When he was young, Marreiros worked in a Macau post office. One of his coworkers was a Chinese of the older generation, who often chatted with him about Tang-dynasty poetry, and Chinese proverbs and myths. For a while Marreiros taught Chinese people how to speak Portuguese. "I learned quite a lot about the way many Chinese people think," he says.
年輕時馬若龍在澳門一家郵局工作，有個同事是上了年紀的中國人，常跟他聊起唐詩、中國諺語與神話故事，有段時間他教中國人葡萄牙語，「學到不少中國人思維方式」，他說。