This is so helpful! We bought new construction and the actual address is illusive to us, they keep referring to the left! Now I know. So essentially it's "stage right" or "stage left" as the orientation is referred to in theater.
Oh my, you know your timing could not be better, right? We are down to hours before we leave and I am furiously committing this post to memory so we can actually find our way around when we get there. (I actually knew about the DTO/ESQ thing, but not which way you had to be facing to make it work. How on earth would anyone know that???) Thank you so much, Carol!
What a great piece, Carol! Each of us has had to cope with Portuguese peculiarities when acculturating ourselves to Portugal. At least you didn't experience any confusion between the WC and the bidet. Some (but not many) house these two essentials in different rooms. The consequences of making a mistake ... OMG! My own pet bugaboo -- which I still get wrong, even after 5 years living here -- is remembering that Puxar! means Pull! not Push! With your permission, I've scheduled "Dazed and Confused in Portugal" to run in the Spring (2023) issue of Portugal Living Magazine.
So much truth here! I finally STOPPED using military time because it drives me nuts and between 8-10pm I'm always very confused! The no street signs crack me up. No one knows the name of the main road out of town... Locals, nope. The 40 words for a street name.... Omg. Right!? Love this.
Sep 8, 2022·edited Sep 8, 2022Liked by Carol A. Wilcox
The 24 hour clock is also the norm in transportation (aviation, maritime, railroads) worldwide. Using a 2x12 hour clock can easily mean missed flights & trains (ask me how I know, grrr!!). I suggest setting your devices (phone, computer, tablet, digital clocks, etc.) to 24 hour time, and within a week, you'll have it down... much like the metric system and centigrade. I've also lived in Japan, UK, France and Italy. If you can learn to drive on the other side of the road (and you CAN!!), and drive where speed limits are merely "suggestions" (ditto), you can easily learn 24 hour time. :)
I get the military time thing. I really do rely on my little desktop cheat sheet! We live close to the Marginal which is the main road from Lisbon to Cascais. I believe it's also known as the A5. But NEVER say A5 - no one knows what you mean. It HAS to be the Marginal! Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Please, feel free to ask me all these little things that are culturally quite european and different from your experience.
All have a reason, sometimes logic, sometimes not... Yes, even bureaucracy has a reason...
The information about the Dto. and the Esq. is known, common and no-one thinks feel it is strange... The nightmare starts when modern buildings have Frente (front), Traseiras (or Trás), meaning back (reference: the street or the road), and many other 'inventions' we came upon.
Many of our 'confusing things' are common to Europe, but clearly different from the USA. Time, metric system, date writing, paper format... Well this 'uniqueness' does not mean wrong, but only different. Acceptance with humour is the key.
I'm training myself to say any dates, written wholly as numbers, in the European format, in the hope that I will, eventually, think of it that way automatically. I found that thinking of it as smallest to biggest (D-M-Y) helps, but have noticed that, sometimes, the year is at the beginning (biggest to smallest, Y-M-D)! More recently, someone said, "no matter what, the month is in the middle" and, keeping that in mind, it's been less of a struggle.
My current fear is the inevitable misuse (or lack thereof) of the term/title Dr/Dra. My understanding is that it's applied more broadly than here in the states, but am not entirely sure I understand exactly when, or to whom, it applies.
I like the "no matter what, the month is in the middle." That makes a lot of sense to me. I'm going to have to research the term/title thing. I don't know what the correct way to do that either. When I find out, I'll write a post about it. Thanks for taking the time to comment! - CW
I learned some things today, but I still don't understand the left and right apartment. Maybe you can explain it to me over several glasses of wine. Also, I never have heard of a Citizen Shop - good to know.
I am Portuguese and I still have the same problems you have….
As far as date is concerned, I think it’s an American thing because I had never had problems with dates before.
The problem with the citizens shop is that it is always very crowded and sometimes you have to wait a long time but it’s really where you deal with everything.
This is so helpful! We bought new construction and the actual address is illusive to us, they keep referring to the left! Now I know. So essentially it's "stage right" or "stage left" as the orientation is referred to in theater.
Oh my, you know your timing could not be better, right? We are down to hours before we leave and I am furiously committing this post to memory so we can actually find our way around when we get there. (I actually knew about the DTO/ESQ thing, but not which way you had to be facing to make it work. How on earth would anyone know that???) Thank you so much, Carol!
