Brazilian culture differs from the American one in many different aspects. While some may argue that different cultures should remain separate for their own sake and survival, there is some room to think that mixing cultures together may be something interesting, to say the least. It is reasonable to hypothesize that picking the best of the cultures we can create a composite of attitudes, values, goals and practices that would certainly function better than any one of the cultures isolatedly.
Americans are well known as very determined people that act usually in a preprogramed manner in order to reach their goals. Not much emotional in their relations, American people seem very direct, organized and straightforward and being so, targets are attained more easily. Time is money: Wall Street’s culture has been incorporated in the American way of life and everything happens around the clock. Being late is unacceptable for most Americans. There is a sense that wasting someone’s time truly means stealing money or preventing someone of getting it. On the other hand, Americans are sometimes seen as cold and arrogant with a complete lack of emotions when dealing with something unexpected. Even the family relations are a bit dry. Children often leave their parents house at early ages and do not feel like taking care of them later when age comes with morbidity and dependency.
Attitudes, behaviors and social practices significantly different are observed among Brazilians. Brazilian people with all their loud Latin soul are known for their sometimes unreasonable happiness. Very emotional, Brazilian people bring warmth and passion to their relations with others and this spicy attitude can change other people. Brazilian joy is almost contagious when it comes to appreciation of food, dance and music…and soccer, let’s not forget that too. On the other hand, Brazilian people are not very sharp in terms of time and punctuality. People in Brazil do not worry much about being late and in many situations being late might even mean ‘chic’. This obviously is not well appreciated in other cultures and Brazil is often shown and represented as a land somewhat irresponsible where people tend not follow rules, laws and dealings.
A Brazilian-American cultural wedding would be an opportunity to bring the best of those cultures. Although not easily achievable and probably risking an ugly fight, mixing the Brazilian and American cultures would benefit both peoples. A bit of the Brazilian ‘ginga’ would help Americans to act spontaneously, encourage them to show emotions and live more like regular human beings. The American respect for the others and for the law would cause a significant revolution in the land of samba. The happiest country in the world would also eventually be a place of true democracy, opportunity, respect and justice. While the wedding does not happen, let´s hope we can also change with time and tries.
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