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Another day of tears induced by mean fourth grade girls. I have no clue what it is all about (as it seems to mostly go down during lunch and in the girl's bathroom), but we had more tears today. Seriously, everything is just so dramatic to 10 year old girls! And I remember being 10, but I was always way more interested in my boyfriends than the silliness that the girls in my class were always involved in.
(hehehe And that reminds me of being in 4th grade when I was "going with" a 6th grader for a couple of months who was taller than my mom which made me think I was pretty hot stuff! After agreeing via friends (because you can't actually talk directly to each other, duh!) that we were indeed "going together", we exchanged Valentine's Day presents. A month or so later we slow-danced at a party one of my friends had . . . and then we hugged and held hands . . . I was pretty certain we would get married after that. See? I had a wedding to plan, so no time for silly girl games!)
Ah yes, I distinctly remember 4th grade, but I digress . . . this isn't about me as a 4th grader!
There was something major going down in the fourth grade today, and the girls were in quite the frenzy. Several notes were being passed around the class and, at first, I just tried to ignore it. But finally I called them out on it and declared I would be collecting anymore notes that were being exchanged. I guess one more just couldn't wait, and so I got a little glimpse into the fourth grade girl's mind via a very important note.
To set the scene for you, it was written in Portuguese with green glittery ink. It had lots of hearts and bubble letters and "BFF" scattered all over it. Here it the translated copy (with the names changed, of course.):
I know that you don't want to be my friend anymore. In my heart you still are a great friend that I like a lot. You were only supportive and I would like to apologize, but I know that I was an idiot. You are equal to Sara and to Molly to me!
Apparently, Sara and Molly are also up there in BFF (that would be "Best Friend Forever") status!
Later on there was a huge commotion as one of the boys declared he had found something in the recycling box: it was another girl-letter that had been passed earlier and wadded up and tossed away. The boys all tried to run over and read it, and the girls all squealed as they exclaimed, "Miss Emily!!!! The boys are trying to read our letters about girls stuff!!! Please, you have to stop them!" I took away the letter and made everyone sit back down. And then I explained that ol' "if you don't want people to find out about something, don't write it down" thing. And for goodness sakes, we wouldn't want the boys to know who our BFF this week is, now do we?
And the sad thing is, it will be after high-school before all the girl-foolishness ends! Nope, I totally have no desire to go back and relive childhood. Marriage and money and foreign countries are much easier to manage and a lot less stressful than 10 year old girls . . . seriously!
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6 comments:
So does the average brasileiro know what BFF means, or just the ones at the American school? I was always amazed by the little tidbits of American culture that were commonplace in Brasil.
No, not only the average, I think "all" brazilians don´t know what it means. It´s the first time I "heard" it!
Maybe in that american school, where brazilian kids study with american ones!
there are two probabilities:
1) since its an american school, english is first language and the kids also write notes in english. As well as have english names (like Molly)
2) the letter was in portuguese and Emily translated it, including the BFF. In portuguese it would probably be "Melhor Amiga Pra Sempre" or "MAPS"
I am not sure, Emily wasnt clear about it. I bet the 2nd option, since Emily wrote "translated version".
To clarify:
The note I picked up was being passed by a Brasilian girl who is trying to learn English - she isn't totally fluent yet. (I just changed all the names.) The letter itself was in Portuguese, but "BFF" was written all over exactly as that, "BFF".
I don't hang out with 10 year old girls here (and that phrase is only used by young girls in the US too) on a regular basis, so I don't really know if it is a commonplace phrase or just used in this case because of the influence of English.
I do know that I have seen "BFF" written on shirts in the stores here in the little girl's department, but there is a lot of English on t-shirt and such, so that doesn't necesarily mean it is understood and/or used by the general little girl population!
Justin, I agree with you though! A little piece of American culture will get tossed in when I least expect is sometimes! I think it is awesome that Brasil has it's own identity. Even though there is American music and movies, the country doesn't seem to be nearly as American-influenced as some other countries, like Mexico (since I have been there myself to visit, I can use that as an example!)
One thing that caused me a lot of confusion was trying to pronounce American words in Portuguese when I was down there. For example, the first time I tried to order a Gatorade, I pronounced it "Gah-toe-rah-gee", exactly how it would have been pronounced if it were a Portuguese word. The guy at the quiosque gave me a very confused look, so I pronounced it in English. Still confused. Finally, I just pointed at what I wanted, and he "Oh, Gay-toe-ragey", as though it were perfectly obvious :)
Funny and so true Justin's comment on the English words having their own peculiar pronunciations in Brazil. One thing that differs Spanish and Portuguese is the fact that in Spanish words are pronounced just like the way they are written. In Portuguese they are not. Like "DE" being pronounced "gee".
Marcelo
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