by Lilianne Dias Souza
Culture represents the knowledge, beliefs, values and traditions shared by a group of people. It consists in experiences, ideas and costumes passed along generations. It’s every manifestation of people as a group: food, language, painting and sculpture.
Every country has stereotypes about what their culture looks like - general beliefs that foreigners assume to be truthful. Often, these general beliefs are taken as the only truth. This is how stereotypes are created. They take shape as a product of a single vision regarding a nation, a matter or a group of people. A single point of view about a culture is not necessarily untrue but is surely incomplete.
Lots of foreigners believe that Brazil, frequently because of the exuberance of its landscapes and its women, for instance, is the country of soccer, Samba and “caipirinha”; of amazing breathtaking beaches in Rio de Janeiro, extroverted people and cheerful Carnival celebrations. They are, indeed. But assuming that all Brazilians know how to play soccer, that all of them know how to dance samba and that all of them are extroverted contributes to the perpetuation of a stereotype. Every individual has their own particularities.
Stereotypes can be harmful. The general perception about Brazilian women is that they are “easy” to get sexually involved with since they tend to use less clothes - well, Brazil is a tropical country - how could they not? Stereotypes also keep us from uncovering interesting facts: contrary to ordinary belief, Brazilians don’t speak Spanish. Portuguese is spoken by them (and it is a unique, stunning and wonderful language to learn). It has a lot of amazing expressions and slangs that vary according to the speakers’ place of origin.
After reflecting about how other countries see Brazil, I realized that my vision about other countries might be incomplete as well. I didn’t know that the Korean alphabet had 24 letters, for example. Discussing language with foreigners made me discover new curious facts.
And, since behind a language there are their people, I realized that there’s more to know about them than meets the eye. I am even more sure that Brazil is not only soccer, Carnival and Rio de Janeiro. Every citizen of every part of Brazil holds a piece of the country within them.
Culture represents the knowledge, beliefs, values and traditions shared by a group of people. It consists in experiences, ideas and costumes passed along generations. It’s every manifestation of people as a group: food, language, painting and sculpture.
Every country has stereotypes about what their culture looks like - general beliefs that foreigners assume to be truthful. Often, these general beliefs are taken as the only truth. This is how stereotypes are created. They take shape as a product of a single vision regarding a nation, a matter or a group of people. A single point of view about a culture is not necessarily untrue but is surely incomplete.
Lots of foreigners believe that Brazil, frequently because of the exuberance of its landscapes and its women, for instance, is the country of soccer, Samba and “caipirinha”; of amazing breathtaking beaches in Rio de Janeiro, extroverted people and cheerful Carnival celebrations. They are, indeed. But assuming that all Brazilians know how to play soccer, that all of them know how to dance samba and that all of them are extroverted contributes to the perpetuation of a stereotype. Every individual has their own particularities.
Stereotypes can be harmful. The general perception about Brazilian women is that they are “easy” to get sexually involved with since they tend to use less clothes - well, Brazil is a tropical country - how could they not? Stereotypes also keep us from uncovering interesting facts: contrary to ordinary belief, Brazilians don’t speak Spanish. Portuguese is spoken by them (and it is a unique, stunning and wonderful language to learn). It has a lot of amazing expressions and slangs that vary according to the speakers’ place of origin.
After reflecting about how other countries see Brazil, I realized that my vision about other countries might be incomplete as well. I didn’t know that the Korean alphabet had 24 letters, for example. Discussing language with foreigners made me discover new curious facts.
And, since behind a language there are their people, I realized that there’s more to know about them than meets the eye. I am even more sure that Brazil is not only soccer, Carnival and Rio de Janeiro. Every citizen of every part of Brazil holds a piece of the country within them.