Brazil - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

This book has been such a valuable resource for me. My partner is Brazilian and besides just having an interest in his culture and that of his family, I was looking for a way to better understand "where he comes from" on a variety of issues: personal, political, etc. This book is small, handy, and an easy read. It is divided in a logical way to guide you through the day to day life of Brazilian people, with attention paid to the fact that the country is enormous, and contains numerous sub-cultures that may play by different rules. I have gained an overall understanding of what makes the average Brazilian tick, and picked up some basic geography and Brazilian history as well. My partner has read through some of the book and feels like it's a pretty good, accurate representation of the culture of the country. There are several gems about relationships and why and how they do things that have stuck with me and really helped bridge the gap between our cultures, giving me a greater understanding of something that is such a deep part of someone I love. I highly recommend this book for travelers, those studying the language, or who, like me, have a loved one who is Brazilian.

Exactly what I needed!

As a Brazilian myself, I was eager to check on "Culture Smart - Brazil" in order to see how it's depicted by the author. Despite a somewhat ideologically embiased point of view, especially when it comes to the more recent political changes, the author manages to deliver an acceptably accurate -- though necessarily superficial -- account of brazilians and brazilian lifestyle. A very interesting approach to a guide, to say the least.

This is an excellent informative book about Brazil. I liked this book because I learned some information about Brazil that I did not know about before reading this book. Some of the interesting facts that the author of this book mentions in this book include the following information: In Brazil, a lot of people speak Portuguese and not much else. Generally, very few people in Brazil speak English. Very few people in Brazil also speak Spanish. The musical FM radio stations in Brazil do not generally have DJs who talk over songs. Brazilian cuisine is regionally based and is quite varied. A good choice for many people in Brazil who are in a hurry and on a budget is the comida por quilo (food by the kilo). This is a self-service restaurant with a wide array of different food, where you pay by the quantity. In Brazil, an area with colonial-style buildings can be next to modern buildings, next to other buildings occupied from distant lands. The city of Blumenau, in Santa Catarina, is built in a Bavarian style because its German settlers wanted it built that way.

It has a lot of history about Brazil and a some about the culture. I was looking more about information about exchanging money, getting around and things like that. Informative but not what I was expecting.

Photos were black and white... a little disappointing for an e-book... not like colored pixels on a computer cost more. Very basic book, but gives a good start to learn more.

Have many of these for my work. Great books, and now with the advent of kindle goes with me on business trips