S01 - E14 - Cultural differences between the USA and Brazil and American idioms - Linna

In today's episode I'm joined once again by my lovely student Linna. She shares a few stories about life in Brazil and how it compares to her new life in the USA. We also discuss some key American idioms to help you speak like a real American. 

S01 - E14 - Cultural differences between the USA and Brazil and American idioms - Linna

Full intermediate level ESL podcast transcript

Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/lovetolearnenglish)

Rich: Hey Linna, how are you? 

Linna: Hi Richard. I'm doing great. Thanks for asking you. How about you? 

Rich: I'm doing great too. So welcome back, this is your second episode on the podcast, and it's so great to have you as such a wonderful guest here again. So, today we're going to be talking about something a bit different, right? 

Linna: Mhmm...

Rich: So today we'll be talking about your life in Brazil, what Brazil is like, and also we'll be talking a bit about your life now in the U.S and how the two compare. So we'll start with Brazil, right? 

Linna: Okay yeah. 

Rich: That's at the beginning. That's a good place to start.

Linna: It is. 

Rich: So, describe Brazil. So first of all, where are you from in Brazil? Um, and what's it like there? 

Linna: So I am from the very North of Brazil. I was born in Belém, the capital of Para, which is in the heart of the Amazon forest,  the Amazon rainforest. A very, very nice place to go. Excellent food. Um, it's so different, even from the rest of the country, from the rest of Brazil. It's, you know - it's a must. You need to go there because you can...you are like in the middle of a huge house 2.12 ???, uh, probably two million in the city and the area… Belém area, and then you're close by to the rivers, the forest is....you know....it's in the same city. You can see and you can feel it...it all. So, I miss it. I miss it a lot because my family's there. It's out there and I have such wonderful friends as well, and the way that relationships are viewed there, they're so strong, like we are very warm and close to each other. So this is my place, this is Belém. 

Pictured: Belém

Rich: Yeah, so they just say that about Brazil, right? Brazilians have a reputation of being very warm and friendly. Is this stereotype true? 

Vocab: stereotype - noun - a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.

Linna: It is. I will tell you, it is, of course, Brazil is a huge country, so it has many realities in it. So I used to live in San Paulo for a couple of years, and it's also good, but it's different. So it's not a huge city, and people are not...not many people are visiting from anywhere else, and so it's different, but we are in general, Brazilians are very warm and friendly. Yeah, it's true. 

Rich: You mentioned earlier that where you're from is a great place for food.

Linna: Mhmmm.. 

Rich: So I'm very interested. What's a typical dish from…?

Linna: Well...are you ready to listen to those words that you haven't heard before. 

Rich: Okay. If we're going to do some Portuguese now, maybe 

Linna: Yeah..not even Portuguese because it's like native Brazilians??? 4.15. 

Rich: Okay. Even better. So yeah, so what type of…? What do you eat there?

Linna: So, the main dish there for us is called money Saba???.

Rich: money Saba???, okay. 

Linna: money Saba??? it's delicious too. Um, similar to feijoada, feijoada is made with pork chops and black beans, right?

Rich: Yeah..

Linna: And many Saba???4.44 is made with pork, pork chops as well. And, um, the leaf of ???4.51. 

Rich: Right. Okay. And money??? is a...it's like a corn type thing, right? 

Linna: It's...Yeah. Here they call a Yuca as well. 

Rich: Okay. 

Linna: So it needs to be cooked. This leaf needs to be cooked for at least seven days, otherwise, it's poisonous.

Rich: Mhmmm

Linna: Very popular amongst us. Can you imagine how many Indians have died to find out that it needs to be cooked for seven days? 

Rich: God bless every one of them. 

Linna: Oh definitely God bless their souls because it's really worth it. It's always full of taste and you usually eat it with a white rice…

Rich: Yeah… 

Linna: and a flower. Manyika flower if you would like to. There's also something called ???5.49, which is like you squeeze the leaves and it comes like a yellow liquid, which is, wow, my God, it's full of flavor. It's tasty, and we usually eat it with any other kind of meat that you rather to eat, ???? 6.11 but it is so much popular among us, but of course, those kinds of foods for special occasions because they are so hard to be made. 

Rich: Just one quick correction. Instead of that you'd rather to eat. It would be that you'd rather eat. So it's rather, and then a noun. So rather something. 

Linna: Okay. Good to learn. Thank you. 

Rich: Okay, so I'd like to talk quickly then about the current situation in Brazil. So what's happening in Brazil at the moment? Do you have any idea? Do you still follow the news? What's your impression? It's quite a big topic. I don't know. 

Linna: It is. We have to like kind of two hours to talk about it. 

Rich: Yeah..maybe we can do this in more detail another time.

