Brazil – Culture, Politics and Specialities

by steffylw

Language

As many of you probably know, learning a new language does not only help to understand people from other countries better but also their culture and way of thinking.

Portuguese – as a Latin language – has many similarities to e.g. Spanish, though it is still very different not only the pronunciation. When it comes to pronunciation Portuguese has quite some nasal sounds similar to French and the right pronunciation is as crucial as in e.g. Chinese, where one syllable can suddenly mean something completely different when wrongly pronounced. My usual mistake is that I am bad with nasal sounds, so Pão (bread) and Pau (wood or dick) sound the same when I say it, but at least in the bakeries I always got my bread…Another example is avó and avô (Grandfather / Grandmother). Why not saying avo for grandfather and ava for grandmother, that would be so much easier…

Another grammatical construct which is strongly linked to the culture is the wide use of the subjunctive (conditional). Brazilians do not like to say “no” – they will find a way to describe it in a nice way leaving foreigners often baffled whether that is a no. For example, if you ask someone to go out with you on Saturday, but they do not have time, it is quite common that they respond something like  “I have to visit my parents, but if I am back in time and not too tired, we could go out”

Furthermore, some of the Brazilian words are just very cute – “right of return” in Portuguese is “direito do arrendimento” – which literally translates to “Right of regret”.  The German language is so different from that. The German language is quite efficient and logical when it comes to vocabulary (the Gramma is not logic!). A fridge is called “coolcupboard”, we just put the words behind each other and describe things quite literally. When you hear coolcupboard you might be able to imagine, what it is, while if you hear “fridge” … you usually do not know what this word means unless you have learned it.

And Brazilians love abbreviations making it sometimes difficult to understand WhatsApp messages or similar (*Ta = Esta bom = It is good/ Ok).   When you greet people, it is not just a “Hello”, but also a “How do you do” – the speciality in Brazil is that you can either say “Tudo bom” (everything good) or “Tudo bem” (everything well). If the question is Tudo bom – the answer is tudo bem and vice versa – if you do not stick do this – you reveal yourself as foreigner 😛

At least one special event per month:

In Brazil there is one special event, pushing sales and consumption, each month of the year. My Portuguese teacher always made fun of this.

  • January: New Year’s Eve  
  • February  (or early March): Carnival   
  • March: International Women`s day
  • April:    Easter
  • May – Mother’s Day 
  • June – Valentin day (they already have something in March and something in June was still needed :-P) 
  • July – School holidays
  • August – Father’s Day
  • September – Independence Day
  • October:  Halloween (and some other holidays)
  • November:   Black Friday (the whole month!)
  • December:  Christmas

Black Friday is really something special here… You get special offers during the whole month of November. Unfortunately, some companies increase the prices before November to be able to show a huge “discount” in November. So, if you know how much things usually cost, you can make some good deals. For example, I love the products from Natura (the hand crème with chestnut is awesome) and it was 50% off versus the normal price. However, still not cheap…

Shopping in Brazil and the preference of paying in instalments

When going shopping it often happened to me, that I was lured into a store by unbelievable low prices. Only when you come closer, you can see that behind the price a little “x3”, “x5” or “x10” is written. This means the price you see is the monthly rate if you pay in instalments and the number behind indicates the number of instalments…

Cash is something you only need if you take the bus unless you have a prepaid card. All stores and restaurants accept debit and usually also credit cards – even street vendors irrespective of the amount.

Disease Awareness campaigns and HIV

Another thing I like about Brazil is the disease awareness campaigns running throughout the year, where each month is dedicated to another disease. August is the “Orange-Month” dedicated to Multiple Sclerosis  (see also https://agostolaranja.org.br/) and in pink October breast cancer is the topic. There are some countries, where you find certain events on one day for a certain disease, so, for example, the World MS day is on 30th May each year. On that day you probably hear something about MS in the news or you might even see an information booth in the city centre. However, I have never seen a national disease awareness campaign with so many participants, so much energy and motivation as in Brazil. The Ministry of Health, Pharma companies, and above all NGOs, Patient Organizations etc. provide information to the public on the disease, gather donations via interesting activities and you find poster on public transport and some buildings are even illuminated in the colour of the respective month.

I am not a fan of president Bolsonaro, however, there is another initiative ongoing – led by his wife – about HIV. HIV has become a major health issue in Brazil. In 2010 there were about 44.000 and new infections in Brazil. This number increased by 21% in the last years reaching 53.000 new infections in 2018.  It is estimated that many people do not know that they are HIV positive and therefore spreading the virus even further. The initiative contains besides awareness programmes, making condoms available for free (e.g. in Sao Paulo you can, for example, get them in many Metro Stations) and free HIV testing.

