Free Nonsense
An international INESC Porto
*By Bernardo Silva
Before I started working at INESC Porto I was already aware of the strong bonds that this institution has with foreign institutions, namely in welcoming students. After I came here, I realized that this scenario was often taken to the extreme.
I work at the Power Systems Unit, and my workplace is the open space. One might say that this is a modest open space, compared to the other Units’ (size and furniture)... Yes, I’ve had the chance to snoop around. At the time, there were ten people working there, each one in their respective workstation. Of those ten, four were foreign. The Portuguese were the majority! When I came in, my presence affected the statistics because I was accounted as half Brazilian (yes, I was born in Brazil, even though I don’t have an accent or a tan) and half Portuguese (I have dual citizenship and more years in Portugal than in Brazil – so I’m like “Fátima Felgueiras[1]” – but only in that aspect!!).
After a month, three more Brazilians came in and, at the time, our conversations were sweetened by that melodic accent. Every morning we would hear and say the classic: “Oie, Tudo bem c’ocê?”, “Tudo legal?” (Hi, good morning? How are you?). Other than the interaction, scientific culture and knowledge, the presence of foreign collaborators, namely Brazilian, is an asset for the Football Competition of INESC Porto LA. Right now, the ratio of Brazilian members has decreased a little (it doesn’t mean that the competition is lost, though): two of them went back to Brazil because they were only here to do a Sandwich PhD Programme (a Big-Mac and a double cheese).
In this Unit, we can always hear, simultaneously, conversations in a pretty strange dialect that sounds like Russian! Expressions like “Dobro jutro” and “Kako si” are regularly heard. The authors of such exquisite expressions? Our Eastern European collaborators who are in Portugal doing their PhD! At first, the way they articulated the words and the sounds was a bit strange, as well as the speed in which they spoke because it seemed they were fighting, but after a couple of days we get used to it.
A few months ago, we welcomed two more collaborators. No, this time they weren’t Brazilian! Firts, there´s a Congolese with an Italian background. Talking to him is funny because we always start by speaking in English, and then we try fairly poorly to speak French, then we move on to the Italian and we end up speaking in Portuguese; the other collaborator is from Iran. I thought that communicating with him would be an impossible thing. However, he had already been in the United Sates for three years and so he speaks English very well! The only problem is when he wants to try and speak Portuguese! He asked for my help… and I gave it to him. By now, if someone asks him: “Hey, how are you?”, he should know how to reply: “I’m fine! Hard as steel, dude!”.
The most recent acquisition is from the Azores. We all know he’s Portuguese, but sometimes it sounds like he’s speaking Chinese or something. However, we also have another asset! When people who do not work visit the Unit, there’s always time to explain that this is quite an international Unit and we always introduce everyone, mentioning their country of origin. However, there is one collaborator that, when introduced, immediately prompts comments from the guests like: “Oh! I can guess that one, he’s from Japan!” and that’s when we have to explain that our most “Japanese” member is in fact Brazilian and that he can even play football!
*Collaborator at the Power Systems Unit (USE)
[1] Fátima Felgueiras is a Portuguese politician that, in the middle of problems with the judicial system, fled to Brazil taking advantage of her double nationality.
