Foreign Words / AI or IA?

Miguel Fernández
Nov 7
3 min read

I recognize that languages influence each other.

I acknowledge that English has become the “Esperanto” of the financial market and international trade, and there’s no point debating it, besides using many abbreviated and practical words, such as A.S.A.P., OK, and “Help.” The same happens with new words, created and/or adapted to meet the demands of technological novelties, for example, “blog,” which comes from “web-log,” essentially a “public diary.” Would “record” be more appropriate? The first language to create or spread it ends up setting the rule.

We can’t deny that “R.S.V.P.” and “merde” from French, “ciao” from Italian, “quizás” from Spanish, immortalized by the African-American singer Nat King Cole, and other words that seem tailor-made for certain moments, have all been adopted naturally by us.

But unnecessary foreignisms in our Portuguese language bother me. I wouldn’t go so far as to say “ludopédio” instead of “futebol,” but I dislike the submissive acceptance of foreign terms.

Especially when used needlessly, gracelessly, out of cultural limitation (lack of vocabulary), or as servile snobbery, even without realizing it.

Why say “tsunami”, a Japanese word many languages adopted for lack of their own, when in Portuguese we have “maremoto”?Does a “delivery” arrive faster than an “entrega”?And “equity,” used in negotiation tables instead of “capital contribution,” just to impress others?And what about when sizes are measured in “inches,” which aren’t even part of the decimal system?

These speakers, afflicted by the vira-lata complex (*) that plagues our country, seem to believe that if something is said in a foreign language, any nonsense sounds intelligent.

As a corollary, there’s the obsession with quoting foreign “experts” and “scientists” to lend credibility to trendy opinions, “global warming,” “harmful vaccines,” “flat Earth,” “fake news” (always someone else’s), adopted by whichever social tribe one wishes to belong to or be seen in.

So, my trip to São Paulo, at the start of spring 2025, on a LATAM flight, got off to a bad start: as soon as the plane reached cruising altitude, the pilot announced over the loudspeaker: “crew, ten thousand feet.” Since these flights are regulated by ANAC, it became clear that the Brazilian government does nothing to counteract such cultural colonialism, even while loudly proclaiming our “self-determination” and “national pride.”

But the trip “was worth it.”

Besides reuniting with dear friends and colleagues, I attended a seminar organized by ANE, the National Academy of Engineering, at the centennial IE, Institute of Engineering, honoring students who had submitted projects to an ANE competition and were selected. I also attended some interesting lectures.

It “was worth it” for the lecture by Eng. Lawrence, who, already in his eighties, shared his passion for life and the engineering profession, inspiring and moving the audience, and himself, to the point of choking up (I found out I’m not the only one that happens to). “Engineering exists to serve humanity,” he said. “And if they turn off the Wi-Fi? Are we living in the internet age or the age of the internet?”

It was also “worth it” for the presentation by a student from ITA, Maria Antônia, who had won one of the awards. Confident in her presentation (on control and instrumentation in small-scale agriculture) and precise in her use of Portuguese and technical knowledge: whenever the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) arose, that overhyped media buzzword, she avoided it and said “Intelligent Automation” instead. After all, who defines the boundary conditions, who chooses the alternatives? She did this about ten times. I loved it.

I concluded that, despite everything, intelligent life and our culture will survive!

(*) Nelson Rodrigues, 1958: “By vira-lata complex I mean the inferiority in which Brazilians voluntarily place themselves in relation to the rest of the world.”