This is not going to be about what you think it is.

Or, maybe it is.

By “good word” I mean words I find interesting as a midlife (OK, senior citizen) language learner here in Portugal, where I’m learning European Portuguese and my boyfriend GB’s native German. “Good” foreign words are ones that are easy-ish for me to remember and use. No surprise that I mastered Portuguese curse words before I even left the U.S. in 2022. Same with words for ordering wine. “Good” words.

Other foreign words I find interesting are those associated with “mess,” as my mother used to say. As in “starting some mess.” Conflict, gossip, drama. And nowhere are words associated with mess more prevalent than in television soap operas. Telenovelas in Portuguese.

Watching telenovelas, with a side of gelado or vinho, has become a summer learning activity on 100+°F days that are too hot for me to want to be outdoors. Or on nights when I’m exhausted after a full day, but still too wound up to sleep. Normally, I read or write, but the summer siren song of the soaps has pulled me in this season.

Juicy Learning

A Fazenda (The Farm) is a Portuguese soap opera set primarily in modern-day Angola on the African continent. Angola is a former colony of Portugal, gaining independence in 1975. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking country in the world after Brazil.

In just one episode of this telenovela, which bounces back and forth from a farm in Angola to Lisbon in Portugal, I learned lots of juicy words. Here are screenshots from my translation app. My fave “good” words are nojento, sacana, and coitadinha.

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You can pretty much get the gist of any soap opera anywhere with these words, right? Including the real-life shit show drama called politics currently airing in the U.S.

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Idiom Drama

As you know, I love me some idioms when learning a foreign language, and have shared ChatGPT-created coloring book pages I wrote prompts for to learn Portuguese and German idioms. Here are two more Portuguese idioms, perfect for any telenovela. Fictional or otherwise.

Literal translation: To have elbow pain. Meaning: To be jealous of someone, or to envy someone for what they have. Now, I am not saying the smiling woman hugged up with the man is THG. Or the man is GB. Or the woman with elbow pain is the man’s long-divorced ex-wife who showed her ass up out of the blue. Nope. Not saying that. Coitadinha.

Literal translation: To have the king in the stomach/belly. Meaning: To be conceited, or think you are superior to others. I am not saying that some native (and foreign) folks here believe they are superior to immigrants/expats of color, especially those from former colonies. Nope. Not saying that either. Nojento sacanas.

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Summer Love

All joking (but not really) aside, this has been a spectacular summer here in Portugal. GB and I have been busy between the Silver Coast and Lisbon, and we have two road trips to central Portugal coming up yet this month. September weather is proving to be my favorite here, despite some unusually hot days in Lisbon.

This is September so far — drama-free, no-mess, and fun-filled:

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Thank you for reading! ❤️ May your weekend find you smiling, learning, and enjoying wherever you are.

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The Hot Goddess

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