I'm happy to know that the article helped! Safe travels! - CW
Little details I hadn't considered would have surely confused me. Now I'm better prepared. Thank you!
What a great piece, Carol! Each of us has had to cope with Portuguese peculiarities when acculturating ourselves to Portugal. At least you didn't experience any confusion between the WC and the bidet. Some (but not many) house these two essentials in different rooms. The consequences of making a mistake ... OMG! My own pet bugaboo -- which I still get wrong, even after 5 years living here -- is remembering that Puxar! means Pull! not Push! With your permission, I've scheduled "Dazed and Confused in Portugal" to run in the Spring (2023) issue of Portugal Living Magazine.
Thank you, Bruce! As always, if you think this article will benefit your subscribers, then yes, you can publish it. - CW
Carol- once again an incredibly helpful piece! You always know just what little treasures to impart to be most helpful! Thank you!
So much truth here! I finally STOPPED using military time because it drives me nuts and between 8-10pm I'm always very confused! The no street signs crack me up. No one knows the name of the main road out of town... Locals, nope. The 40 words for a street name.... Omg. Right!? Love this.
The 24 hour clock is also the norm in transportation (aviation, maritime, railroads) worldwide. Using a 2x12 hour clock can easily mean missed flights & trains (ask me how I know, grrr!!). I suggest setting your devices (phone, computer, tablet, digital clocks, etc.) to 24 hour time, and within a week, you'll have it down... much like the metric system and centigrade. I've also lived in Japan, UK, France and Italy. If you can learn to drive on the other side of the road (and you CAN!!), and drive where speed limits are merely "suggestions" (ditto), you can easily learn 24 hour time. :)
I get the military time thing. I really do rely on my little desktop cheat sheet! We live close to the Marginal which is the main road from Lisbon to Cascais. I believe it's also known as the A5. But NEVER say A5 - no one knows what you mean. It HAS to be the Marginal! Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Well... Nope.
A5 and Marginal are two different roads.
A (for Autoestrada = highway/motorway) 5 in not near the river/ocean, and has tolls.
«A Marginal» (we use it with the article, except in road signs) is the road (no tolls) near the shore.
So:
The A5 = highway
A Marginal = road next to the shore, starting (more or less) in Algés and up to Cascais.
Thanks for the clarification. I guessed I was still confused...
Please, feel free to ask me all these little things that are culturally quite european and different from your experience.
All have a reason, sometimes logic, sometimes not... Yes, even bureaucracy has a reason...
The information about the Dto. and the Esq. is known, common and no-one thinks feel it is strange... The nightmare starts when modern buildings have Frente (front), Traseiras (or Trás), meaning back (reference: the street or the road), and many other 'inventions' we came upon.
Many of our 'confusing things' are common to Europe, but clearly different from the USA. Time, metric system, date writing, paper format... Well this 'uniqueness' does not mean wrong, but only different. Acceptance with humour is the key.
I'm training myself to say any dates, written wholly as numbers, in the European format, in the hope that I will, eventually, think of it that way automatically. I found that thinking of it as smallest to biggest (D-M-Y) helps, but have noticed that, sometimes, the year is at the beginning (biggest to smallest, Y-M-D)! More recently, someone said, "no matter what, the month is in the middle" and, keeping that in mind, it's been less of a struggle.
My current fear is the inevitable misuse (or lack thereof) of the term/title Dr/Dra. My understanding is that it's applied more broadly than here in the states, but am not entirely sure I understand exactly when, or to whom, it applies.
I like the "no matter what, the month is in the middle." That makes a lot of sense to me. I'm going to have to research the term/title thing. I don't know what the correct way to do that either. When I find out, I'll write a post about it. Thanks for taking the time to comment! - CW
I learned some things today, but I still don't understand the left and right apartment. Maybe you can explain it to me over several glasses of wine. Also, I never have heard of a Citizen Shop - good to know.
Wine sounds good!
You are right. It’s very confusing.
I am Portuguese and I still have the same problems you have….
As far as date is concerned, I think it’s an American thing because I had never had problems with dates before.
The problem with the citizens shop is that it is always very crowded and sometimes you have to wait a long time but it’s really where you deal with everything.
Portugal has too much bureaucracy.