Same here in Colombia and that’s fine as long as it’s not used pejoratively. I don’t mind people making fun of my language skills or our culture if it comes from a place of love and friendship.
I just don’t appreciate the “jokes” about seeking out prostitutes or being a pedophile or some shit like that.
Well these jokes will only be made if you portray yourself this way, just don't go seeking every pretty ass you see on the streets and people will not treat you this way, we are very notorious when it comes to not letting a joke die if we see that it bothers you
I don’t portray like that at all, and that’s particularly why it bothers me. When I say “jokes”, they’re very often not jokes. But they’ll try to play it off that way. I’ve legit had people get in my face about this stuff within 10 seconds after meeting me for the first time and interrogate me about my intentions in this country. Almost always people not from Bogotá.
The last time it happened was at a house party, and this guy started grilling me in front of everyone about the 8 American guys in Medellín that were caught with kids and asking if I approve of that and not so subtly implying that maybe I’m cut from the same cloth. I legit never express interest in any women except to my closest friends because otherwise that attitude will come out. It’s fucked up and xenophobic.
I’ve never reacted before, but this time I snapped and threw out every fucked up and offensive stereotype I know about his region, and he was really upset. I don’t feel good about it, but yeah it’s a sensitive subject, and I have zero interest in going to a place where this kind of vitriol happens as regularly as it does in some parts of Colombia.
You are not wrong in feeling the way you did, but you have to realize that south america and southeast asia are very famous for being target of sexpats or sex tourism.
Im not attacking you by the way, i don't even know you, but from the way your post was written it feels suspicious that you want to visit a country to party up with the locals, i think you can see how from the eyes of the local population what type of intention you may have in their country.
I find it funny he thinks presuming man are coming here to have sex is xenophobic when it’s almost always the case, forgive us for trying to look out for ourselves
Well, in Sao Paulo there are some language groups/parties where Brazilians and foreigners meet to practice languages, but that's not zero English. I am a foreigner here and I have never experienced people who are particularly eager to meet foreigners. I mean, if it happens, Brazilians are friendly to foreigners, but most people here are just busy living there lives, busy with work and study. I have never met any Brazilian with an objective to meet foreigners. I also lived in the countryside for two years, in the state of Minas Gerais. Again, people are friendly, but there was no sense of people wanting to particularly want to meet foreigners.
If you don;t speak Portuguese, what you are looking for might not exist. People can only take so much mixing Spanish with Portuguese. Ans frankly, many people who might want to talk to foreigners might be interested in practicing English.
My experience and observations are the same - Brazil is a very insular country and prefers speaking Portuguese, so nobody is really itching to meet foreigners (IME this normally happens in countries that encourage speaking a foreign language like English and people want the opportunity to practice and communicate with native speakers).
The only people I have met who might want to practice English are people who work in technology, people who are looking to be hired by US companies for remote work.
The OP wants to meet people who want to meet foreigners. He wants zero English, yet he doesn't speak Portuguese. Dees he really think people are eager to have a conversion with those circumstances?
It happened in Colombia. My Spanish was pretty poor when I first got here, and now I’m fluent. It just takes patience, practice, and risk-taking. I’m pretty confident that I’ll get Portuguese pretty fast. Listening will be hard as will the accent, but grammar and vocabulary will be a breeze to get to a broken conversational level within a few weeks.
I guess when I say eager to meet foreigners, I mean more in the sense that they’re inclusive and not so insular. Not like “let’s go find foreigners” but more like in a social setting if people are open to foreigners.
In Colombia I just have to introduce myself and boom, I’m in. I made a lot of my friends here just by going to events or public spaces and existing.
Not the case in Italy, Ecuador, Costa Rica, DR, or Spain. Those are known to be social places, and while the people are most definitely kind and welcoming in a sense, I found them kind of hard to “break in” past a superficial level even with language skills, whereas in Colombia I’ve made a million friends and core group of really close friends within a few weeks.
In those other countries it felt like they have their group from preschool and I’m rather rudely intruding on their night or day out lol.
I would advice you come to Rio de Janeiro, then. I think of all the states in the federation, Rio is the one where people are more open not just to meet foreigners but include them in friends groups.
>it felt like they have their group from preschool and I’m rather rudely intruding on their night or day out
I feel this very much true for many states, specially in the south of Brazil, but also in some states in the northeast. People are very friendly but they tend to have their core group of friends and breaking in can be tough.
Recife receives visitors warmly but it is not easy to break in socially if you don't have a deep local network. The other capitals in the Northeast have felt similar to me, with Salvador being the least like this. If OP already has a friend in Recife then it might work, but in my experience people there have more/deeper family/childhood friend commitments than people in Rio or Sao Paulo.
tldr: Recife is a wonderful city to meet and talk to folks when you are out or at work, but you will rarely be invited to do things with those people at other times because it's a very close knit and insular city.
What do you mean "prefers" speaking Portuguese? it's the local language. I am sure most Brazilians would love to know how to speak english but even "practicing" with an extremely broken english requires a knowledge of the language that people just don't reach with the normal education provided by public schools.