Music and Dancing

Brazil is not different from other countries when it comes to the importance of music and dancing. The difference is the type of music and the way of dancing. Brazil has so many different types of music and dances you usually do not find in other countries, like Funk, Forró and Sertanejo and of course Samba just to name the four most famous ones. I guess I do not have to explain Samba. Funk could be seen as the Brazilian version of Reggaeton with more intense beats (see Vai Malandra or Favela Chegou by Anitta – that is the softer Funk, they are more “intense” songs). Sertanejo is a little bit like very modern country music – I like it as background music in a bar, I guess the most famous singer is Gusttavo Lima and then you have Forró. Seeing people dancing Forró reminds me a little bit of Salsa (just without the pause at 4 and 8) – at least if you see people who know how to dance. Many Brazilians can`t dance Forró and then it looks more like shifting the weight from one foot to the other. Either you are a good dancer or not, there is another speciality. Dancing is quite intimate, usually, the cheeks are touching when dancing Forró (or Sertanejo). I am used to dancing Salsa, which can also be very intimate, but dancing cheek on cheek with someone is very weird for me. Now I understand, why many people do only go to Forró or Sertanejo parties when their partner is joining as things can escalate quite quickly dancing so closely. Another thing I found interesting, is that the couples even dance cheek on cheek, when the height difference is large, i.e. the man bends down as far as needed to be able to dance cheek on cheek, making it look like someone with a severe back issue is dancing. I had honestly to think of Quasimodo at one point and it did not look comfortable at all for the men, who were dancing like this.

The music of Forró is as far away from Salsa as it could be. Some songs have a little bit a French sound due to the accordion, which belongs to the typical instruments of Forró, but there is no “one” kind of Forró, the songs and sounds are very diverse.

Another speciality, which seems to be limited to Paulistanos (people from São Paulo) is the way people dance Funk. In São Paulo it seems that everyone knows the choreographer Daniel Saboya. He publishes his dance videos in YouTube and the Paulistanos (the ones who like funk) often learn his choreographies.

There are also several “Brazilian Pop songs” (sorry I do not know the correct category), which have a certain choreography and everyone (not only Paulistanos) know the choreo – it is like Macarena or the “Las Ketchup” Song  – only that there are many such songs. Again, not knowing the choreography exposes you as a foreigner.

In YouTube, you can also find very diverse Brazilian music when you look for “MPB” Música Popular Brasileira. So, as you can see, music and dancing are a vital part of Brazilian life with many different types, I did not even cover half of them here.

Brazilians are very proud of their culinary culture

There are so many things to try when you are in Brazil. Every state has another typical food, but you can nowadays often find it around the country. I was told so many times, that you find the best Pizza in the world in Sao Paulo – unfortunately I have to disagree. I could have never imagined to say, that there can be too much cheese on a Pizza, but now I know, there can be too much cheese.

Anyhow, if you visit Brazil, you should try at least some of the following dishes:

  • Pão de Queijo: Cheese Bread – this is originally coming from Minas Gerais – the “milk” state of Brazil. The flour used in this bread is coming from Mandioca (also called Cassava). The flour and cheese and some other ingredients are put together and a round bread is formed. You find it -at least in SP – on every corner, but not all are good. The bread should be warm, not with too much cheese and it should be fluffy and not overbaked and hard.
  • Tapioca – Tapioca (flour) is also made from Mandioca. Tapioca is often served as a wrap and you can choose between salty and sweet ingredients. I love Tapioca with Mozzarella, Tomatoes and Basil, but there are also options with meat or sweet things like Banana with Cinnamon or Doce de Leite
  • Pastel – filled and fried dough – you can choose as vegetarian fillings “Queijo” (Cheese) or Pizza, which is a mix of tomatoes, onions and cilantro.  Other fillings are for example ham (presunto) with or without cheese or minced meat (carne).
  • Doce de Leite (in e.g. Argentina: Dulce de leche) is another thing, you will find very often and in various forms in Brazil. It is caramelized condensed milk – too sweet for my taste, but Brazilians love it sweet
  • Several sweets, for example
    • Brigadeiro – kind of a very sweet truffle praline with the main ingredients – condensed milk, butter and chocolate
    • Beijinho – like Brigadeiro with Coconut instead of Chocolate
    • Merengue – dessert with strawberries and whipped creme
    • Cocadas – made of Coconut and tons of sugar
  • Meat – most Brazilians love meet:
    • Churrasco (Brazilian BBQ). This can be everything from sausages to steak and even chicken hearts
    • Picanha – that is the most expensive part of the beef. It is the part on the lower back, where the tail starts.  Even fast-food chains like McDonald’s offer Picanha

Politics, Police Brutality and Environmental Protection

As in many countries in the world, politics is a difficult topic – you could actually make a Hollywood movie out of it. Corruption is a huge issue. Public money is being wasted to make certain people and companies richer.

