Summary: <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Moacir Sena<br> Your Business English Friday Podcast<br> <br> This week we talked to São Paulo resident, Moacir Sena, about his work as an interpreter, his English teaching and his international experiences.<br> Moacir is a fluent speaker of English, Spanish and Portuguese. As well as teaching English, he does a lot of work as an interpreter between all three of his languages. This gives him a unique insight into how these languages differ, how they are translated and how they function in general. Many of these are shared in the recording along with his reflections on his time spent in America and the changing shape of modern São Paulo.<br> Moacir paints a picture of a bustling and friendly, but sometimes overwhelming, São Paulo. He is clearly grateful for any let up in the traffic of the city, and talks about it being a grey and crowded place at times. However, it’s clear that things are improving. The city is getting greener, and – most recently – there has been a re-unveiling of some of the cities finest buildings as a campaign of billboard removal has come to fruition. Advertising banners everywhere have been taken down, or cut down to size and, in many cases, the city has re-emerged from behind them. It’s hard to imagine a city where buildings have been so completely obscured by hoardings, and Moacir is clearly very happy about this new de-cluttering.<br> So what about languages? Well he had some interesting insights about the art of interpretation. Moacir reveals that, in the industry, someone who translates 70% of what they hear is considered excellent. Often the remaining 30% is skipped. This is especially true with culturally specific jokes that can be very tough to quickly explain. Sometimes he tells his listeners just to clap and laugh!<br> Moacir has some interesting insights about the nature of the various languages he speaks and states convincingly what we all really know: that learning a language is a never-ending process. That, even if a language is our mother tongue we still have a lot to learn! “live and learn that’s my philosophy” says Moacir. This is ever-more true of English, where the ownership of the language is increasingly being wrested from native speakers and being adapted and used in so many different ways around the world.<br> He’s certainly learnt a lot about his three languages. He talks about the difference in pronunciations between English and the Latin tongues. How meanings in English are much more frequently expressed in groups of words or phrases, often that run into each other: “How d’you do?”, where as with Spanish and Portuguese the individual word is much more crucial and, as such, needs to be pronounced more clearly.<br> Outside of his interpreting work, Moacir still finds time to teach the bible in English every Saturday using prayer and song (the latter, a great way to improve your pronunciation): <a href="http://www.believes.com.br">www.believes.com.br</a>. He also blogs about his English teaching at <a href="http://www.americanoidblog.com">www.americanoidblog.com</a><br> Thanks for your thought provoking insights into the way we speak and use languages, Moacir!<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <a href="http://bit.ly/YBiE-Best-Resources" target="_blank">"The BEST Resources for Speaking Business English"</a><br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Download this FREE Report now:<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <a href="http://bit.ly/YBiE-Best-Resources" target="_blank"><br> <br> </a><br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Please enter your name.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br>
