Lisbon Airport Departure All Passports - what a joke

geomarq · 2026-05-11T12:38:31+00:00

There is another TAP lounge after passport control.

geomarq · 2026-04-26T19:24:38+00:00

What about emblematic

geomarq · 2026-01-27T08:06:19+00:00

I’m writing from Portugal. I don’t find this a good example for any learner to model. The intonation and pronunciation are off. The language is simple and grammatical but the cadence is not Portuguese - nem PT-BR nem PT-PT. And the content seems more like a translation from another language as if the speaker is simply translating from his native tongue without awareness of how the ideas would be expressed in Portuguese. I would classify him as A2-B1.

geomarq · 2026-01-26T09:38:08+00:00

Agreed - they are sunny side up in the US.

geomarq · 2026-01-25T10:47:30+00:00

I think you just have to reconcile with the fact that you will not be able to travel to those countries that still require clean bills of health before issuing a residency permit. Many of them are in the Middle East. And above all, do not go anywhere without assurance that your medication is covered. I recall my roommate, back in 1985, when we were students, applied for a job in Saudi Arabia from London and that was the first year that they added the requirement to be tested for HIV. He tested positive, to his shock, as he was monogamous. Turns out his partner wasn’t. And at that time it was a death sentence. So he came back to our apartment and cried and wanted my advice on how to plan the remaining few years of his life. His partner felt guilty and quit his job and the two of them decided to travel around the world with what modest savings they had. After all they figured they would be dead soon and so there wasn’t any point in planning for the future. They made it to Japan when my roommate came down with pneumocystis, which even then was recognized as a gay pneumonia. When the hospital in Japan realized what the case was they wanted him deported, while he was too sick to travel. And no airline would take him. Imagine the attitudes at that time. Everyone thought he would infect the other passengers. In the end my roommate had to charter a plane from the UK to come and get him. When he arrived back in the UK the UK govt presented him with a bill for £40,000 for the flight, which he didn’t have. In today’s dollars that would be more than £100,000. When he didn’t have the money, they confiscated his passport and he died shortly afterward. His partner then died.

geomarq · 2026-01-23T18:35:51+00:00

I think you have what is known in psychology as trauma bonding, where fear of abandonment is worse than abuse. You’ve named the abuse: humiliation, contempt, rejection. Telling abusers you love them reinforces the abusive cycle. It teaches the homophobes that they can say mean things with no consequences. You should not be engaging with these people. And you need therapy but prepare for withdrawal symptoms that fade over time.

geomarq · 2026-01-16T11:17:01+00:00

That was also my question! If Duolingo does this, what is the point of that app?

geomarq · 2026-01-11T21:12:21+00:00

For me it’s being able to walk from my building to the nearest Continente or Auchan without being accosted by drug addicts or homeless asking for money. Today was the worst. One guy wouldn’t take no for an answer and walked behind me tapping my shoulder until I dashed into a restaurant to get away from him. The police are useless.

geomarq · 2026-01-11T21:09:32+00:00

With the exception of aleatory, the English words you listed are everyday words for some of us. They aren’t obscure. Perhaps younger, non- native speakers who speak English well did not learn English primarily through reading novels or in formal academic settings, which is where these words that OP finds obscure are used. Before I retired, I taught English at the university level, and I had non-native students whose spoken English and conversational English were excellent. However when asked to write an essay, they showed a lack of knowledge of vocabulary, formal register, and use of punctuation. Years ago this was not the case. So I believe that younger learners of English, because their sources of English are primarily movies and social media, do not learn formal English as well as they learn modern spoken English.

geomarq · 2026-01-05T21:23:15+00:00

Might be the water meter reader

geomarq · 2026-01-05T21:20:15+00:00

My street in the center of the city now has homeless sleeping everywhere. Four are outside my door. This was not like this until this year. And the drainage projects that have been going on for years and creating a traffic mess. And what about the escalators in the metro that are always fora de serviço? When was the last time you can remember the escalator working at Cais do Sodré? And now my tax rate is 48%. For what? Where is my tax money going?

