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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

honesty: brazilian style

This morning in portuguese class

Teacher: Good morning Jana, are you pregnant?
Me: Huh?
Teacher: Yes are you with child... ? Oh i guess maybe not now, a lot going on in your life eh?
Inner Dialogue: is she serious right now?
Teacher: Did you eat a lot this weekend? Like feijoada or lots of churrascaria?
Me: Ummm no, lots of salads actually? (seriously, I went to the market this weekend and ate the healthiest all month)
Teacher: Well my you sure look, shall I say in english Chubby?! (no smile on her face either)
Inner Dialogue: Blunt force trauma
Me: Here is my homework for lesson 4.

Gotta love brazilian honesty. Im off to the gym for the next 87 hours




8 comments:

American Heart Brazilian Soul said...

Dear Jana,

This sounds rude to say the least, that sounds so Italian, do you know if she has an Italian last name?
Hey, I am half Italian, so I can bash them/us.
New Englanders are brutaly honest too, usually the Italians are pretty much like that.
Oh, geez, you make me realized how Americanized we have become over the years... :(
Hey, play her game, next time, comment on her wrinkles or if she is too skinny or chubby or if her roots are starting to show...let her try some of her own poison :)


Ray

American Heart Brazilian Soul said...

Fiona,

It is true, I swear, they/we are just rude by nature, we can't help it... :)
I can judge by my family, friends and neighbors, we were all like that, principally the chubby thing, we love to pick on each other for being chubby...
I remember as a teenager, my aunts telling me I looked like a freeking DUCK because I was so chubby at one point :(
Or they will say, YOU ARE GOING FOR SECONDS? GEEZ, NO WONDER YOU ARE SO FAT!!! And they laugh right on your face...
I would say Italians are the opposite of the NICE Canadians, on the other extreme :)


Ray

Jana said...

Ahh Ill have to find out if she has Italian roots... but shes 65! So Italian roots or not she should know her manners by now =) Im going to learn the word old and wrinkled for next class!

Jana said...

Danielle - I take them at CEL-LEP which happens to be in our neighborhood and is wonderful, I would recommend if you move to SP in the future but you don't appear to need them =)

Unknown said...

Hahah Oh Brazilian honesty is a thing I know all about...
It goes both ways (in the rude, or seemingly 'polite' way too)...

It's just all about commenting on how you look. Good or bad. My SIL said to me a while ago "Hey it looks like your barriga is getting smaller (which means belly) ... And I said to her so you're saying that my barrigao (big belly) is not a barrigao anymore? Thanks?

Anonymous said...

On the day of my wedding in Buzios, Brazil, I sat in the car outside the church waiting for the chaos to cease (another story) and my Brazilian mother-in-law's friend, who drove me to the church, actually said to me:
"Your face is different than last time I saw you. Less round."
And she made a big circle with her hand around her head. And then she looked at me and said:
"Americans wear a lot of make-up."

Jana said...

@bornagainbrazilian..HAHA wow!!!! If you survived that on your wedding day of all times then you can get through anything my dear =)

Anonymous said...

I've been surprised by how candid people are with one another in Rio about weight. I've never told my best friend of 15 years she looked 'chubby' nor did she say it to me (even when I was creeping up to 200 lbs years ago and absolutely was) - the "chubby person" knows if they are overweight or are gaining weight -- it's not necessary, kind or constructive to call someone gordhinha -- regardless of your relationship, but worse a professional? Que fata de educacao! But funny. @bornagainbrazilian - WHOA! lol

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