Having spent almost 15 years in Brazil, the author of this text has already assimilated many things but still does not understand others in the friendly, gigantic and young host country.
The different relationship with time is one that is assimilated: here it is common for a restaurant, or other business, to proudly put something like “since 1998”, “since 2003” or, the record so far, “since 2016” beneath its name; In Portugal, establishments only boast if they were founded at least at the beginning of the 20th century (or in 1864, like DN). But, after all, as said above, Brazil is young.
After time, space. No matter how much you know in advance, it takes time to realize that the distance between São Paulo and Fortaleza, for example, is identical to that between Lisbon and Warsaw. But, after all, Brazil is gigantic.
Getting used to the longest “no” in the world is another barrier that has been overcome: “so, my dear, you know what happens, unfortunately, it’s a bit difficult, I think I’ll owe you, but let’s agree” is the translation, in local Portuguese, for the laconic “no”, in Portuguese from Portugal. But, after all, the Brazilian is friendly.
And if the animosity against Portuguese colonization is understandable, some arguments to justify it are not. Like the fact that the country would be much better off if the Dutch had colonized it – yes, the same people who colonized Suriname, that power ranked 124th in the HDI, and walked through South Africa, that example of racial tolerance.
Apart from the famous “give us back our gold” uttered not by the invaded original peoples, who have always known that gold even on this planet are the forests and rivers, but by descendants of Italians, Germans, Arabs or whatever who think they own the metal even though they arrived here as emigrants half a dozen decades ago – or, more comically, by descendants of Portuguese, that is, by the grandchildren of the supposed thieves.
In addition, of course, to those black Uber drivers who ask their passengers if it is true that if they emigrate to Portugal they could be targets of racism. Well, unfortunately, they can, but if they continue in Brazil, where black people make up 69% of the prison population and where more than 80% of those killed in police operations are of African descent, the chances are much greater.
But let’s talk about less serious details like the habit of Brazilians, even those who speak better English than this journalist, to pronounce “two” as “tchu”. He is “one, tchu, three”, the Irish band “U Tchu”, the “Me Tchu” movement…
Another: “the 32 minutes of the second half” used in football instead of “77 minutes” as the rest of the world counts, that is, due to laziness in doing a simple summation, triple the characters are used.
And if you ask a Brazilian how old they were on any occasion in the past, for some reason, most of the time they answer “I was from 15 to 16”, “from 19 to 20”, “from 32 to 33”.
Anyway, little outbursts from someone who has been in Brazil for almost 15 years. Or… from 14 to 15.
Journalist, correspondent in São Paulo
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