caridade 1 carrega 1 casal 1 casual 1 casuista 1 catholico 1 cavalheiro 1 ceias 1 cem 1 centelham 1 cepas 1 certos 1 chama 1 chamava-lhe 1 chapéo 1 chegado 1 chegando 1 cheios 1 cheiram 1 cheiros 1 cima 1 cincoenta 1 cita 1 citava 1 citharas 1 clamava 1 claro 1 cogula 1 coisa 1 colera 1 colhido 1 combatem 1 combater 1 combateu 1 comer 1 começada 1 commenda 1 communicar-lhe 1 communs 1 comparar 1 comparaveis 1 complacencia 1 completa 1 completamente 1 comprehensão 1 comquanto 1 comsigo 1 comvosco 1 conclui 1 concluia 1 concluir 1 concluiu 1 condemnadas 1 conego 1 confessar-se 1 confessava 1 confessava-o 1 congregar 1 conhecesse 1 consciencia 1 consideração 1 conta 1 contavam 1 continuos 1 contos 1 contradicção 1 contraditorio 1 convertendo 1 conviria 1 convoca 1 cordialidade 1 corpos 1 corriam 1 cortar 1 credo 1 criados 1 crianças 1 cruel 1 cuida 1 cuja 1 cujo 1 cumpria 1 curiosidade 1 curioso 1 cynica 1 cópia 1 córos 1 dai-lhe 1 dal-o 1 damas 1 dar 1 darei 1 davam 1 debalde 1 debatiam 1 declarou 1 decoro 1 defeza 1 definir 1 definição 1 deitavam 1 deixar 1 deixou-se 1 deleites 1 delicias 1 demais 1 demonstrando 1 demorou 1 desafial-o 1 descia 1 descoberta 1 descobertas 1 descuidos 1 desdouro 1 deslavada 1 desmentir 1 desorientou 1 despreso 1 destruil-as 1 desvendasse 1 desço 1 detenho 1 detestar 1 deteve 1 detiveram-se 1 deu-lhes 1 deu-se 1 devia 1 deviam 1 devoção 1 dextros 1 diante 1 dias 1 differença 1 diga 1 digo 1 dilapidadores 1 directa 1 directamente 1 direitos 1 disse-lhe 1 dissimulado 1 dissimular 1 dissimulação 1 dito 1 dividem 1 dividendos 1 divino 1 dizel-a 1 dizer 1 dizer-vos 1 dizes 1 dobrou 1 documentos 1 doçura 1 drogas 1 drogman 1 droguista 1 duplicadamente 1 duvidar 1 dás 1 ecclesiastico 1 economia 1 edificar 1 efficaz 1 eis 1 elementos 1 eliminada 1 ella 1 eloquencia 1 embaçando 1 embora 1 emquanto 1 encheram 1 enfiar 1 engrinaldavam 1 enjoado 1 entendeu 1 enthusiasmadas 1 enthusiasmo 1 entranhas 1 entrou 1 então 1 envenenára 1 equivalia 1 erario 1 errada 1 escapava 1 escarneo 1 escondidas 1 escrevia 1 esgalgada 1 esmolas 1 espalha 1 espalhar 1 espertar 1 espiritos 1 esquerdo 1 estar 1 estatuas 1 estava 1 estavam 1 estendeu 1 estou 1 estrondo 1 estão 1 etc 1 eterna 1 examinava 1 excitar 1 exclamou 1 exclusivista 1 exercel-a 1 exercer 1 exercia 1 exigencia 1 exigia 1 existencia 1 expansão 1 expectaculo 1 explica-te 1 expressão 1 expôr 1 extraordinaria 1 extraordinarias 1 facil 1 fallava 1 fallavam 1 fallo 1 falsificador 1 faltaria 1 fama 1 farta 1 fastio 1 fausto 1 faustos 1 fazei 1 fazendo 1 fazia 1 filha 1 filhas 1 filho 1 filhos 1 final 1 fino 1 fique 1 fitaram 1 fixo 1 flor 1 formalmente 1 fosse 1 fraudulentos 1 friamente 1 fructo 1 frugalmente 1 funda 1 fundamental 1 fundára-se 1 furor 1 furtava 1 fé 1 fóra 1 fórma 1 fórmas 1 gabriel 1 galliani 1 genio 1 gentil 1 geração 1 gesto 1 globo 1 glorias 1 glotões 1 golpes 1 gosta 1 gratificações 1 gratuita 1 grave 1 habito 1 harmonias 1 haveria 1 historias 1 historica 1 homero 1 honesta 1 hospedaria 1 humanos 1 humilhado 1 hypocrisia 1 hypothese 1 i 1 ii 1 iii 1 imaginativa 1 immortal 1 imperiosa 1 impuzera-lhe 1 incluido 1 incomprehensiveis 1 incutia-lhes 1 indifferentes 1 individuo 1 induziu 1 infinita 1 infinitas 1 infinito 1 injurias 1 insigne 1 insolvaveis 1 integralmente 1 inteira 1 intimos 1 intrinseco 1 inveja 1 inventado 1 invenção 1 ira 1 irmandade 1 isso 1 iv 1 jejum 1 jogo 1 juiz 1 juridica 1 justamente 1 labaro 1 lado 1 ladrão 1 lançou-lhe 1 largar 1 lavrava 1 lealdade 1 legal 1 legitimal-a 1 legitimas 1 legitimo 1 legiões 1 lembra 1 lembrou-se 1 lenços 1 lettrado 1 lettras 1 levantar-se 1 levante 1 levantou 1 lhes 1 liberalmente 1 lingua 1 litteraria 1 locução 1 logar 1 logica 1 longamente 1 longos 1 lucros 1 lucullo 1 luthero 1 luxuria 1 lá 1 magnifico 1 mahomet 1 mandai 1 