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@Pablo888 It depends on where he is going to. If my memory serves me right, you live either in Sao Paulo / Rio or in a suburb near there. If that is correct my list may not be what you need. I live in a very small village in the Northeast. Life is very, very different here. IE.

1. It is extremely common for adults to ride a motorcycle with children of ANY age either in the front near the handlebars or holding onto the back.  If they are of school age, they may be wearing a backpack or even holding groceries.
2. Brazilians in my village have seen it all and do not pay any attention to...Bulls, Chickens, Horses, Cows etc. crossing the street etc.
3. Trash is often burned on the street or in their yard.
4. This may also happen in larger cities, but the thing that bothers me the most is the Grocery Store aka Supermercados Stockers. In the USA I am very used to having them stock the shelves after hours. Where I live, they are very aggressive in doing it during normal shopping hours and in the path of shoppers.

I have mobility issues, so I have deep memories of Sao Paulo airport

1. My wife always requests a wheelchair, which completely cuts down on navigating the airport myself.
2. Congratulations to SP Airport. Do not be fooled by the bilingual staff. Once you leave especially in my area NO ONE speaks English. NO ONE looks at me and says you are American. Except for my wife I am the only one in the entire village and the nearby city that speaks English. I have been coming to Brazil since I was 10 and I have found that body language works wonders. i.e.. you do not need proper grammar to let someone know you need the bathroom etc.
3. I also learned a long, long time ago to Know Your Money. I think very highly of the Brazilian people, but it is very, very important to know your denominations etc. so that no one overcharges you or outright takes your money.

Don't be fooled by American Brand Names in the food court. McDonalds only serves Ice Cream at their stop. The larger one in the foodcourt only serves it as Burger, Fries Drinks. You cannot buy it individually. Subway does NOT have my favorite meatball sandwich. They are ALL franchisees.

Roddie in Retirement🕵

P.S. There are a boatload of Walking Around videos including Sao Paolo airport and downtown that show you a variety of places before you get there. In fact, "Walking around Sao Paulo, Brazil Airport (Guarulhos) aka I don't understand their language" is my favorite.

02/12/25 @Pablo888  Harsh white light indoors.  Everywhere.

North Americans are habituated to "Soft White" light indoors, with a color temperature around 3000K, if you want to get technical.  It's warm, high in yellows, low in blues, and is reminiscent of incandescents, which in turn were reminiscent of candle and kerosene flames, a similarity that Edison and his competitors found helped speed the early transition to electric light.  We had a brief, unsatisfying dalliance with compact fluorescents late in the 20th Century for the sake of economy, but we never abandoned our first love, and manufacturers of LEDs were, after a few false starts, happy to meet the demand with products that emitted a yellower light.

Brazilians, with less traditional cultural lighting baggage, prefer what they just call "luz branca" and North American marketeers call "Daylight".  It's low in yellows, high in blues and has a color temperature around 6500K -- a lot cooler.  I think it makes everybody under it look a little like the Walking Dead; my husband, on the other hand, likes "luz branca" and thinks that Soft White, what they call "luz quente" here, makes a hot environment seem even hotter.

Not so sure how we got to white vs yellow artificial lighting, 300K vs 6500K light colors/intensities but this is not just a pet peeve of mine but an environmental crisis with plenty of recent studies to back that claim up.

AND (just because somebody is going to say lighting is necessary for security) there are also plenty of studies that demonstrate that more light does not equate to more security (appropriate lighting might).

There is a Dark Sky USA organization as well as a Brazilian one. The Brazilian one is quickly picking up speed and focuses on astro-tourism and marine turtle nesting - but is expanding. I'm a guy that likes seeing the Milky Way and appreciate (and understand) the need for nocturnal animals and many specialized plants for the darkness found on the planet since the origins of time. These aren't the only reasons for stopping light pollution.

Translated title: "Before the Fireflies Disappear or Influence of Artificial Lighting on the Environment," by  Alessandro Barghini, 2010 is excessively detailed about artificial lighting problems. The book is in Portuguese. An English book by Oliver Milman also delves into artificial night lighting, "The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World," 2022. The book "A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds," 2022, by Scott Weidensaul cavers the impact on nocturnal bird migrations of artificial lighting.