In my experience Colombians are similar to us in culture and looks (at least the ones that studied with me). SP does have some (expensive) areas where expats hang out but despite of the size of the city 90% of the people there speak "zero english", as you described. You will have to learn some portuguese before you go, the average person will have a very hard time understanding you if you speak spanish even if slow.
In general people are friendly and curious towards foreigners but the average joe really doesn't ever see a foreigner, so your experience when interacting with people outside of the rich areas might vary.
The only thing you have to be aware of is that most things are not foreigner-friendly, for example it's a pain in the ass to get a public transit card as a foreigner in SP. If you are really going, make sure you do some research on how to get a CPF (sort of our social number) and have all the appointments needed booked before you go, you might be unable to buy the simplest of the things if you don't have a CPF.
Come to São Paulo. Find a place in Vila Buarque or Santa Cecília and you’re set. Lots of interesting people and places. Very central with public transport to anywhere in the city.
I think you’d really enjoy west side/center SP and center RJ, i.e: Santa Teresa. Lots of young people similar to what you described, many of them speak english and are welcoming to foreigners. In rio you’re more likely to bump into foreigners and people are quite friendly. Im from SP but my friend group from rio is basically composed of expats from a bunch of different countries (mostly latin american tbf) who have created their own little community (albeit being very much integrated and part of the overall community) in the past 10 years they’ve been here.
Id say get yourself an airbnb and spend a week in each city, then settle where you enjoy the most. I love both cities and they have a lot to offer, specially when it comes to the culture and nightlife.
Also, consider Salvador, it’s beautiful city and the people are mad friendly. It might be a bit harder to fit in however, though I have no real sources on why that would be lol, just a feeling.
I'm from SP countryside and love big cities just like OP.
OP, not speaking for everyone but I love and am really interested in meeting foreigners, so I oftenly see myself thinking in going to SP to try that, love the exchange of cultures and be surrounded by different languages, I can definitely understand you 😂
Just taking advantage of you post to know more places in SP to meet "gringos" 😬
btw feel free to message me if you decide coming to SP, so we can meet and make new friends around there 🙌🏻
Just a heads up, your nickname here will be "gringo" no matter the friend group you will be a part of, no one will call you by your name
Same here in Colombia and that’s fine as long as it’s not used pejoratively. I don’t mind people making fun of my language skills or our culture if it comes from a place of love and friendship. I just don’t appreciate the “jokes” about seeking out prostitutes or being a pedophile or some shit like that.
Gringo isn't used as a derogatory word in Brasil, so it won't happen. To brazilians it is just another word for foreigner.
Well these jokes will only be made if you portray yourself this way, just don't go seeking every pretty ass you see on the streets and people will not treat you this way, we are very notorious when it comes to not letting a joke die if we see that it bothers you
I don’t portray like that at all, and that’s particularly why it bothers me. When I say “jokes”, they’re very often not jokes. But they’ll try to play it off that way. I’ve legit had people get in my face about this stuff within 10 seconds after meeting me for the first time and interrogate me about my intentions in this country. Almost always people not from Bogotá. The last time it happened was at a house party, and this guy started grilling me in front of everyone about the 8 American guys in Medellín that were caught with kids and asking if I approve of that and not so subtly implying that maybe I’m cut from the same cloth. I legit never express interest in any women except to my closest friends because otherwise that attitude will come out. It’s fucked up and xenophobic. I’ve never reacted before, but this time I snapped and threw out every fucked up and offensive stereotype I know about his region, and he was really upset. I don’t feel good about it, but yeah it’s a sensitive subject, and I have zero interest in going to a place where this kind of vitriol happens as regularly as it does in some parts of Colombia.
You are not wrong in feeling the way you did, but you have to realize that south america and southeast asia are very famous for being target of sexpats or sex tourism. Im not attacking you by the way, i don't even know you, but from the way your post was written it feels suspicious that you want to visit a country to party up with the locals, i think you can see how from the eyes of the local population what type of intention you may have in their country.
I find it funny he thinks presuming man are coming here to have sex is xenophobic when it’s almost always the case, forgive us for trying to look out for ourselves
Well, in Sao Paulo there are some language groups/parties where Brazilians and foreigners meet to practice languages, but that's not zero English. I am a foreigner here and I have never experienced people who are particularly eager to meet foreigners. I mean, if it happens, Brazilians are friendly to foreigners, but most people here are just busy living there lives, busy with work and study. I have never met any Brazilian with an objective to meet foreigners. I also lived in the countryside for two years, in the state of Minas Gerais. Again, people are friendly, but there was no sense of people wanting to particularly want to meet foreigners. If you don;t speak Portuguese, what you are looking for might not exist. People can only take so much mixing Spanish with Portuguese. Ans frankly, many people who might want to talk to foreigners might be interested in practicing English.