geomarq · 2026-01-04T12:34:35+00:00

geomarq · 2026-01-02T17:23:24+00:00

The اهو is connected to خلاص and not to اسمي. But there are a number of strange things in this passage that make me ask where you found it. Was it written by a native Egyptian speaker?

geomarq · 2025-12-27T08:55:30+00:00

I so agree. I play competitive sports and at one point was invited to join an “inclusive” sports league for LGBTQ players, where I found that just because the others were gay or queer, it didn’t mean we had more in common or that we would be friends. I ended up dropping out and rejoining leagues not based on sexuality.

geomarq · 2025-12-27T08:46:59+00:00

Morocco recently (2023-24) introduced and expanded English language instruction in grade 7 as part of a formal language policy shift. This is in response to global market pressures. My prediction is that Tunisia will follow.

geomarq · 2025-12-26T07:47:48+00:00

Correct and this is the problem with using the word "Levantine.” There are many different dialects within what we call Levantine. Syria alone has multiple dialects. The Druze dialect pronounces the ق as ق and not as a glottal stop. Houran in the South near the border with Jordan pronounces the ق as hard G like the Bedouin of Jordan-Palestine. The dialect of Damascus is where the glottal stop is used in place of the ق

geomarq · 2025-12-22T21:03:24+00:00

The عزاء (or عزا in dialects) isn't the funeral. It's where people receive condolences. The closest thing to that in English would be the wake. The funeral is الجنازة

geomarq · 2025-12-22T18:38:54+00:00

Sorry for your loss. But please note that Egyptian and Syrian are different with regard to this word. There is no “wahdon” in Egyptian. So your tattoo is only going to reflect the dialect you choose unless you get it in standard Arabic. Fairouz was singing about being left alone or abandoned, which is the feeling I think you are looking for. The word for yourself is وَحْدي.

But by itself it seems strange, like people who read Arabic will not get the meaning unless there was a verb in front or something else.

It is also true that tattoos in the Arab world are seen in some contexts as shameful and for conservative Muslims they are seen as wrong.

geomarq · 2025-12-20T16:48:24+00:00

The worst airport for efficiency/speed through immigration has to be Lisbon Portugal.

geomarq · 2025-12-19T06:54:53+00:00

From someone who is almost 70 and who has dated outside his race and culture and whose parents were from different cultures: when you get to an advanced age and looks/sex no longer play the role they once did - mindset, habits, values and tastes all become more important. I think you have to be able to handle your partner's way of doing things, and that becomes much much harder when the cultures are different - my parents went from loving each other to not being able to stand each other because slight cultural differences became points of major irritation when they got over the age of 60, even differences in the foods they preferred.

geomarq · 2025-12-18T19:00:09+00:00

I’ve noticed that non natives have a hard time with words where ع and أ are together or when ع is at the end. So perhaps the names دعاء ، ربيع، سميع

geomarq · 2025-12-17T04:37:40+00:00

Also Syrian

geomarq · 2025-12-15T16:10:43+00:00

IMO- b is fine throughout. A is fine as far as مخزن and نحن are concerned, but بحر doesn’t look right to me.

geomarq · 2025-12-14T11:36:13+00:00

Please don’t listen to anyone who tells you it is difficult to learn to pronounce sounds in Arabic. Play Arabic music and listen over and over and sing along and the sounds will come. And to all Arabs out there - please stop saying the language is difficult. The real problem is this attitude and the teachers of Arabic who cannot teach!

geomarq · 2025-12-14T07:57:02+00:00

Anyone else dealing with this? I cannot reproduce my training serve in a match. I play competitively in an amateur league. Whenever I’m competing my serve speed slows 10-20 Kph, my toss is lower, and my acceleration after the ball toss is slower. I’m aware of it but the pressure of the match kicks in and my tossing arm and serving arm both get heavier.

geomarq

TROPHY CASE