Category: Technology Author : Duncan Riley Posted: February 7, 2009
Tags : tom cruise, valkyrie
Tom Cruise isn’t endearing himself to the natives in Brazil, with a nice little display of cultural stupidity.
Cruise was in town to promote Valkyrie, and decided it would be really smart to trying to speak to the locals in Spanish, saying “hola” (hello) and “gracias” (thank you).
One tiny little problem though. They don’t speak Spanish in Brazil, they speak Portuguese.
It’s the equivalent of a French actress doing a media conference in the United States flipping into Spanish instead of English….actually, no, that doesn’t work, chances are a good portion of the audience in the US would speak Spanish, but I digress, because it would still be rather rude.
I guess Xenu doesn’t hand out pills for intelligence.
Feb 7, 2009
I may be wrong here, but from what I know Portuguese and Spanish are close enough that they can understand each other, even if it's not fully fluent.
For example:
Senior -> Senhor [but the "hor" is not pronounced as you'd expect]
I could list a whole litany of examples here, but it's easier to say “check Wikipedia”.
My point being that while it may not have been graceful, it wasn't a total screwup either… definitely not on the level of speaking Spanish in the U.S. Maybe more like Russian in Croatia.
–Kyle
Feb 7, 2009
Hello, I'm brazilian. Spanish is really close to portuguese… we can understand spanish very well. But its depends on the public. The rich-one or even the midle class speak english, so it isn't necessary to speak spanish. But the subprime can't speak english and spanish either. He should use a translator. Easy that.
Now to you believe that i'm brasilian, my comment on portuguese:
Olá, sou brasileiro. Espanhol é realmente parecido com português… nós conseguimos entendeer espanhol muito bem. Mas isso depende do público. Os ricos ou mesmo a classe média fala inglês, então não é necessário falar espanhol. Mas os pobres não entendem nem inglês nem espanhol. Ele devia usar um tradutor. Fácil assim.
Até mais
See ya
Feb 7, 2009
I used to be a homeless rodeo clown but now I am a world class magician !
Feb 8, 2009
What's up with Edward Furlong ???
Feb 8, 2009
Brazil is infinitely cooler then Portugal, I think the Portuguese should be speaking Brazilian and not the other way around.
Feb 9, 2009
Tom Cruise is an abject idiot who doesn't know when to STFU. The stupidity of it all is that unlike most celebrities, $cilebrities surround themselves with $cientological “handlers” who are every bit as dim witted as he. Face it, the man's got a lifetime of decline in his immediate future. The most positive press he got was for playing himself in “Tropic Thunder.” How many times can Ben Stiller write him a role playing a fat, bombastic studio exec before even that joke gets worn out. The man's turning his wife anorexic, and God knows what he's doing to his children. If ever there was a time and a place for Children's Protective Services to get involved, it's now.
Feb 9, 2009
there's no such thing as speaking brazilian. that's like saying you speak american. are you tom cruise?
Feb 9, 2009
Ah… bigotry and a tepid little swipe at Scientology. Not to worry — what you are all about is obvious to anyone — in any language.
You should really try to get out more. Take up a hobby, have some fun. Try helping some people, see what happens.
And once you actually help someone in their life (not just criticize others who are trying), you'll certainly feel better about yourself!
And next thing you know, the anti-Scientologists will be after YOU.