Linna: Yeah, like in a general sense, the whole Latin America is facing a special moment, a challenging moment in our political side and economical as well. So Brazil is trying to recover after so many years of you know, a different party and we are, we have our own challenging challenges related to corruption, economical crisis. We have many people that lost their jobs and the situation's not good in general, and something else added there, which is the high level of violence that thankfully, thankfully it's kind of improving. We hope, actually we hope that, so let's see, maybe in a couple of months, a couple of years, we will have a concrete result of that. 

Rich: So I have two more questions on this topic for you. And the first one is how is Brazil similar to the U.S? Do you see any similarity? 

Linna: Yes, I do. 

Rich: I'd like to hear. 

Linna: So similarities, Brazil, like the U.S, it's a huge country with many different realities inside of it. And we have such a great market. So many consumers and it said ??? 8.48, I'd say still even there we are...we had so many challenges, but I think it's a good place to have investments as the U.S. I think people are hard-working people. And what else? I would say...it's like any other similarities? We have like a historic similarity because we were kind of colonized like a second home for many Europeans and we had to develop ourselves after war. And I think that the U.S got it more seriously...

Rich: Mhmm

Linna: ...reason why they're better than us nowadays. As a society, as an economy, you know, as a leader in the world. 

Rich: How then is Brazil different to the U.S?

Linna: Well, we are Latinos. 

Rich: Okay…

Linna: Well, it means a lot. Uh, our relationships are different. And, um, for the records, I'm not saying we are better, or the U.S is better. 

Rich: Oh, you’re definitely better...

Linna: It's just different, you know? So I think they act more in good faith in general..

Rich: Right..

Linna: So they tend to trust each other as a rule. 

Rich: In the U.S?

Linna: In the U.S yes. In the U.S you know, for business, for relations in general, which I think it's a good point for them. And instead, like in Brazil, we're always, you know, maybe it's because there are so many hard things to deal and people are trying to survive, so they don't, it's just the way it is. So sometimes people try to get an advantage from the others so you don't trust them anymore, you know? And it becomes a culture. It's sad, but it's true. And another difference is...relationships is the main one. Yeah. There are plenty of them. But I would spend an hour talking about them. 

Rich: Okay, well we'll leave it here if it's a day, but we can always come back to this fascinating topic in another episode. So just to finish today, I would like to finish with three quick idioms that are great to use in the U.S. The first of which is to shoot the breeze. So, any ideas Linna, what it means to shoot the breeze? It seems quite strange, right? Getting a gun shooting.

Linna: It seems quite strange yes. But you know it’s just having a chat. 

Rich: Just having a chat.

Linna: Yeah, informal conversation I would say. 

Rich: Yeah. So today we've just been shooting the breeze. Hopefully we can shoot the breeze another time and talk more about this topic cause I can see you've got lots more to say about it. So the next one I want to discuss very quickly is a John Hancock, and this is a great one to know if you're in business in the USA. Do you write to your John Hancock often Linna? 

Linna: You know let me tell you, this is new for me. It is completely new. 

Rich: This is new...Okay. 

Linna: Could you please explain (to) me about the John Hancock? 

Rich: So it shows, so a John Hancock is a signature. So if you get a delivery of something, let's imagine someone might ask, can I get your John Hancock here? Cause it means your signature. But John Hancock is a, like a generic name, a general name, a random name, but it's used here to mean your signature. I'm sure there's a history behind why this name is the name it is, but it just means your signature. So your, the way that they just want you to sign a contract for a document. 

Linna: Good to know…it’s gonna be useful. 

Rich: John Hancock. The final one is good. Particularly if you have kids or teenagers because they like to play this game all the time. So this is...this is to ride shotgun, any ideas Linna?

Linna: You know…

Rich: Again, it's a strange image. Right, right, right. 

Linna: Completely something new for me. 

Rich: Alright, so let me explain. So to ride shotgun means to ride or to sit in the passenger seats of a car. So normally there's a competition with teenagers or kids, but um, over who gets to sit in the front of the car because everyone wants to sit in the front cause there's more room. So they play a game and they say shotgun and whoever says shotgun first gets to ride shotgun and sit in the front of the car.

Linna: Oh…

Rich: So that's riding shotgun. So if you ever want a bit more legroom and you're traveling for a long period and you want that front seat and you're in the U.S you just have to shout shotgun and then you get to ride chuck. 

Linna: Got it. 

Rich: Perfect. So I think that's everything for today, Linna. But thank you so much again for being such a wonderful guest and I hope to see you in another episode soon.

Linna: Thank you too, Richard. Take care. 

If you notice any errors or would like me to add something to the transcription please email me at info@lovetolearnenglish.com