Today, while walking on a street, I found a young foreigner staring at a map.
As he looked as if he lost, I decided to speak to him. Me "Excuse me.
Can I help you?"
Foreigner "O quê?
Não estou entendendo.
(I'm not sure what he said, but I guess he said like this.)"
M "Well, um...
Do you speak English"
F "English?
A little, I speak."
M "Do you have any trouble?
You look you've lost."
F "Yes, I go...
I don't know... this word...
English... say..."
M "Okay, well... yes, can you write it down in your language?
Maybe I can imagine what it means. Ah... Write.
Just write it down.
(a gesture of writing)"
He wrote down "prefeitura (I'm sorry if its spelling is not right.)" Of course, I didn't understand.
M "Let me see...
How do you pronounce this word?"
F "Prefeitura.
Pre-fei-tu-ra."
M "Prefeitura?
Hmm... can you describe what this is?"
F "Ah...
Many people, paper, work for city and the people..."
M "...Aha! Now I got it!!
You want to go to the city hall, right?
The city hall is around here!"
F "Yes!!
Thank you!"
M "My pleasure.
Go down this street, and..."
To be frank, his English was not necessarily good, but I was happy to find that even if we knew few words, we could understand through helping each other.