falo português

A couple days ago I was on my flight from DC to LA. This is after I miseed my initial flight due to pver sleep. I couldnt help but push the snpoze button, like every five mnutes until I turned off the alarm. iI sat by this young kid, his mom nad brother were on the other side of the isle, his father up towards the front of the plane.

I thought to talk to him but I had the moment pass, didnt even know where to start but soon he had to wake me up at the suggestion of the hostess. They wanted me to eat snacka by force. And the there the conversation began. It turned out he was from Brazil and speak portuguese and not English. I speak English not Portuguese. The drama ensued but soon I was surprised. With the huge language barier we managed to have a conversation going albeit stressed.

I have never in my life used fragments to communicate. He asked me how many hours to go on the flight (it was a 5 hour flight) and did so without English of course and somehow I was able to tell him, with gestures of the fingers, not the middle one. It was a great time, we discussed his stay in the US, he thought me a couple Portuguese words, I forgot what he called snow, that one too a while. He wanted to ask if it snowed in L.A., and his hand gestures did not help much. He had to reah over to his mom who then told me the meaning of the word.

You kow what I found out, when all else fails, talk about football. No not American football, the real football as known all around the world. His face lit up, and we had a magnificent discussion. His face lit up like an incadescent light bulb, and he even showed me his team on his IPOD, mentioned a couple of his football idols. The flight ended, finally anf thankfully - I was getting cranky from it all - and we shook hands as we departed. Him off to Disneyworld I think, me off to a wedding (owanbe style).

I got to thinking, if women speak a different language than men do, would I be as successfull with them as with this young man by using hand gestures. Maybe not; besides I dont suppose football is as romantic to open them up.