Blending In...

[NunoEFSilva]

One has to realize that in a country as big as Brazil (45% of SA) there are many sub-cultures, mixes and matrixes (historical, cultural, racial and what not). For instance: big cities can be ranked in is implied crime risk - and you should learn how to deal with it - but in the rural interior there are small places where one can leave the door open.

In those places you just avoid driving out of town alone into the night...

Girls there are less sophisticated and more family-oriented - and that does not mean they will be less interested in you, 'au contraire' .

Also they tend to be less materialistic - but even there you won't be scot-free of gold-diggers, just cheer up cause these will be 'unsophisticated' gold-diggers...

Young fellas take note - and advantage.

For those of you who can't yet speak a few words in the local language and need a translator, a habit of cultural diversity gained around the globe will get you many brownie points in 'finesse' and in understanding tiny differences - and the reasons behind them.

Leave your shell, relax - and smile a lot.

Openly paying Interested Male Attention to a Beautiful Latina is NOT a sin.

Indeed, you are expected to!

Some silly innocent things may be classified as 'sexual harassment' in North America or Europe.

Down South, not displaying an Honest & Natural interest in the Female Half will classify YOU as a homosexual - think about how many opportunities THAT will make you lose...

You can even catcall or whistle then should you be familiar with the timing, tone and proportions - just no touching!

Come-on fellows, this is supposed to be the 'natural male behavior' after all. And that's what's so likeable and liberating about SA Women: they just expect you to be natural...

A secret: in return they will be natural around you! A female in its natural environment likes to be appreciated and would not have it any other way.

Do not get me wrong! I am not implying SA Women have the same exact bedside interests we do. Indeed I find them even more feminine then northerners. It is just that they are more close to nature, without many of the second and third agendas Women are provided up north. They are just more spontaneous without those loads.

Of course if you flash you money around (and considering the exchange rate) you will give them a new agenda - and you will pay up later on, dude! But that will NOT be natural behavior, just natural greed. The first time you find a gold-digger, consider: were you her creator?

Now, being natural is best achieved by Blending In as much as possible.

Once again, either one keeps his mouth shut, or one has to learn (and practice) a modicum of words, expressions and phrases. Anyway one has a mouth and two ears - right?

Dress code is tougher on Europeans than to Americans: casual shorts, T-shirt, sandals, a shoulder bag, a cheap plastic watch. Do not try to exaggerate (worn-out or unkempt clothes) and BTW, no socks - that will give you away pronto: you're a Gringo, presumably with a fat wallet - you might as well paint a target between your shoulder blades. Just observe the locals then go to the mall (a very safe and superb pick-up place) and emulate them - a couple of tens will most likely do.

In half a dozen years of vacationing in Brazil, the single time I couldn't 'pass' for a Brazilian was on (where else?) a beach.

Amazingly enough the spotter was a Portuguese!

Emigrant of 50 years in Brazil, he run that beach concession. After a full day watching me and my GF, upon end-of-day financial adjustments, he said matter-of-factly: Você é Português! (You're a Portuguese!)
<Me> - Ok pal, you got me. Just tell me how?
<Reply> - Well, you dress like a Brazilian, behave like a Brazilian, talk like a Brazilian... but your lower leg has no hair! Wherever the place you came from, most of the year you wear socks! So you're a Gringo, but I can only think of one kind of a Gringo that can speak with such a fine Brazilian accent - and that has to be a Portuguese Gringo!

He was quite a sharp fellow - but somehow we never got back to that beach.

[El Capitan]

Great start NFS...some fine insight of the inner sanctum. Muito legal.

Looking forward to the next one...

[Clay]

I have a question for you.
My Brazilero friend speaks fluent english, spanish and Portuguese.
He doesn't speak German but he has what I believe to be a German accent when he speaks Portuguese.
Is this a trait of your language or is it something that might be only in southern Brazil, where he is from.

example;
I would imagine that you, living in Europe probably speak english with a UK accent but I can't really see any accent in your writing.

I speak english with a slight southern accent, where I live now, about 1 in 10 people pick up on it and as much as I have tried, I can't shake it.

I have family in Maine and they speak in a completly different distinctive dialect.

[NunoEFSilva]

Well Clay,

My English was learned in high school and perfected thru the British Council many moons ago. I carry a sound Portuguese accent, I suppose... That was clever thought, because people do tend to display a lot about their origin in the way they express themselves. You must have had a very good English teacher. [img]smile.gif[/img] (more below, see slavery and work gangs)

I do use a spell-checker attached to my word processor - that masks a bit any 'accent' I might display in my ramblings, or the way I build them; I subscribe a few American publications of personal interest for decades; also my family descends in part from English officers that came here (w/Wellington) to fight the Napoleonic Wars (against Junot) and upon decommissioned decided to retire in a balmy whether. Lieutenant Silver became Silva...

