Blog on Bored Into a Trance

Por Que o Aluno Não Aprende Inglês (e Por Que Não É Culpa Dele)

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0300

Existe um fenômeno peculiar no Brasil que merece mais atenção do que recebe: o país tem uma das maiores redes de escolas de idiomas do mundo, gasta bilhões por ano em cursos de inglês, e ainda assim produz uma população adulta que, em sua maioria, não consegue manter uma conversa básica na língua depois de anos de estudo.

Algo está errado. E não é o aluno.

O método que não ensina a falar

Durante décadas, o ensino de inglês no Brasil foi dominado por uma abordagem que tem um nome técnico pouco glamouroso: gramática-tradução. O aluno aprende regras. Conjuga verbos em tabelas. Traduz frases descontextualizadas. É avaliado por sua capacidade de identificar o past perfect continuous numa oração subordinada.

Voce não sabe falar portugues

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:00:00 -0300

Existe uma cena clássica, frequentemente atribuída ao David Foster Wallace, que narra dois peixinhos jovens cruzando com um peixe mais velho. O veterano balança a cabeça e pergunta: “Como está a água, rapazes?”. Os dois nadam em silêncio por um tempo até que um vira pro outro e pergunta: “Que diabos é água?”.

Guarde essa imagem. Ela vai ser útil. Não agora, daqui a dois parágrafos, quando você perceber que está fazendo exatamente a mesma coisa com a língua que usa para pensar, reclamar, fazer piada, discutir, e eventualmente mandar áudio de sete minutos no WhatsApp.

Utopia Had Canals. We Have the 485.

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0300

Lucas Ferreira Gandara Cabral e João Paulo Severo

The Subway of Fundão — A dialogue in the manner of Thomas More

It was a particularly hot April morning in 2026 in Rio de Janeiro. On Ilha do Fundão, the campus of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Professor Lucy Good Villages was hurrying between the bus stop and the Faculty of Letters, carrying a battered copy of Thomas More’s Utopia. That same morning, for reasons no one could quite explain, perhaps an early campaign move, perhaps genuine academic curiosity, Mayor Edward Peace was paying a visit to the campus. The two met under the meager shade of a tree beside the Technology Center.

Lady Bracknell and the Comedy of Self-Contradiction

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 01:50:00 -0300

Wilde’s humor works in a quiet way. He does not make his characters obviously ridiculous. Instead, he lets them speak seriously, and trusts the reader to notice when what they are saying does not quite add up.

The passage from Act II is a good example of this. Lady Bracknell says, in the space of a few sentences, that one should never speak badly of Society, that Algernon has nothing but debts, that she disapproves of marriages driven by money, and that she herself married without any fortune but never let that stop her. Then she gives her consent.

A Modest Defense of Not Losing My Mind

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 01:35:00 -0300

I did not become a different person because of meditation. I am still stressed, still tired more often than I would like, still inconsistent with some habits, and still very capable of feeling overwhelmed by ordinary life. But I can say, without exaggeration, that meditating before sleeping and right after waking up has been helping me deal with college, work, and the general pressure of everyday life.

The change is not dramatic in the cinematic sense. It is quieter than that. It feels more like creating a small interval between myself and the noise. Before sleep, meditation helps me stop carrying the whole day into bed. Without that pause, my mind tends to keep working as if it were still trying to solve unfinished tasks at midnight. I keep replaying conversations, obligations, deadlines, little embarrassments, and random concerns that do not deserve that much attention. Sitting still for a few minutes before sleeping does not erase those things, but it reduces their force. They stop arriving all at once.

Post-Christmas Thoughts on Privacy and AI

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 12:33:39 -0300

The end of the year always makes me more reflective, and this one is no exception. After a good Christmas night with my family, I found myself thinking again about privacy, Linux, and the path I chose this year. I went deep into that world, sometimes to the point of obsession, and for a while I wondered whether all the friction was worth it. After some honest reflection, I think it was.