Foreigners in Brazil face many challenges in order to adapt themselves to the Brazilian way of being and of working. Here goes part of an interview with Fabiano Deffenti, a Brazilian lawyer that has a lot of experience in working with foreigners in our country.
Where are you from in Brazil and what do you do?
I am from Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul.
I am a lawyer admitted in New York, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil and I specialise in advising foreign clients doing business in Brazil.
What are the main obstacles for foreigners in Brazil?
Firstly, learning to cope with the general lack of common sense that most Brazilian service providers have (particularly the low-skilled ones). Service providers (tradesmen especially) in Brazil do not undertake the same training as in developed countries, so the vast majority of them are unreliable and provide a poor quality services.
Learning to suss out who is likely to be trustworthy and who is not (and in what context) is also a problem. In Brazil, you can tell a lot about a person by the way they speak Portuguese, and some words are key (for example: to say "peguemos" instead of "pegamos"). This is difficult for the foreigner who cannot understand the subtleties in the language.
Finally, I think that the bureaucracy, and the legal and taxation systems drive everyone crazy - yet that is not really something that only affects foreigners!
What are common mistakes that foreigners make in Brazil?
The most common is to assume that things can be done the same way as in their home country. Brazil has a very complex society, with problems peculiar to it.
Trusting the wrong people is unfortunately also a frequent occurrence. Due to cultural values, lenient criminal penalties and an overall lack of law enforcement, foreigners get ripped off all the time. It is essential that you do your due diligence before you get into any sort of relationship of trust (particularly with business arrangements).
What characteristic of other nationalities strikes you as the most different (eg. sense of humour, formality, dress)?
This is a difficult question and it is always dangerous to generalise these things. I have travelled to many countries around the world and lived 10 years of my life in Australia - one of the world‘s most multicultural nations - so I am quite used to dealing with different cultures.
Australians, New Zealanders and the British sometimes get stung when they use sarcasm in everything they say. Germans seem to find it difficult to deal with the everyday use of the "jeitinho brasileiro". Koreans, Chinese and the Japanese seem to have the most difficulty with the language.
To read the whole interview, click here.
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