Hello, hello, hey sweet people and welcome to another episode of English Nui
Curu Hájú. My name is Foster.
I am an English teacher, a podcaster, and as always, I am here with the one, the only… Alexia.
Hello, everyone. Hello, Foster. How are you today?
I am doing wonderfully. How are you doing, Alexia?
I'm doing good. And as a matter of fact, I'm recording from home and Foster
is recording from our co-working space because of logistics.
Yeah, logistical difficulties. There was a lot of construction happening near
our apartment, so we're doing it just like the old days recording remotely.
Yeah, yeah, and before we can dive in in the episode.
Before we can what?
Dive in.
Dive in.
In. There we go. Dive in the episode.
Happy Independence Day.
Happy Independence Day. It is Brazilian Independence Day, the day of Brazilian independence.
I'm not totally sure how we say that in English.
But happy day for you, Alexia, And happy day for all of our Brazilian listeners.
Happy Independence Day. Happy Independence Day, 7th of September.
Alexia, how are you feeling on Independence Day?
Normal. I think, I don't know.
The way that I grew up with the celebrations for Independence Days just like
once per year on the 7th of September,
we all went downstairs to our school's patio and we used to sing the hymn.
The hymn?
Yeah, you know?
The hymn.
Hymn.
Yeah, so same pronunciation as like hymn and her. Hymn.
Hymn.
The national hymn or the national anthem.
Ah, the national anthem, much better. And it was kind of like this,
I don't know, maybe other people who were listening to us, they had more important
celebrations or something like that.
But for my realities, it was only that and it was like, it is a national holiday.
So no one will work or go to school or some things like that.
And we all would have a barbecue together and that's it.
So it sounds very, very Brazilian to me.
No one goes to work and everyone has a churrasco. Yeah. Beautiful.
Alexia, can I, just coming from my experience growing up.
July 4th, Independence Day in the United States, was such a big deal.
Like it's an event where there are fireworks and we always celebrated at our
lake house and there was a big party.
And it's like a big thing. Everyone's super patriotic and it's like one of the
biggest holidays of the year.
And also, Americans, they have their flags everywhere, like not only on July
4th, but throughout the year.
So I think that you guys are a little bit more patriotic than us Brazilians.
Yeah, I think I would agree with that. Americans tend to love the American flag
and putting it anywhere and everywhere.
So Alexia, I have a lot of questions for you, but I'm going to choose my questions carefully.
I think what I'm most interested in is how does it feel like for you as a Brazilian
born and raised in Rio de Janeiro on Independence Day,
you have not lived in Brazil for like five years and you are currently living in Portugal,
the land which invaded your home country and which this entire day is celebrating
the independence from the country in which you now live.
Just like you have a lot of questions, but this one is very specific.
I don't know. I feel okay.
How are you feeling about it?
The more the modern Portugal and the modern Brazil, I think that it's okay nowadays.
I think no one remembers that it's the Independence Day.
Like the Portuguese people, they don't remember that it's the Independence Day from Brazil.
They will remember once they are studying in school, but like usually normal
days talking to another Portuguese person, no.
And I think that if I ask someone like our friends, our Portuguese friends,
like, how do you feel about that? They would say, yeah, good for Brazil.
God, because Portugal is awful, you know, like you guys did great. Yeah.
I don't think Portuguese people are, they're over it. It's water under the bridge.
Águas passadas. That's a good phrase in English. Water under the bridge.
Water under the bridge. But, but I'm talking about our generation of Portuguese people.
Yes.
Okay. Yeah. Let's, this is another discussion.
Yeah. There are many, many very elderly people, older people in Portugal,
and maybe they have different perspectives.
We don't know. Alexia, can I give you a quick pronunciation correction? Yeah.
That's why we are here.
That's my job. Can you pronounce the word modern?
Modern. There we go. Modern. So, the first vowel sound is a, ma, modern. Modern.
Perfect.
I was hearing you say something in between, like a, a.
I'm not sure exactly, we can listen to the recording later, but modern. That's perfect.
Awesome. Awesome. So,
Pássaro, while we were doing our,
um, like research, right,
to, um, talk about the Independence Day of Brazil and give some vocabulary,
because I I think it's very important to talk about important dates,
for anyone who would like to know a little bit more of Brazil, but in English.
