Saturday, June 11, 2005

Dim-witted

Even now I still get caught out when I see a sign on a door in Brazil saying 'Puxe'. Without fail I go ahead and push it, conjuring up images of that great Far Side cartoon in which the boy does the same at the School for the Mentaly Gifted.

If ever there was an open competition for the linguistically incompetent, it would be me.

PS For non-Portuguese speakers and the record, push is 'empurre'. Obvious really isn't it? No, I didn't think so.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh well, my dear, you're not alone... I see "push" ...e logo vou "puxando" a porta!

Guy said...

I suspect a Brazilian wrote this! Just as well you did´t give a name!

Anonymous said...

Yeah! just to let you know that when we come to UK, we also get confused... even after years.
Similarities between words can confuse more than help, that's a good one to prove.

Anonymous said...

You might have added that "puxe" sounds very like "push" too, so it might actually be easier to get caught if you at least know how to pronounce Portuguese.