“Hills of mistakes” in written communication: An example of misuse of colloquial words among Serbian students of the Portuguese Language and Culture

“Hills of mistakes” in written communication: An example of misuse of colloquial words among Serbian students of the Portuguese Language and Culture

Anamarija Marinović (PhD)

When students (at any stage of education, it does not matter whether they are at primary school, high school or University level), write something: their homework, presentations, seminary paper or research, they should avoid colloquial and informal language and symbols such as smiling faces, hearts, flowers, muscles, fire, Sun or thumbs saying “I like it”.

First, this does not look or sound serious, and it reflects lack of adequate vocabulary on the topic one writes about.

Second, even if the text is targeted at children and adolescents, who, in their everyday life, communicate more on social networks, rather than using proper resources in written and oral communication, the text full of colloquial expressions and iconic signs will certainly suggest the idea of being written in a hurry, a moment of spare time or while doing something else, and without a deep and thoughtful preparation, research or interest in the subject.

Although it is more than well-known that “a picture speaks better than thousand words”, in a written text (unless it is a comic, an advertisement, a caricature, or a specific approach of the communication in social media, cell phones or any other technological device, used mostly among the young population), one should use literary language, expressing their ideas clearly, effectively and in an educated and polite way.

I taught Portuguese colloquial and informal words and expressions (even some rude and impolite ones), be it to highlight some differences between the European and the Brazilian norm:

 P.e. “rapariga” in the European variant of this language means “girl”, whereas in Brazil, it has almost vulgar connotation of a promiscuous girl, whose behavior is not always the most desirable.

 To call my students’ attention to some false friends:

“bunda” in Serbian means “fur coat used in winter”, while in the Angolan Portuguese, it is an indecent expression for human backside

or just to develop their pragmatic awareness to different registers and situations in which a language can be used.

However, when I see the expression “montes de”, in a piece of their homework, in a test or any other written material produced by them, I immediately correct it in red. Oh, yes! I correct in red and none of my students was traumatized or inhibited at any stage of their learning process. Therefore, when I find sentences such as “Eu tenho montes de amigos”, “Eu li montes de livros” ou “Eu dei montes de beijos ao meu namorado”, I correct them because of two most obvious reasons: In Portuguese, one does not always need to use the personal pronoun “eu” (I), as it is the case in English or Russian, because by the form how the verb ends, one can immediately and easily deduce that the speaker is someone who is using the first person of the singular. What called my attention in these examples is the inappropriate use of the colloquial expression “montes de”, literally translated as “mounts of”, “or “hills of”.  As “mount” or “hill” indicates big dimension of a geographical reference, with time, in informal registers, it acquired the connotation of quantity, and it is frequently used as a synonym of “plenty”, “many” or “a lot of”, with countable or “much” and “ enough” with uncountable nouns. Correct, but still, you cannot have “hills of friends”, you cannot read “hills of books”, (unless your library is a complete chaos, where books are put one on the top of another), and, of course, you cannot give “hills of kisses” to your boyfriend, unless he is passionate about alpinism or speleology and will like the metaphor that illustrates his world.

Instead, I suggest you to be more creative, patient and hard-working, to use a dictionary, and for “much” or “many,” in your written texts, consider the possibility of the most common term “muito” (for uncountable nouns, or the variable forms “muito/a, os,as” for countable nouns. Your exploration of language may also lead you to “numeroso” (numerous), “inúmero” (innumerable, countless, numberless), if you want to exaggerate a little, or, if you want to highlight the diversity together with quantity, you are completely free to use “vário”, (various), “diverso” (diverse), “diferente” (different). I guess that your friends will be happy to see you as a very sociable person with countless connections with diversified people that your books will be glad to be numberless in your library, helping you to enrich your vocabulary and express your opinion about a great variety of topics, and, certainly, your boyfriend will be delighted to receive all the warm, sweet, passionate, kind, friendly, loving, caring, seducing kisses from you (in reasonable quantities and with an appropriate frequency), so… be careful how you communicate about quantity and diversity in oral and written language.

And just one final note: If I corrected my students’ homework writing this message: “Oh, pá! ‘Tás maluco ou q? Tens aqui montes de erros no teu texto!‼☺,” (Oh, boy! Are you crazy or what?You have hills of mistakes in your text!‼☺),” I would not sound like a friend of theirs with whom they drink coffee on Saturdays (and then put innumerous photos of that activity on their Facebook, Twitter, Youtube or Instagram accounts), but as a rude and impolite ignorant, who somehow managed to enter the classroom of a University, and my competence and knowledge would be questioned and underestimated plenty of times. Or “hills of times”? Think it over…