Introduction: Hello, hello and welcome to Fundamentos. This is our new 30-day English course that will help you be more comfortable and more confident in day to day situations in English. Isso aí, seja bem vindo ao Fundamentos. É o nosso novo curso que vai te ensinar como dominar as situações essenciais do dia a dia. We are super excited that you are participating and we're confident that you're going to learn a lot. Então vamos começar!

Foster: Hello, hello. Hey guys and welcome to another episode. Today we have a special guest, Marco, Marco Antônio. Welcome Marco.

Marco: Thank you Foster. Hello crazy people. Nice to speak with everybody. 

Foster: So I imagine most people know that you are Alexia's dad. But if you don't know, Marco Antônio is Alexia's dad. And Marco, you already speak English quite well. How would you describe your English? Like a beginner, intermediate, advanced.

Marco: I prefer 'a mix of beginner and a medium speaker' because I start one million times, always in the wrong way and nobody corrects my pronunciation. And here I am trying to speak English, understanding something but not enough. That's it, that's my story.**

Foster: Excellent. So I think a lot of our students can relate to your story. So Marco, what I want to do today, we have a part of the course that we talk about introductions, how to introduce yourself in English. And when I say 'introduce,' é 'como se apresentar,' né?

Marco: Okay. 

Foster: Então vou te fazer várias perguntas sobre você mesmo, e você vai respondendo em inglês, tá bom?

Marco: Okay. 

Foster: Cool. Let's begin with perhaps the most simple question. What's your name?

Marco: My name is Marcos Antônio Nunes de Souza. And in English it would be 'Marco.'

Foster: Perfect, perfect. And where are you from?

Marco: I'm from Brazil. A small city named Poços de Caldas.**

Foster: Uh-huh.

Marco: I was born there. I lived in São Paulo, San Paul, which is a big big city, around 18 million inhabitants.

Foster: Yeah. In English, we say, "18 million people."

Marco: 18 million people. And then I lived the other part of my life in Rio de Janeiro, around 8 million, 10 million people. So I lived in big cities almost part of my life, and now I'm living in Porto, Portugal, a beautiful and cozy city.**

Foster: Nice. So you have an experience of small cities like Poços de Caldas, really big cities like São Paulo, and medium sized cities like Porto.

Marco: I didn't understand your question.

Foster: Not really a question...

Marco: A comment. 

Foster: Just a comment, yeah.

Marco: Okay, Poços de Caldas, it's a beautiful little city, not so little, but I had to move to São Paulo. My dad died in a plane accident, so I moved with my mother to São Paulo. 

Foster: Can I give you a quick correction, Marco? 

Marco: Of course.

Foster: Okay. So when you're speaking in the past, so you're telling stories about the past, when you say words like, 'I moved' or 'I lived,' I'm hearing you say, "I lived. I moved." Mas não é necessário, no caso. É só o som do T, "I lived."

Marco: I lived.

Foster: Perfect. Repeat with me, 'I lived.'

Marco: I lived.

Foster: Então não é 'lived,' é só 'lived.'

Marco: Okay, 'I lived.' The D is imaginary. I lived.

Foster: Yes, the D is silent, it's more like a T. 

Marco: Ok.

Foster: I moved. Try that, 'I moved.'

Marco: I moved.

Foster: Perfect. Okay, so you moved to a lot of different places. Marco, can I ask you a personal question? 

Marco: Yes, please. 

Foster: How old are you?

Marco: 75.

Foster: 75 years old. 

Marco: Yes, a lot of years. And I'm surprised when somebody asks me how old I am, because my answer is a surprise for me too. 75 years is a lot of years. I became an old man without the perception of that.

Foster: Without realizing it.

Marco: Without…

Foster: Realizing it.

Marco: Yeah. A blink and here I am.

Foster: We have a good expression in English, we say, "in the blink of an eye."

Marco: In a blink of an eye.

Foster: Exactly.

Marco: I started… I'm thinking in Portuguese and trying to translate in English and this is bad. But people start... me cedendo lugar nos transportes.

Foster: Uh-huh.

Marco: I don't know how to say this in English. People was giving me... 

Foster: People were offering their seats.

Marco: Offering their seats and I said, "Maybe I'm old because..."

Foster: Maybe I'm older than I think.

Marco: Maybe I'm older than I think. Yeah.

Foster: Okay. So Marco, can I give you a recommendation? When you're thinking in Portuguese and you're trying to translate to English e fica muito confuso...

Marco: Yes.

Foster: Minha recomendação é sempre pensar mais simples. Porque eu sei, na sua cabeça você quer falar tipo, "Ah mais eu estou ficando mais velho, mas não percebi." Pensamentos profundos.

Marco: Okay.

Foster: But in English, we cannot do that because your English is not the same as your Portuguese. And I know it's very difficult because you want to be very sophisticated and very intellectual when you speak. But we have to start slow and then we get a little bit faster and faster. Does that make sense?

