Cheap English as She Is Spoke : Being a Comprehensive Phrasebook of the English Language, Written by Men to Whom English was Entirely Unknown (Collins Library Series) (Book) (Jose Da Fonseca, Pedro Carolino, Paul Collins) Price
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| AUTHOR: | Jose Da Fonseca, Pedro Carolino, Paul Collins |
| CATEGORY: | Book |
| MANUFACTURER: | McSweeney's |
| ISBN: | 1932416110 |
| TYPE: | Form - Essays, Humor, Humor / Essays |
| MEDIA: | Paperback |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
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Customer Reviews of English as She Is Spoke : Being a Comprehensive Phrasebook of the English Language, Written by Men to Whom English was Entirely Unknown (Collins Library Series)
To Craunch the Marmoset This is one of my very favorite books of all time. Carolino and Fonesca wrote this to cure the phrase book gap in the 1800s. It seems that there was no Portuguese-English phrase book available at the time and they decided to take on the task of writing one despite the fact that neither spoke English. Likewise, they only owned Portuguese-French and French-English dictionaries which results in some surreal 'translations.' ("Do you cut the hairs?"; "Comb me."; "For to craunch the marmoset.") You will also learn a bit of taxonomy. Previously I had not known that a Hedgehog was a type of fish, for instance.
I can't recommend this gem of a book highly enough. I have an edition with a forward by Mark Twain in addition to this expanded edition. Twain and I both find this book perfect and unable to be improved on.
As Carolino says: "It must never to laugh of the unhappies."
It seems me my Damask Crimson
My nephew (who as a hobby learned Esperanto) once pieces read of this book to our family. It was hilarious, and as you might have noticed, as the style my write of to be changed goodly.
In other words, from then on, we have delighted in making terrible nonexistent translations of nonsense for each other, and this book and its influence has made our lives that much more fun. When I heard it was once again available, I felt I had to let people know how enjoyable it is.
If the you to tootle melodious for is, then must needs of this book an buy! :-)
Everyone laughs when they look at this.
.
In the 19th century, there were no english phrase books for the Portuguese market, and the authors sought to fill that gap with this book, now reprinted in full. Ah, what a futile, heartfelt exercise this book turned out to be, for they had no English-Portuguese/Portuguese-English dictionaries to work with, only English-French and French-Portuguese as a substitute, and knew no English themselves and had no English speaking editors. The required gyrations led to hilarious results.
Page after page of mangled sentences and hilarious absurdities follow the original Portuguese:
"Where correspond the bells?"
"She have always anything which is it bad."
"These are the dishes whose you must be and to abstain."
The authors also provided us with vocabulary for common terms (examples in the bed room are "the bed battom" and "the feet's bed") as well as typical dialogs you might have (for instance, when buying furniture, "Pardon me, it comes workman's hands.")
A little of this goes a long way, though; it's not for extended reading, but it's quite suitable for abbreviated sessions (and is better than Dave Barry for the bathroom because it's shorter and continuity doesn't matter a whit) or passing around at a party.
But it's a wonderful monument to misguided effort, and we enjoy it a lot. I've never seen anyone look at it without laughing.