How Do Brazilian Women View Foreigners?

I've made a lot of female friends online over the past few years. I recently had an interesting conversation with a friend I met not too long ago.

My friend is from São Paulo and I asked her a lot of questions, in a sort of friendly interview. She told me about her impressions of foreigners, and gave me some tips I think many of you will find useful. Here goes...

Question #1. Where are you from in Brazil and what do you do?

I am from São Paulo and work with events, developing new business and driving more Brazilian attendance to international exhibitions, organizing delegations of executives from different sectors

Question #2. What are the main obstacles for foreigners in Brazil?

First the language, because different from what many people believe not every Brazilian speaks English and if the purpose of the trip is tourism or especially business it is important to have someone speaking Portuguese for intermediate conversations and to translate different things. Brazilians are very friendly and always try to understand but it helps a lot having someone in the group that speaks the language.

Question #3. What are common mistakes that foreigners make in Brazil?

Being overly concerned with safety issues and not researching about the country and its culture before traveling. Every country has problems with safety, specially the major cities in the world like New York, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in Brazil and every tourist needs to be careful with some things. But it does not mean a tourist cannot walk around or cannot use the metro and public transportation. From my experience because I receive many foreigners coming for business they always leave the country very surprised about everything: food, hotels, quality of service, people and even safety.

My advice would be to research about the country and cities you are going to visit and come open minded to a different culture and try new things e.g. food. For example if an American comes to Brazil and only wants to eat at American restaurants he will have this option, but why not try and enjoy the differences from home.

Another mistake is to come to Brazil and only think about
Rio de Janeiro, Rio is beautiful but there is so much to see including amazing beaches in places like Fernando de Noronha, Fortaleza, Salvador, Iguassu falls, Amazonia to see the rainforest or Pantanal. If a foreigner comes 5 times to Brazil he won't be able to see all.

Question #4. What characteristic of other nationalities strikes you as the most different (eg. sense of humor, formality, dress)?

In South Africa people are always smiling and have a great
sense of humor.

Question #5. Which English accent do you prefer and why (eg. Scottish, American, Australian)?

I prefer American, probably because I learned English living in the USA with an American family during an exchange program. It sounds more familiar to me.

Question #6. Favourite place travelled abroad and why?

South Africa was my favorite trip because of the mix: very
friendly people, great service, beautiful views specially in Cape Town and the safari something I always wanted to
do. I felt at home in South Africa.

Question #7. Favourite foreign food?

Italian and Japanese food.

Question #8. Favourite foreign band, book and movie?

I like Shania Twain and Bon Jovi, favorite book Harry Potter and movie The Lord of the Rings.

Question #9. What is the difference between dating a Brazilian and Foreigner (if this applies to you or perhaps a friend)?

I never dated a foreigner but I guess Brazilians are closer to their family, considering that we don't leave the house of our parents usually until we get married and we are always together doing family trips, lunches and dinners and foreigners are more independent of the family because leave the house with 17 years old to go to college in a different city.

Question #10. Can you share an incident, misunderstanding or 'culture shock' that you have experienced with a foreigner?

I guess I can call a culture shock when I lived in the USA as an exchange student and could see how difficult it was to make friends. I guess in Brazil when we have someone from another country we want to help, and instantly become friends, we are really open to that and in the USA it took a while to "break the ice" because Americans don't instantly become friends, but once they do is about the same in Brazil.

Another shock for me while a student was to hear some questions about my country, such as: Do you have McDonald's there? Do you have ice cream? Do you live in trees? Does it rain there? That was a shock for me to know that many people didn't have an idea of what Brazil was.

And as a professional working with Americans to understand
that they are very brief and objective about everything and we are not. I had to deal with these cultural differences when sending e-mails and when traveling also.

Question #11. What are 2 things you would recommend for a visitor to do in Brazil to better understand Brazilian people and their culture?

-Have a Brazilian churrasco (barbecue) with caipirinha (typical drink).
-Have feijoada, a typical Brazilian food on Wednesday or Saturday.
-Have pizza on a Sunday.
-Go to a nice beach for the weekend.
-Go to a happy hour on a Friday evening to a pub after work with some
friends.

Well, that's it for my friendly Interview guys. Keep sending me your emails, questions and comments.

Be Safe,

Dan DeLa Cruz