manjares 1 manto 1 marquezas 1 materias 1 maximas 1 mediante 1 meio 1 memoria 1 merecer 1 mergulhou 1 mesma 1 mesmos 1 mesquitas 1 mestre 1 mestres 1 metaphorica 1 metaphysica 1 metter-se 1 metteu-se 1 miguel 1 mim 1 minuto 1 mirifica 1 misanthropia 1 misanthropo 1 missa 1 miudas 1 modos 1 moedas 1 monumento 1 moral 1 moralistas 1 mostram 1 mostrar 1 motivo 1 muezzin 1 muitas 1 mulheres 1 multidões 1 murmurou 1 máus 1 mãos 1 napoles 1 naturaes 1 natureza 1 naufragio 1 necessarias 1 negal-o 1 negar 1 negaria 1 negas 1 negação 1 nego 1 negociantes 1 negocios 1 negou 1 nenhuma 1 ninguem 1 noite 1 noites 1 noivos 1 notou 1 novenas 1 novo 1 nucleo 1 numero 1 nunca 1 obsequios 1 observação 1 obstaculo 1 obter 1 occultas 1 olha 1 olhai 1 olhar 1 onde 1 operações 1 opinião 1 organisação 1 origem 1 originalidade 1 ortigas 1 outro 1 ouvir 1 ouviu-o 1 padre 1 pagar 1 paginas 1 pai 1 palavra 1 palavras 1 papel 1 parasitas 1 parecer 1 particularidade 1 pasmo 1 passado 1 passou 1 peccado 1 pedra 1 peior 1 peito 1 peleu 1 pelo 1 pelos 1 pensaste 1 pequenas 1 perdeu 1 perdão 1 perfeito 1 permitti 1 permittia 1 perversas 1 pesadas 1 pessoa 1 pessoal 1 pessoas 1 phenomeno 1 phrase 1 physicas 1 picante 1 piedosamente 1 placidez 1 pobre 1 podes 1 podia 1 pondo 1 porção 1 possiveis 1 possuia 1 povoadas 1 poz 1 preceito 1 preciosa 1 preciso 1 preconceito 1 predicas 1 preguiça 1 pressa 1 previsão 1 preço 1 primeiro 1 principal 1 privilegio 1 procedimento 1 procissões 1 producto 1 produziu 1 proferir 1 profunda 1 prohibia 1 prohibiu 1 propagava-se 1 proponho-me 1 propria 1 prosperidades 1 provavelmente 1 provincias 1 prégou 1 publicas 1 publico 1 pupillas 1 pura 1 puxadas 1 puxal-as 1 pão 1 pé 1 pés 1 pó 1 pódes 1 põe 1 quaesquer 1 qualquer 1 quantias 1 quatro 1 quem 1 quereis 1 quero 1 rabelais 1 rainhas 1 raio 1 raiva 1 rapido 1 razões 1 reboava 1 recebam 1 receber 1 recem 1 recolhe 1 recolhei 1 recolheu 1 recolhia 1 recolhiam-se 1 recorreu 1 rectificar 1 rectificava 1 redito 1 reflectir 1 regimen 1 região 1 regra 1 regras 1 regular 1 rehabilitadas 1 reinado 1 remanescentes 1 rematar 1 rematasse 1 remate 1 renovar 1 reparo 1 repente 1 repetia 1 replicou-lhe 1 reprehendeu 1 respondeu 1 restituam-lhe 1 retires 1 retribuição 1 rezou 1 rigorosa 1 rindo 1 riso 1 ritual 1 robusta 1 romana 1 rostos 1 roubar 1 roubou-o 1 roupas 1 rua 1 ruas 1 sabedoria 1 sabeis 1 sacudiu 1 sala 1 salario 1 saliva 1 salva 1 salvar-se 1 salvação 1 santo 1 sapato 1 satanica 1 secreta 1 secretas 1 seguida 1 sejam 1 semanas 1 semelhante 1 sentia-se 1 sentimento 1 sentir 1 sentiu 1 sequer 1 seria 1 servo 1 signaes 1 signal 1 silencio 1 sim 1 singular 1 soberba 1 soccorria 1 solidariedade 1 solitaria 1 sombra 1 somniferos 1 somno 1 sorriu 1 subia 1 sublime 1 substancia 1 substituidas 1 substituir 1 sulphureas 1 summa 1 supplica 1 supprir 1 sãs 1 talento 1 tamanha 1 tambem 1 tanto 1 tapava 1 tarda 1 tedio 1 telus 1 templos 1 temporal 1 tenda 1 tendes 1 tendo 1 tens 1 tentou 1 terei 1 teria 1 terror 1 terão 1 ti 1 tingem-se 1 tinham 1 tiveram 1 todavia 1 tomai 1 tomam 1 tomar 1 traduzisse 1 transfundil-o 1 transpiração 1 tratasse 1 trazel-as 1 trazem 1 tremulo 1 tres 1 triumphou 1 trocando 1 trophéu 1 têm 1 ultimos 1 umas 1 unico 1 universal 1 uns 1 valor 1 vantagens 1 varios 1 varonil 1 varão 1 vasia 1 velhas 1 velludo 1 vencido 1 vendem 1 venha 1 venho 1 ventre 1 verdade 1 verdadeira 1 verificou-se 1 versos 1 victimas 1 victoria 1 vieste 1 vim 1 vingança 1 vinham 1 vinho 1 vivia 1 vivos 1 voou 1 vossos 1 voto 1 voz 1 vulgar 1 vá 1 vêde 1 vêde-me 1 leve 1 musa 1 ácerca 1 és 1
Since I was talking with a nice Paulista (a person from São Paulo) I didn't take any photos though I should have. I will have time to take photos of the places I went but not the awesome Saturday scene that I saw. São Paulo is so wonderful.
