Em nossa série de posts com Mauro Castro, autor do livro Taxitramas, como empresa de tradução fizemos uma parceria para divulgar a obra de Mauro para leitores estrangeiros. A história de hoje com executivos japoneses é muito legal. Divirta-se!
Last week, I was working with a group of Japanese men. Executives interested on making business in our state. As most of them didn`t speak any Portuguese, some taxi drivers who knew English were called to help them.
The executives were organized. They came with a schedule and an address list, everything very clear. All we had to do was take them somewhere, wait for their visit and bring them back to the hotel. Of course, everybody needs a break, so between meetings our Asian friends wanted to know a little more of the country where they were doing business. Is there anyone better than a cab driver to show them the real Brazil?
The Japanese guys under my responsibility were interested in two subjects: soccer and women. After taking them to the stadiums “Olímpico” and “Beira Rio”, they chose the best team, Internacional. They bought a jersey, cap, flag, watched a game and on the other Day they were already singing: “Cororado, cororado, nothing will brake us apart!” Other words they learned were: “caipirinha” and “perigueti” (party girl).
Coming back from a trip to Osório, my oriental passengers asked the meaning of the sign “caldo de cana” (sugar cane juice) that they saw on the side of the road. I decided to stop the taxi and introduce the drink to them.
At the place I stopped there was a roadside general store. In addition to the juice, at the store there were crafts and a tire repair shop. When we asked for the drink, the boy who was taking care of the business called his father, the tire repair man. The guy took a break on fixing a motorcycle tire and came to prepare the juice. He grabbed the sugar cane without even washing his hands. “Mas bah, tchê!”
Finding everything very funny and nodding their heads, the visitors happily drank everything. They insisted that I accepted a drink on their tab, an offer I politely refused, saying that I was on diet.
I hope the image that the Japanese men took from the country was as good as the tip they left here. Arigatô!
Gostou da história? Veja mais no blog do Taxitramas ou compre o livro do Mauro, “Taxitramas – Diário de um Taxista, Volume 2” no site da Livraria Cultura.