My experience and observations are the same - Brazil is a very insular country and prefers speaking Portuguese, so nobody is really itching to meet foreigners (IME this normally happens in countries that encourage speaking a foreign language like English and people want the opportunity to practice and communicate with native speakers).
The only people I have met who might want to practice English are people who work in technology, people who are looking to be hired by US companies for remote work. The OP wants to meet people who want to meet foreigners. He wants zero English, yet he doesn't speak Portuguese. Dees he really think people are eager to have a conversion with those circumstances?
It happened in Colombia. My Spanish was pretty poor when I first got here, and now I’m fluent. It just takes patience, practice, and risk-taking. I’m pretty confident that I’ll get Portuguese pretty fast. Listening will be hard as will the accent, but grammar and vocabulary will be a breeze to get to a broken conversational level within a few weeks. I guess when I say eager to meet foreigners, I mean more in the sense that they’re inclusive and not so insular. Not like “let’s go find foreigners” but more like in a social setting if people are open to foreigners. In Colombia I just have to introduce myself and boom, I’m in. I made a lot of my friends here just by going to events or public spaces and existing. Not the case in Italy, Ecuador, Costa Rica, DR, or Spain. Those are known to be social places, and while the people are most definitely kind and welcoming in a sense, I found them kind of hard to “break in” past a superficial level even with language skills, whereas in Colombia I’ve made a million friends and core group of really close friends within a few weeks. In those other countries it felt like they have their group from preschool and I’m rather rudely intruding on their night or day out lol.
I would advice you come to Rio de Janeiro, then. I think of all the states in the federation, Rio is the one where people are more open not just to meet foreigners but include them in friends groups. >it felt like they have their group from preschool and I’m rather rudely intruding on their night or day out I feel this very much true for many states, specially in the south of Brazil, but also in some states in the northeast. People are very friendly but they tend to have their core group of friends and breaking in can be tough.
Yep, Rio is warmer than SP. I'm not familiar with the northeast, but OP should look into some of those state capitals, like Recife.
Recife receives visitors warmly but it is not easy to break in socially if you don't have a deep local network. The other capitals in the Northeast have felt similar to me, with Salvador being the least like this. If OP already has a friend in Recife then it might work, but in my experience people there have more/deeper family/childhood friend commitments than people in Rio or Sao Paulo. tldr: Recife is a wonderful city to meet and talk to folks when you are out or at work, but you will rarely be invited to do things with those people at other times because it's a very close knit and insular city.
What do you mean "prefers" speaking Portuguese? it's the local language. I am sure most Brazilians would love to know how to speak english but even "practicing" with an extremely broken english requires a knowledge of the language that people just don't reach with the normal education provided by public schools.
In my experience Colombians are similar to us in culture and looks (at least the ones that studied with me). SP does have some (expensive) areas where expats hang out but despite of the size of the city 90% of the people there speak "zero english", as you described. You will have to learn some portuguese before you go, the average person will have a very hard time understanding you if you speak spanish even if slow. In general people are friendly and curious towards foreigners but the average joe really doesn't ever see a foreigner, so your experience when interacting with people outside of the rich areas might vary. The only thing you have to be aware of is that most things are not foreigner-friendly, for example it's a pain in the ass to get a public transit card as a foreigner in SP. If you are really going, make sure you do some research on how to get a CPF (sort of our social number) and have all the appointments needed booked before you go, you might be unable to buy the simplest of the things if you don't have a CPF.
Come to São Paulo. Find a place in Vila Buarque or Santa Cecília and you’re set. Lots of interesting people and places. Very central with public transport to anywhere in the city.
I think you’d really enjoy west side/center SP and center RJ, i.e: Santa Teresa. Lots of young people similar to what you described, many of them speak english and are welcoming to foreigners. In rio you’re more likely to bump into foreigners and people are quite friendly. Im from SP but my friend group from rio is basically composed of expats from a bunch of different countries (mostly latin american tbf) who have created their own little community (albeit being very much integrated and part of the overall community) in the past 10 years they’ve been here. Id say get yourself an airbnb and spend a week in each city, then settle where you enjoy the most. I love both cities and they have a lot to offer, specially when it comes to the culture and nightlife. Also, consider Salvador, it’s beautiful city and the people are mad friendly. It might be a bit harder to fit in however, though I have no real sources on why that would be lol, just a feeling.
I think that major public unis are full of people who want to connect with foreigners.
I'm from SP countryside and love big cities just like OP. OP, not speaking for everyone but I love and am really interested in meeting foreigners, so I oftenly see myself thinking in going to SP to try that, love the exchange of cultures and be surrounded by different languages, I can definitely understand you 😂 Just taking advantage of you post to know more places in SP to meet "gringos" 😬 btw feel free to message me if you decide coming to SP, so we can meet and make new friends around there 🙌🏻
How's your Portuguese? Because when I visited Brasil even airport staff didn't speak English well. Portuguese is a must.
Rio de Janeiro - where even the monkeys are down for a good chat!
Buenos Aires
Go to Equador or Buenos Aires while your visa is processed again, simple