Culture Shock
Or how I felt on my Gap-year in Brazil

Jen Griffiths, Kent, UK

When I arrived in Brazil, I just remember thinking on the airport bus, culture shock is never going to hit me, almost like some infectious disease I was completely immune to. I saw my trip simply as an extended holiday, initially meant to be a year but turning into seven months. Little did I know that it would be a complete eye-opening, life changing experience for me. This label doesn't really do this experience justice, but it is only after reaching the five month hurdle, that I can finally see much more clearly through the screen that not long ago used to be blurred. It is experiencing culture shock, I think, that has enabled me to do the things I am doing at the moment and to the standard I am so happy with.

The first two months were really difficult for me, exhausting, trying to get to grips with a completely different and diverse culture, followed by frustration and then feeling idle, thinking that I was doing nothing. I think that going from my initial obsession with learning the language in the first month, to learning absolutely nothing and then feeling wretched about it, helped me to find the happy medium I needed to learn the language successfully. After talking to some English people living here, I realised that learning the language was not just sitting down and learning the words etc, but learning this alien way of life, the way these people think and finally accepting that Brazilians are so profoundly different in the eyes of an English person (most that I know are, anyway).

I had never been a believer in cultural stereotypes before but for 99% of the Brazilians I've met here, the mould certainly fits. Their enthusiasm is unmatchable. I first noticed this on the plane to Brazil: these Brazilians started to clap and cheer when the plane touched down, it was infectious and I started to smile and clap with them. The same feeling surrounds me at the moment, as I'm writing this in the school I'm teaching in, before I set off to travel to the north of Brazil next week.

But before this moment, there were a succession of good weeks and bad weeks, missing family and friends, and just simply the English way of life, the food, newspapers, everything really. What surprised me the most about being here was the Brazilians' attitude to new people: they are eager to meet everyone, they are interested in foreigners and make it their mission to make sure not a week goes by without the gathering of the whole extended family waiting in a line to meet you.
I had only known some people for a week or so, before they discovered we were going to be alone for Christmas, they couldn't believe it, being from a huge Brazilian family, so we were soon inundated with about four offers to spend Christmas with each family; this was incredibly warm and nice to be around during the Christmas period.

The Brazilian people's 'bad points', which include unpunctuality and intrusiveness, are also positive when I think about how it has affected my trip. These traits can sometimes be irritating, but teamed with their ridiculously friendly natures and the wide smile it's pretty impossible to not get along with the ones I know. It is the intrusion they have made into my life, which has forced me to talk openly about how I am feeling and then how to fix the problem and to gradually overcome it - talking is definitely the best cure, and time. I met a Brazilian hairdresser in the street while I was posting up leaflets for lessons. He's always late, never keeps to his plans and is vague about everything, but when you're with him, he puts all his energy into making sure you have a good time; they'd rather do it well or not at all.

So after Christmas, I began to speak to many people wherever I went, I began teaching in the new term and started saying 'yes' to many more things than before including singing with a Brazilian rock band in front of about 150 people, something I really enjoyed and never thought I'd do, like teaching and speaking a new language, it was completely out of my comfort zone, but one of the best things I've ever done.

Part of the culture shock was feeling like I couldn't connect with anybody or anything, at first trying really hard, too hard and then slipping into a subconscious rebellion of solitude. A brief stint teaching before Christmas really helped my confidence in Brazil, connecting with people, building up some kind of routine and doing something which was not really exhilarating at first but rewarding and worthwhile. It also helped a lot talking to my sister who spent a year in Rome last year who later sent me some information on culture shock, which finally made me see that I was experiencing it and that I wasn't embracing this new life enough to overcome it. Yes, I felt inadequate, incapable of doing anything, on-and-off bouts of anger and sadness and inability to connect with my surroundings.

So I've now bought you up to the present day, I'm sitting in the school listening to Brazilian pop music which I've come to like, waiting for my next lesson, I've just eaten a lunch of chicken, feijoa beans and rice with a Brazilian family (my boss and her children, speaking in Portuguese), my language learning is steady and most importantly, I feel that I'm doing well.