Media type: Short films
Source: Youtube
Language: Brazilian Portuguese
Language Level: Varies from intermediate to advanced, but could be used for beginning level classes
Porta dos Fundos (Backdoor) is unlike the typical films that one might find in a language class. In fact, it’s not a film at all, but a series of humorous videos produced entirely on a YouTube channel. Nevertheless, Porta dos Fundos is a great source for students of Brazilian Portuguese. The excellent production quality and good acting will keep students interested, and the films could easily be adapted for activities ranging from beginning to advanced language study.
Perhaps the aspect of Porta dos Fundos that is most appealing for use in a language classrooms is its production quality. The videos do not resemble the typical humor one might associate with Brazilian television. They are much more similar to Saturday Night Live Digital Shorts. Even more important, the humor of Portas dos Fundos rarely relies on wordplay, meaning that students can more easily understand the situational humor and do not have to struggle with intricate double meanings.
Take, for example, the following video, in which a doctor informs a happy couple of new parents that they will not be having a boy or a girl, but a cat. (Note: this is taken from the group’s English-language Youtube page, which posts a selection of videos with English subtitles).
Here students, even at a beginner or intermediate level, could easily get the joke.
Another benefit of Portas dos Fundos is that it covers a wide variety of topics, making it possible to find a video that would work well with the grammar or vocabulary being used in class. Take this video, for example, of an interesting exchange that occurs when a woman tries to check her baggage before a flight. The video would nicely compliment a unit on travel.
But Porta dos Fundos offers more than just silly situations with strange people. It covers important cultural and political questions that could be part of larger class discussion in an advanced conversation class. For example, this video take humorous look at the way people view the poor in Brazil, which could help lead to lengthier discussions in a conversation class.
Or this video, which deals with the timely topic of food politics.
In addition to the YouTube videos, Porta dos Fundos has published a book with the scripts of many of their videos, which may help in lower-level classes. They have also produced a DVD, which has Portuguese-language subtitles that may help students needing help with understanding content.
The Portas dos Fundos videos are both entertaining and useful in a classroom setting. The only caveat would be that instructors should be careful about which videos they show, since many of them may not be completely appropriate (although they will give students some vocabulary they wouldn’t normally learn in a classroom setting).