I was having a beer in this small Brazilian town, mid-afternoon. Two girls come to my table. We try to chat ; they can't speak any foreign language and my Portuguese is awful.
- Me: What is your job ?
- The girls: Programma
- Me (for the next 30 minutes): Oh great, me too ! Which languages ? <here comes the enumeration of the 100 programming languages I know, each one pronounced in 10 different ways, Brazilian accent, etc.>
Even "Java" didn't seem to mean anything to them. Strange. I assumed they had special programming languages in Brazil.
10 years later, in Palo Alto. I read some article about Brazil society. One word catches my attention.
Programma = Prostitute. Oh.
So yes, don't call yourself a programmer. Especially in Brazil when you don't know the language.
Not that this has anything to do with your story, but Lua was originally written in Brazil because of governmental restrictions on imported software which precluded the use of more mainstream languages. They did, in fact, have special programming languages in Brazil.
That's pretty funny. In case anyone's wondering, the full term is "garota de programa", literally "girl of program" or "program girl". Obviously, the English is "call girl".
Normally, "programa" just means events, like "what's the program for the evening?". Here, of course, you can figure it out yourself.
I don't know if I'm laughing more at the confusion on your part, or the likely confusion on their part after you told them you were a programma too. Hilarious.
10 years later, those two programmas in that Brazilian small town would still be recounting to their fellow programmas and friends that:
- There are male programmas in America (in fact, the rumor says that most of the programmas are male) and,
- The strange ritual of male programmas from America is that they start to recite these about 100 strange sounding words, and ask you if you know any of them.
It goes both ways. In the US many "consultants" / "independent consultants" refer to themselves as "whores" especially when applying their talents (for money of course) to companies or projects they disrespect.
- Me: What is your job ?
- The girls: Programma
- Me (for the next 30 minutes): Oh great, me too ! Which languages ? <here comes the enumeration of the 100 programming languages I know, each one pronounced in 10 different ways, Brazilian accent, etc.>
Even "Java" didn't seem to mean anything to them. Strange. I assumed they had special programming languages in Brazil.
10 years later, in Palo Alto. I read some article about Brazil society. One word catches my attention.
Programma = Prostitute. Oh.
So yes, don't call yourself a programmer. Especially in Brazil when you don't know the language.