‘I did not follow the woman’

This is my friend Luis, who I met when I’d recently moved to Maputo, but who has just returned after three months in Brazil. He’s a practitioner of meditation classes and novel groundbreaking therapies such as tantric massage. I’d like to try the latter as it sounds powerful and an excellent stress-buster. We met for lunch so I could hear about both his Brazilian adventures, and his professional advice on relaxation techniques. It was an uplifting conversation.

‘I did not follow the woman’, was a phrase from my Duolingo lessons this evening. If anyone feels like they might need the phrase for an altercation with the Portuguese police, it’s: eu não segui a mulher.

Another phrase in the same lesson continued on the heavy themes: ‘she denied being my mother’. I’m not sure I’ll ever need the phrase myself in Portuguese, yet should equip myself in case any friends ever need a heart to heart (coração para coração).