FN: Frederick Noronha’s blog

A friend in Mozambique wanted her book in Portuguese to come out with a possible English-language translation in Goa. Even while I was thinking of possibilities, last afternoon I ran into my 1983 colleague Alvaro Leao Fernandes (who lives in a pretty home, alongside the Old GMC). We worked together in the Herald in 1983. I was not even out of college, and Alvaro, one of those caught in the ‘Liberation’-time confusion of 1961, was negotiating the tough transition from working in Portuguese to trying to make it in English.

These times meant different things to different people. Opportunity was opening up for us. The last Portuguese-language daily newspaper in Asia (O Heraldo) was shifting over to being an English-language daily. For another generation, the skies were literally falling down on their heads. Portuguese was a shrinking language in Goa. It’s even more so now. They were negotiating the choppy waters of shifting from one European language (though they had grown up with it, almost as if it was their own) to another!

Alvaro was a reflection of that generation. We often run into each other in Panjim. He on his cycle, me preferring to walk occasionally — that’s more personal than my made-by-Bajaj Platina 100 cc two-wheeler, and one gets a chance to meet many more persons anyway. Alvaro did some work awhile with my brother’s firm [http://www.opspl.com] in their attempt to localise Brasilian software into English. We often discuss the news, the world of newspapers, what we enjoyed reading … and sometimes about my old journalist colleague and friend Eduardo (Eddie) Rodrigues.

The purpose of this note is to share with you that Alvaro does Portuguese-to-English translations (and I guess the other way around too, but I didn’t ask). He’s not so much on email, but his mobile is 9270143992. Just thought that sharing the link might help one or even both sides of those looking (and offering). Hope something comes out of this.

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Tags: Portuguese, translations, Goa