[asveikau]

I think this highlights some differences between now and the 19th century.

Global communication and travel, to say nothing of media consumption, is much easier today. Many more Portuguese or Brazilian people have easy access to English. But back then, someone who didn't even speak English could publish this phrase book and appear credible.

[marc_abonce]

This kind of thing still happens today. For example this reminded me of the Scots Wikipedia story, which took many years before being discovered: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24273851

[bonzini]

There are still plenty of topics in which one can "appear credible"—and given chatGPT's skill in bullshitting about various topics, it's easier than ever.

[DanBC]

There are a million YouTube videos of people confidently telling you how to do something but getting it pretty badly wrong.

There are so many that there's now another genre of reacting to this bad advice.

[asveikau]

I'm not sure how my comment was interpreted as "it's impossible to be wrong". I made a narrow claim that faking English knowledge in Brazil and Portugal is harder today than in the 19th century.

[DanBC]

But it isn't, which is why there are so many people on YouTube earning money telling you how to do things the wrong way.

[asveikau]

It is, relative to the 19th century. It is much easier for anyone with internet access to immerse themselves in English language media.

I know specifically that English skills are far from universal in the Portuguese speaking world. But it's way easier and more common than even 30 years ago. So are you really saying it's the same as the 1870s? Please.