Marco: Yes.

Foster: So when you're thinking in Portuguese, and it's difficult for the words to come out of your mouth, just stop, try to think of a more simple way to say the same thing and then continue.

Marco: Okay. I'll try. 

Foster: Cool. Okay, another simple question Marco. What are some of your hobbies? For example, what do you like to do in your free time?

Marco: Read and write.**

Foster: Yes. You're a writer, you really write. 

Marco: Yes, I really write. And this gives me pleasure.

Foster: Uh-huh, pleasure.

Marco: Pleasure. This gives me pleasure. And I write everyday, almost everyday, and I read less than I needed but it's okay. I'm now reading the Portuguese literature.

Foster: Uh-huh.

Foster: Which is very good in a simple way. It's very good, I'm appreciating this. 

Foster: Nice. And what kind of things do you write? Do you write novels, fiction, nonfiction? 

Marco: Fiction basically. I made a course in the Porto… Faculdade de Letras do Porto.

Foster: Uh-huh. Pera aí. So first, we don't really 'make' courses in English. I'd say 'I did a course' or 'I took a course.'

Marco: I did a course.**

A pronúncia de 'course (córs)' é bem parecida com 'horse (cavalo),' enquanto que 'curse (cãrs)' é parecido com 'nurse (enfermeira)' 

The witch used her powers to curse the princess.
A bruxa usou seus poderes para amaldiçoar a princesa

The student registered for various courses.
O aluno se inscreveu em vários cursos.

Foster: I did a course.

Marco: Yes.

Foster: At the university of Porto.

Marco: It calls Creative Writing, okay?**

Foster: Uh-huh.

Marco: And so my teacher, who's a writer…

Foster: Uh-huh. Perfect.

Marco: A portuguese writer said, "Marco, you have many personalities. You can be sweet, you can be bad, but okay." Move on too, Foster, I write many things and very different things and this is a dispersão de pensamentos.**

Foster: A dispersion of thoughts. 

Marco: It's good because it proves that I have imagination but it's very wrong because we have to have a lot of discipline to don't escape, don't go away when you're writing something.

Foster: To not lose focus or be...

Marco: Diversional.

Foster: You can say 'to be diversional,' that's not very common. To not get distract...

Marco: Yeah.

Foster: Yeah. To stay focused, I think it's the best way. Yeah, that is a difficult thing to do. So you like to read, you like to write. Do you have other hobbies or things that you like to do? 

Marco: Yes, I like very much to watch movies. Old movies, Italian movies and… Movies or films?

Foster: They're pretty much the same.

Marco: Okay.

Foster: You can say both.

Marco: And I put in the internet, in the computer and I watch the films that I like very much, the classicals..

Foster: The classics.

Marco: The classics. American Graffiti, Il Sorpasso in Italian, and Sunset Boulevard.

Foster: Nice. Yeah, the classics.

Marco: Very good. Yeah, the classics. 

Foster: Cool. So Marco you did a very good job introducing yourself. This is just an example of a basic conversation that you'll have with native speakers. "Hey, how are you? Where are you from? What do you do? What do you like to do in your free time?" Was that difficult for you or was that relatively easy? 

Marco: No, it's easy. It's easy here when I'm speaking with you.

Foster: Uh-huh.

Marco: Okay? And very difficult with strange people in a strange...environment?

Foster: Environment.

Marco: Environment, and people speak very fast and, "Hey, how are you? Where are you from?" And I say, "Okay, let me think." And this 'let me think' is a negative way to start a conversation, so that's it. It's difficult….easy with you, difficult with other people. And when people look at me, an American, an English guy and say "Hey!" I say "Jesus Christ. Please, don't ask me things."

Foster: "Please, don't talk to me." Yeah, I can relate to the feeling. But I think you did a really good job. And I know that a lot of our students think it's very difficult when they're speaking with native speakers for the first time. So I really respect your ambition, your initiative to speak. And we'll have you on the show again soon. 

Marco: Okay, to be a pleasure.

Foster: To be a pleasure. You'd say, 'it will be a pleasure.'

Marco: It will be a pleasure.

Foster: Perfect, perfect. Thank you Marco, I'll talk to you soon.

Marco: Thank you.

everybody - todo mundo

nobody - ninguém

enough - o suficiente

I was born there - eu nasci lá

cozy - aconchegante

died - morreu

personal question - pergunta pessoal

perception - percepção

without realizing it - sem perceber

blink - piscar

in the blink of an eye - num piscar de olhos

slow - devagar

faster - mais rápido

writer - escritor

pleasure - prazer

almost - quase

everyday - todos os dias

less - menos

appreciating - apreciando

novels - romances

sweet - doce, gentil

wrong - errado

free time - tempo livre

relatively - relativamente

ambition - ambição

initiative - initiative