Who did I meet, how did I get to the hostel, and how did I get a sunburn? I took the metro from República to Ana Rosa. I assumed that my phone's map would show the position of the hostel or that it would be easy to find. I started walking and ended up far far from Ana Rosa. When I stopped to take a drink of water a passer-by asked if I was not Brazilian. I said I wasn't. It just so happened that the passer-by was an English teacher who was free to help me find my way. We stopped for water and orange juice on the way to the metro station. We arrived at Ana Rosa metro station and found the street name on the map. It's a single block street that he had never seen before despite having walked (yes walked) past for years. When you have thousands of streets, no one really knows where non-major stuff is. Imagine a Seattlite saying "That? I have never heard of that street before." Luckily we found a perfect way to figure out how to get somewhere knowing the address, location, and it being 2 blocks away from the metro station. Yeah, I consider this to be a cultural oddity.
After leaving my bag with the hostel, we went for lunch and sightseeing. We went to the Centro Cultural São Paulo which is a large and very accessible modern art and culture center. We stopped for water again. You may think that it's rather frivilous to spend a lot of money on water, but my new friend told me that it isn't safe to drink unfiltered water since they do not use chlorine. I am going to take his word for it and drink only filtered water. We walked to one vegetarian restaurant after another finding each to be closed since it was Saturday. That's right, not many awesome restaurants are open on Saturday. The last place, Apfel was open and pricy. It was extremely tasty though and quite worth it. I can imagine saving up to go to that restaurant. I drank a drink I've never drank before (similar to grape juice but not as sweet). I ate various vegetarian foods that I will not find cheaply in America unless I cook them myself.
After eating, we walked down the hill to Jardins which is the wealthy district and looked at clothes in the galleria and walked back up to Paulista. He invited me to visit his house and we talked for hours. He played his 100-year-old piano and walked me home. You may have heard of friendliness of Brazilians but my friend's hospitality rivals any in the world (even my friend in Tokyo). It probably helped that we're both vegetarians in primarily omnivorous societies who read our news on the Internet and are concerned about the state of the world.
Anyhow, I got home and laid down noticing finally that I was sunburnt. I fell asleep and woke up 4 hours later at midnight. I went downstairs to get water and ask where to get a power adapter. Since I couldn't find an adapter or the supermarket, I drank some water and said hi to the other residents of the hostel. My roommmate wasn't home so I thought that if s/he was there it couldn't hurt to say hi before s/he wanted to go to sleep. This was a suprisingly good idea. They couldn't understand my failure of a greeting "Que tal?" Please do not use this as a greeting, no one understands it. After a while they invited me to a party in Vila Madalena where I met very nice people. Party is a loose term. Vila Madalena is nowhere near Vila Mariana despite having similar names. Vila Madalena is a very big party neighborhood while Vila Mariana is a quiet residential neighborhood next to a large street that is a mile from the huge central parties at Paulista.
We arrived home at 4am and I slept well for 4 hours. I'm hungover and had a couple episodes of tunnel vision at the supermarket but was able to do almost all my shopping. Three prong to two prong adapters are as rare in Brazil as they are in Germany, Japan, and America. Bring an international adapter to save yourself two or five trips to the local stores. I bought an expensive magazine, Matemática at a banca de journal which I plan to review in a future blog.
I tried to get Skype to work and bought 10€ in credit today. It didn't work. I plan to call my grandmother and possibly other people if I get a chance. The funny thing is that São Paulo is 6 hours ahead of PST instead of 3 hours like I thought. That means that I can call between 3pm and 3am to reach people in PST between 9am and 9pm. My day is almost done when their day is starting, almost like Europe... Update: I called my grandma. She was happy to hear from me. The solution to the problem with Skype was to remove ~/.Skype and try again.