There are also plenty of online references for the curious.

mberigan

02/12/25 Not so sure how we got to white vs yellow artificial lighting, - @mberigan

From @Pablo888's question ... and the title of the thread.  😂

Those bare white bulbs in the ceiling drove me crazy at first, but I now am only mildly irritated by them. I have them only in the kitchen and bathroom.

6500k (cold white) should be used in bathrooms and kitchens, and 3000k (warm white) used in all other areas. That is the industry standard... The brightness ( measured in W - watts) is your choice.

Specific hand signs that are commonly used in other countries - the OK sign - not to be used in Brazil.
- @Pablo888

I stand to be corrected, but I think it is in the inverse OK sign that is offensive in Brazil. Forefinger and thumb forming a circle then spun thru 180 degrees...

@Pablo888

"Anything else?"

"Skydivers," (paraquedistas) who finagle their way to better positions in lines.

While this is still alive and well in normal street traffic encounters (drivers who squeeze past everyone else to gain whatever position that they can), the most shocking experience I faced were experienced up through the middle 2010s in supermarkets where a person in the back of the line of a supermarket checkout would "ask" somebody in front of them if they would grant them passage. More often, it would be acquaintances (neighbor, coworker), distant family members, miscellaneous family members "riding" through a priority line with a pregnant or elder relative and actually even PAYING (small bribe) a well-placed client for access to the line.

Decades ago, waiting in lines to get into movie theaters in São Paulo, somebody would test their prowess at jumping the line and the remainder of the line would start chanting, "para-que-dis-ta, para-que-dis-ta, para-que-dis-ta..."

It was so "normal" that few complained. sure, looking for advantages for better positioning (social, economic or whatever) is a thing that has always happened but never as blatant as in grocery store checkout lines.

Thank you for the talk on hand signs. It caused me to buy the book, "História dos nossos gestos," by Luís da Câmara Cascudo.....

mberigan

"Skydivers," (paraquedistas) who finagle their way to better positions in lines. - @mberigan

1.   Good point.  How do you distinguish those from legitimate "idosos"?  I was actually impressed by this courtesy.  And this can apply to restaurants etc...
2. Some legal differences - liability issues... I believe that @peter_itamaraca mentioned that Brazil is not as litigious as in North America.  I remember the case where there is a sharp tile in the pool and in North America, if someone is injured, the owner can be sued.  In Brazil, you can only be sued if there is proof of negligence.  @peter_itamaraca, what is the Brazilian law on the books?
3. How about Brazilians always being late - operate a hora brasileira vs a hora inglesa?
4. How about not saying a definite "Yes" or "No" but to be kinda non-committal by saying "Eu acho que ..."?

Are those accurate?

02/13/25 How about Brazilians always being late - operate a hora brasileira vs a hora inglesa?
How about not saying a definite "Yes" or "No" but to be kinda non-committal by saying "Eu acho que ..."?

Are those accurate? - @Pablo888

Yes and no on the first.  In my experience it's often true but not nearly as extreme as I've experienced in Spanish-speaking countries, usually not more than about a half hour over.  Making dinner plans with a group, some will arrive around the planned time and some during the appetizers, but almost none will show up as late as dessert or when you're leaving.  People are generally on time for events that operate on a fixed schedule, like plays and planes.  Still, whenever I think that we may be pressed for time, I'll always ask, "hora americana, ou hora brasileira?" to seal the deal and levelset expectations.

Second one seems about right:  many Brazilians are uncomfortable about saying "no", and understanding that in others, don't take offense.

A third related one:  when Brazilians say, "Oh, we need to get together someday soon/while you're in town!", that's much more likely an expression of how nice it would be sometime in the indeterminate future than of a desire to schedule a get-together.  Nothing will probably come of it, unless it's repeated later.

@Pablo888

Nowhere in the world is as litigious as the USA!

Everywhere else accidents, without fault, have been known to occur...