One thing about the size of a Country: the bigger it is, the more dialects and accents it contains. The exceptions are Nations that evolved in geographic isolation like the UK or Japan.

You see, language is a means of belonging but also of differentiation.

Should a dialect evolve in isolation, people tend to use it more as a means of recognizing their sub-culture, tribe or gang - which can be observed in every generation of teenagers and the slang they re-invent to create their 'clubs'. This might be a shock for some Americans, but a learned Englishman, well integrated in the UK, can spot another of is countryman's origins by a few moments of conversation - learning such things as place of birth, schooling, and so on.

But if one looks at the map of Europe, one has to recognize that the smaller the Country the more uniform - and difficult - is the language.

The first Empire to use Language as a differentiator was the Roman Empire. One who could not speak Latin was a 'Barbarian', even if a Superb Greek Philosopher...

Dutch, Danish or Portuguese are 'hard to learn' languages because they also fulfill the need to differentiate the 'foreigner' in their midst. Those where countries crushed between big neighbors, trying to maintain their independence. Usually they put two biggies against each other for some peace. Portugal had only Spain (near by) and had to enforce a LOT of differentiation. Although written Portuguese looks a lot like Spanish, a sight you'll never see will be a Spaniard that speaks Portuguese without an accent, and that is by design.

The Portuguese where the first to use language as a Means of Empire - along Religion, and the Sword. That still carries marks in Brazil. In a climate were one could get three crops a year, the limitation was upon the number of hands to pick it up out of the soil and process it. Hence slavery of Indians and Africans from various Nations, and also work gangs in which no more than a couple of elements spoke the same lingo - except Portuguese. The necessity to use a 'Foreign Language' to communicate took away any advantage in numbers, as it forces one to thinks in preordained simple paths. So their 'capitão do mato', a native Portuguese, was always one step ahead of any conspiracy. Proficiency in the language confered something akin to a boost in IQ!

Different economy outlooks separated Portugal from Brazil - which needed slavery and forced labour much more than we did - and got it's Independence without a war. Portugal was the third Country to abolish slavery (after Britain, the 1st) and Brazil the last (1888), much after it's Independence (1822). Should I refer a Brazilian of African descent as 'darker' than myself (absolutely no insult in my sub-culture) he would be rather offended and would drag me into court!

It is normal for a learned 'Brasileiro' to know English (for financial and professional reasons), Spanish ('cause of vicinity), and of course Portuguese - and the same goes for the equivalent Portuguese fellow (along with French). But the dialect a Brazilian speaks, sounds a lot sweeter and tender for us. Conversely, European Portuguese grates and scratches in a Brazilian's ears. ('Brazilian' is much more 'Cantabile' than EuroPortuguese.) It's quite easy for a Portuguese to speak in an almost perfect Brazilian accent - but the reverse is absolutely not true.

The accent of your friend might 'benefit' from the fact that a lot of Germans (and Italians) emigrated for the last century-and-a-half to Southern Brazil where the tipical agricultural unit is a small family one. So the present links many Brazilians carry with Germany and Italy - and the reason one sees so many German tourists there... (Italians and Spaniards tend to blend in more easily, so they are less visible.)

From my point of view, Brazil as any BIG Country, is a patchwork of accents. 'Paulistas' speak miles away from 'Nordestinos' and if someone catches me in a slipup in the Northeast, I merely say I'm a 'Gaucho' (from the South tip) and it passes.

Small Country dialects incorporate much more defenses...

[Clay]

Your post reminds me of thoughts that I have had but never gotten answered.
I have this idea that specifically English, french, spanish and portugese (just to name a few) have evolved from germanic and or latin roots for specific and simple reasons. One main reason, I think was to detect spies. This I believe is why it is so hard for a latino to learn english.
A priest once told me that spanish is a phonetic language. Last year when I took a spanish class I learned or thought that I learned to dissagree with him.
Why do you think that english has so many hidden pronunciations? Why do you think portugese,italian and spanish are all different?

[NunoEFSilva]

It is hard indeed for a Latino to learn Germanic-root languages.

Spanish and Portuguese are very near in the family of languages that split up from Latin: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Romanian (yes!).

It's not so much the phonems (atomic sounds) as the way one builds phrases. That's what makes Portuguese so difficult to you too...

As much as I know (and I'm no expert) English is rooted in High Germanic, but has a Lot of influences from French, Scandinavian, etc.

I'm no philologist! I'm an Civil Engineer with experience in IT.