It is hard to communicate with these two fellows working on my house.

Probably for the best though. They would be accomplishing much less if I could talk to them.

You should build up a rapport with them by using popular Portugese idioms like these...

De pequenino se torce o pepino = From very small the cucumber is bent
Dá Deus nozes a quem não tem dentes = God gives nuts to those who don't have teeth
Peixe não puxa carroça = Fish don't pull wagons
Quem tem cu tem medo = Anyone who has an asshole has fear
A mulher e a sardinha querem-se da mais pequenina = Women and sardines, you want them to be small

MiceElf should win the post of the week.

-edit- and I heard a piece on NPR recently about how the wood floor refinishing bidness had been taken over in some parts of the country by Brazilians (or was it Guatemalans?)- guess YB is living proof.

Interesting. Yeah, these bastards are definitely on top of their game.

Seconded.

All I could think of when I read this was Family Guy and their constant riffing on the Portuguese.

for some reason in Rhode Island, the Portuguese are treated like the Poles everywhere else. Like, ever joke about how dumb Poles are has them replaces by the Portuguese, and it's not something random that Seth McFarlane made up. I found it very odd at first.

From what I've been told, Finns have suffered the same fate in 'Sconsin in, around, and north of Eau Claire. Must be all the Swedes, always trying to cut their neighbours down.

Oh yea, Finn jokes are rampant up here. I think it's more of a good-natured ribbing... with borderline self-flaggelation tendancies, since most Finn jokes I've heard were told by people of Finnish descent.