The airport is a surprisingly good place to practice your Portuguese ~ why not make the most of your check-in tasks and at least get something out of this big investment of your time. Realization: International airline staff are BILINGUAL. If you're traveling within Brazil, all staff speak good English. Most will be thrilled to coach you through your mistakes and accent issues ðŸ¤. Just go for it.
Let's do a typical check-in dialog...
AGENTE: Bom dia senhor. Passaporte, por favor.
PASSAGEIRO: Aqui está. Eu vou para Recife.
AGENTE: O senhor tem bagagem para check-in?
PASSAGEIRO: Tenho só a minha bagagem de mão.
AGENTE:Ok. Aqui está sua passagem. Seu assento é 33B.
PASSAGEIRO: Qual é o portão de embarque?
AGENTE: É A2… lá na frente.
PASSAGEIRO: Obrigado!
If you pull this off the reservations desk is going to tell you how amazing you, and your Portuguese is. Learning Portuguese phrases for travel: BE UNAFRAID.
o visto
The word for visa is visto - not to be confused with the past participle of ver (seen). A travel visa is a temporary permit to be inside the country.
a passagem
There are many different words for ticket, but an airline ticket is always passagem.
a bagagem
A mala is a suitcase, and it's fine to say malas, but when talking about several bags it's more common to say bagagem.
o portão
We say gate, they say port = portão.
embarque
Embarque comes from the verb, embarcar.
decolar
COLAR is to glue / stick. So, DECOLAR is to unstick the airplane from the runway and take off.
assento
It took me a long time to realize that a seat in a plane is not called a cadeira but rather assento. I always assumed the boarding staff were saying something about my acento (accent).
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