I didn't know that Dom Pedro I, first of all, how would I say that in English,
Dom Pedro I? Oh boy. Peter I. Oh, boy.
Be it or the first.
Yeah, something like that.
Um, yeah, but I would like just to add to your point that it is very important
and that's a really easy way to improve your English when you speak to native English speakers,
they are probably going to be interested in Brazil,
in your history, your culture, so just knowing like how to talk about these
basic holidays and things like that, super useful. Good call, Alexia.
Yeah. And then I learned that September 7th is the day of the feast of Our Lady of the Guide,
which is an important religious celebration in Brazil.
Guys, I don't know, I never heard about Nossa Senhora da Guia.
I mean, I know that she exists, but I didn't know that it was chosen to be on
the day of Nossa Senhora da Guia, Our Lady of the Guide.
So Dom Pedro I chose the September 7th as an important date for the Independence
Day because of this religious celebration.
So here we go.
You learn something new every day.
Yeah.
So it was not just like a totally random date. There is some significance behind it.
Yeah, apparently. So allegedly, actually. Allegedly. So apart from like a churrasco,
you guys don't do like big fireworks.
I'm trying to think when I lived in Brazil,
what I did on Independence Day, but I'm pretty sure I probably went to a church
and did not really think about the history of the independence of Brazil.
Yeah. And I think that another very important thing to talk about is the cry of Ipiranga, right?
So it was when Dom Pedro Ipiranga went there, e deu o grito do Ipiranga,
que é a Independência ou Morte, Independence or Death. So it's the cry of Ipiranga.
Give me independence or give me death is very, very similar to the U.S.
I think we say, like, give me liberty or give me death, which is quite a bold, dramatic statement.
Yeah. But it's still happening, the Capitolium, et cetera.
One more thing I would love to ask you about, Alexia, because it is Brazilian Independence Day,
it seems to me that most of the Brazilians that I know personally are incredibly
independent in the sense that Brazilians are everywhere and they're doing their own thing,
like they're very independent, industrious, adventurous, happy people.
Maybe that's just me and the people I know, but I think it is a fact that Brazilians
are everywhere and I love that.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we can find Brazilians anywhere, that's 100% certain.
For sure, like I was looking at TikTok the other day and there is a guy,
a Brazilian guy who lives in the Arctic.
Can I say that?
Yeah, your connection dropped for a second. You said there was a Brazilian guy.
So a Brazilian guy that I found on TikTok and he lives like in the Arctic.
Yeah, you can say that.
For almost like 12 years now with his dog Chico.
And I mean, if there is a Brazilian with a dog in the Arctic,
we are everywhere for sure.
You guys are, are absolutely everywhere and my last point, Alexia, and then we'll close.
No, but I would like to talk, no, but I would like to talk about our flag, our national flag.
Oh, please talk to me about Verde Amaral.
Yeah, so our flag is yellow, green, and blue, right?
So it's very beautiful. I love our flag.
And now we can show how proud we are again of our flag, Entendido is Entendido.
So there is a very special connection to the Independence Day because the green
represents the house of Bragança,
which is the Portuguese family, like Dom Pedro's family.
And the other part, which is
the yellow one, represents the house of Habsburg, which is from Austria.
And the scholars, they came together to form the basis of Brazil's national
identity after the independence, right?
Because before that, the national flag was the same as the motherland,
which would be Portugal.
Yeah, now we have a new flag, which is our Brazil's national flag. CB.
That's cool. I love the Brazilian flag. It's interesting no one really talks
about the the Austrians, the Habsburgs.
Yeah, everyone forgets about them. Excellent, Alexia.
I have to say at the end, if you want to be more independent in your life,
learning a new language is probably the thing that has given me the most independence in my life.
I know it's the same for you.
If you want to feel truly free to do whatever you want in the world,
You're already listening to this podcast, so, good start.
Yeah, good start. We are proud of you.
I'm proud of you, Alexia. I'm proud of everyone that's still listening. We love you.
Happy Independence Day. Mais alguma coisa?
Não? Feliz Dia da Independência, galera.
Go join your family, your friends, have a good show at high school,
whatever you think it's best for today.
Independence Day. And as always, keep up the good fight.
And live well. Bye!