Cultural Insights on Brazil

The experience of living 13 years abroad in four different countries (USA, Sweden, Poland & Italy), and having an intercultural marriage (with children) has certainly made me a bit less Brazilian than I planned. However, it has probably enlightened my multiple perception of my own Brazilian culture (if not complicated it!). My original curiosity drive to discover the world had slowly turned into a ‘chronic cultural shock syndrome’, when the excitement of being a newcomer was replaced by the constant search for the ‘cultureless’ universal essence of humans wherever. It was when I became an intercultural psychologist and coach. My first thought, when asked to describe ‘foreigners through Brazil’s eyes’, was to elaborate the answer based on the 2 most striking cultural differences between Brazilians and foreigners (specially from North America, North Europe & Australia): time orientation, and levels of communication.

Do you control time or does time control you? The Brazilians’ lack of punctuality and their ‘ability’ to ignore time can drive foreigners crazy. If Brazilians meet an old friend, even on the way to an important meeting, they would probably choose to chat and they would find it very difficult to interrupt the conversation; they would most probably prefer to be late for the meeting favoring relationships over punctuality.  My Swedish friends (from Campinas Expat community) still can not get used to waiting 2-3 hours in a doctor’s office for a confirmed appointment, then when it is finally their turn, the doctor does not even apologize. At work, foreign executives’ main complaint is that Brazilian co-workers tend not to keep deadlines and come up last minute ridiculous excuses and justifications such as ‘I have not really understood what was supposed to be done’ or even ‘I do not agree with it’. On the other hand, Brazilians can not understand foreigners’ ‘obsession’ to keep the time since there are always other more important things to worry about such as people’s ability to be flexible, gentle and tolerant towards ‘un-expectable’ troubles; they prioritize keeping good relationships and time is just a detail. For Brazilians, foreigners’ difficulty to be flexible confirms that ‘gringos’ are, in general, hard, rigid, inflexible and unreasonable. It takes a lot of intercultural competence from a foreign executive in Brazil to be able to respect the local culture and, at the same time, to align team work in a way that the ‘international time orientation’ is kept. Learning to communicate becomes essential.

Another interesting difference between foreigners and Brazilians can be explained by how deep and how fast they go into emotional and private topics in social conversations. The five culture communication levels, as they are called by Pollock D. & Van Reken, R., start from superficial, still safe, judgmental, emotional, and finally, total disclosure. Foreigners seem to need much more time in the superficial stage to trust and feel comfortable before going into private topics; for Brazilians going too slowly would demonstrate a lack of interest and even a sign of coldness. If you have taken any intercity bus in Brazil, you could experience that it is common that people who never met before would start telling each other their deepest secrets before the bus arrives at its destination. On the other hand, when I lived in Sweden, it took me a long time to realize that when people asked me ‘how are you?’ they were not interested in listening to how I really was and to what I was doing, they just wanted to have a superficial and short answer to keep a formal and impersonal conversation. For foreigners in Brazil, the Brazilian way of keep asking personal questions is probably very intrusive, and even impolite. In a working environment, not only is it difficult to avoid having too personal conversation, but it is the thermometer of how integrated people are. Professional and social lives are very much inter-related in Brazil.

Foreigners should be aware of the differences in meaning and importance of time and levels of communication. It does not mean you should accept and agree with them (not all Brazilians agree either). It is however, advisable to understand the social values behind these differences as well as to find constructive ways to react to them. If you find yourself getting too irritated and not being able to function as well as you would like, get professional help such as intercultural training & coaching.

Simone T. Costa Eriksson (www.interculturalplus.com)

MBA, Psychologist & Intercultural Coach. Brazilian, experience of 13 years abroad (USA, Sweden, Poland, and Italy), most of the time, as an expatriate mother with two. Currently, holds seminars and workshops for HR professionals, for expatriate families & children, for international schools and for Brazilian working abroad.