Brazil Culture & Language

Brazilian culture is substantially African in origin, and openly so. Candomblé and umbanda are practised religions; capoeira is a martial art developed by enslaved people; and samba, and the Rio carnival built around it, come from Afro-Brazilian communities in the city.

The musical range is unusual for one country — samba, bossa nova, forró from the north-east, MPB, funk carioca — and each is regional in origin rather than national.

Food follows the same geography: feijoada nationally, moqueca and heavy African influence in Bahia, churrasco in the cattle south, and Amazonian ingredients in the north that appear almost nowhere else.

Football is genuinely central rather than stereotypically so, and club allegiance is a serious matter of local identity.

Portuguese is the language, and Brazilian Portuguese differs from the European variety in accent, vocabulary and grammar — more open vowels make it easier to follow for learners.

Spanish is not widely spoken and assuming it is lands badly; the two are mutually intelligible only in the direction Brazilians understand Spanish, not the reverse.

English is limited outside tourism and business. Bom dia, obrigado or obrigada agreeing with your own gender, por favor and quanto custa? cover a lot, and any attempt is received generously.