In October 2018 the last election occurred, which kind of split the country. The so-called “Brazilian Trump”, Jair Bolsonaro, was elected president in a second ballot against Fernando Haddad, who is in the party (Worker`s party) of Ex-President Lula (2003-2010) and Ex-President Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016), who was impeached and removed from the office in 2016 due to e.g. breaking the budget laws.

President Lula who actually had very high approval rating during his presidency and is still very popular had been convicted and imprisoned due to corruption. When travelling through Brazil, you will notice, that in many areas, you find lots of cars with stickers claiming support for the current president Bolsonaro, while in other areas you find many supports of the “Free Lula Movement”. They are people who claim, that Lula was convicted in 2017 based on staged evidence to prevent him from running again as a presidential candidate in 2018. In November 2019, after many months of investigations and many appeals, Lula was released from prison given the decision from Supreme Court, that convicts can only be imprisoned if all appeals have been denied, which is not the case here. One a part of the country celebrated this step, while the other part (mainly the Bolsonaro supporters) claim that the justice system failed.

Many people did not want to vote for Haddad in 2018 due to his affiliation to Lula (same party) and Haddad was sometimes referred to as Lula`s puppet, though doing many good things during his time as Mayor in Sao Paulo ( at least as far as I can see). Furthermore, the bad economy pushed people away from the left worker`s party, which was in power from 2003-2016 hoping that Bolsonaro´s right-wing party will bring a change.  That people are longing for a change is something I totally understand. However, I stand up for Human Rights and Human Rights do not only relate to white men, but to all women, LGBT+, to all ethnicities etc. as we are all humans.  I know lots of educated people in Brazil and though women are more reluctant to vote for Trump, many educated middle/upper-class men (and some educated women) voted for Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro said lots of horrible things. His followers try to explain and apologize for this saying things like – he was provoked, did not mean it, that things are taken out of context etc. – but if you watch the interviews he gave (preferably in Portuguese to avoid wrong translation) you hear what kind of person he is

  • He said to a woman, that he would not rape her as she did not “deserve it” as she was ugly and not his type.  Before this they had an argument on how to handle a case where a 17-year old boy raped and killed a girl. Bolsonaro wanted to treat him like an adult and put him in prison for the rest of his life, while the woman preferred to give a shorter sentence and focus on resocialization due to the young age. Even if you are angry at a person or you do not agree at all with her/him replying something like this is an absolute no go. It does not matter how a woman looks like or what she wears or what opinion she has, she never deserves to be raped or assaulted (so are of course men and kids).
  • Another time he said, he would prefer his son dies in an accident than having a gay son and there are many more examples of his anti-women, anti-LBGT and anti-immigrant language

Though Bolsonaro and his team do a lot to reduce corruption, family members serve as senior advisors to the president and hold other roles within the government. For me, nepotism and corruption are closely related. Bolsonaro even offered his son a position as ambassador to the US, though he speaks English quite poorly resulting in quite some laughter in Brazil when an interview in English was broadcasted. However, finally, in November another guy was appointed ambassador.

Crime rates are an issue. There are many robberies and shootings, especially in Rio de Janeiro. Crime rates have dropped since Bolsonaro became president due to the increased assignment of the military police in residential areas including Favelas. Bolsonaro is a fan of the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964-1985) promoting a harsh use of the military. During this dictatorship you can imagine, freedom of speech was restricted, violence, torture and forced disappearances were common. But still, there are people like Bolsonaro who wish back the “good old times” of military dictatorship. Of course everything has its pros and cons – even a dictatorship – but still, the cons outweigh the pros here by far to say the least.

However, the military and Bolsonaro seem to be inspired by this time and police brutality has become “normal” again.  For example, while “cleaning” Favelas in Rio from criminals, kids were shot by the police. The reaction from police and politics was more or less, that it is the kids´ fault and that they are all criminals, so it seems being poor and living in a favela automatically makes you a criminal in the eyes of the authorities.

Another more recent example is a police operation in Paraisopolis – a Favela in Sao Paulo – where the military police stormed a Funk Festival, leaving many people wounded and nine trampled to death. The police threw bombs into the crowds, triggering panic and then cornered people in narrow dead-end alleys with many stairs, the police pushed the people and beat them – making some people stumble or being pressed against walls and other people making it difficult to breathe. There is also a video on YouTube showing people coming out of an alley with their hands up in the air – posing no threat to the police at all – but still, an officer is hiding around the corner at the end of the alley beating the people coming out of the alley with a stick.  The police also cancelled the ambulance which was called. Maybe one or the other person could still be alive if the ambulance had arrived in time.  (see video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehv_FJdu0kg)

Environmental politics and climate change

I am not sure about Jair Bolsonaro, but his eldest son Eduardo denies climate change “given that the name regularly changes” and that some studies showed the world gets warmer, while some others would show that the world gets colder (he really said that). That the logging and deforestation of the Amazonas have sped up since Bolsonaro became president is not a secret nor a lie. There is lots of proof including satellite pictures.

On 5th August 2019 rural farmers in the Northeast announced in a local newspaper to set fires on the 10th of August to direct the attention of the authorities to their difficult situation as farmers.  On the 10th of August, several fires have been set and more have followed since then, making the 10th of August to the “Dia dos Fogos” (Day of the fires). The stupid thing with fire is that it is easy to light a fire, but difficult to control it, so the fires expanded to an area probably even the farmers do not feel comfortable with anymore.

To make things more ridiculous Bolsonaro even claimed, that Leonardo DiCaprio (yes, the actor!) is responsible for the fires in Amazonia and his followers believe him, though there is no proof of it at all. DiCaprio donated money to NGOs in the area to protect the environment not to burn everything down. However, Bolsonaro claims, that the NGOs funded by DiCaprio set the fires, though the NGOs DiCaprio donated to are not on the official list of suspects. Unfortunately, there are really some NGOs suspected to be involved, but not the ones DiCaprio is working with. But Bolsonaro claims it, some media report it without challenging it and some people believe it without questioning it at all…

For Bolsonaro economy comes before any ecological considerations. He, for example, wants to destroy a major part of the national park “Lençois Maranheses” to build huge hotels and by the way ruin the small hostels and existing agencies there and replace it by mass tourism with hotel chains making the rich become richer and the poor become poorer. In November 2019 he abolished a degree to protect the environment in Amazonia and Pantanal (wetlands) to be able to grow sugar cane (to produce Ethanol) in the previously protected areas and the list goes on and on….

Others

  • Showers – as in most Latin American countries – not every hostel has hot water and if it has hot water, you usually must change the heat directly on the shower head. The shower head is also not removable but stationary.
  • You do not throw the toilet paper in the toilet, but in the waste bin as otherwise the toilet will sooner or later clog – again like in other Latam countries
  • The Metro Stations in Sao Paulo seem to be a meeting spot for couples. You often see couples sitting on the floor, cuddling or even kissing in the stations.
  • For whatever reason hostels are often surprised when you show up even if you have a reservation. Many hotels or hostels claim to speak English, but they often don´t, even in 4-Star Hotels or touristic places like Rio de Janeiro.
  • I usually use booking.com when making reservations and I prefer paying in cash as it is usually cheaper than paying with credit card (I need a cheaper credit card :/). However, in Brazil I made the experience, that when you pay in cash two things happen quite often:
    • You are offered a special discount, if you cancel your booking in booking.com
    • The hostel reports to booking.com that you did not show up after you have checked-out

It seems that hostels often try to avoid paying the service fee to booking, which is not fair. If you use the service, you must pay the fee.

  • Last but not least – football – I doubt that any other country in the world is so crazy about football (or do I have to say soccer for the Americans reading this?). When someone asks me, where I am from and I answer Germany – the 7:1 defeat in the world cup in 2014 is immediately on every one’s mind.

Even if it is a completely unimportant game like a qualification game for the world cup against a country, which has never participated in the world cup and does not even have a professional league, everyone is watching the game.

Every bar is showing the game – If the bar is full, a TV is set up on the pavement to ensure, everyone can watch it – even the ones you do not have a TV at home. If the pavement is too small for everyone – no problem you just use the street and put tables and chairs on the street – the few cars who are passing by, will find a way around. The most interesting part for me – no one is complaining about this. If you would do this in Germany, the police would pull up and every driver would honk like hell. This by the way is also true in some streets in Sao Paulo, where bars get crowded every evening and therefore the people stand on the streets and no one complaints – I love it. Just have a good time and let other people have a good time 😊

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