Brazilian people do not like disappointing. In theory, it is a nice gesture on their part because they will go out of their way to see the person satisfied. The problem arises, however, when they do not understand what they are being told or asked and yet they offer to help. They are extremely good at making the person feel taken care of until the very last moment when they try ending the conversation with an assurance that makes no sense whatsoever.
Yesterday, for example, I arrived at the hotel in the center norte part of Sao Paulo, starving after the long overnight flight and so I measured my options – should I call room service and in my rusty Portuguese explain my gluten allergy or should I instead go down to the reception and let someone there place an order for me in their native Portuguese after I have explained everything to them in English? I opted for the latter. The young man smiling at me with a mouthful of braces seemed to understand what I was telling him – “I would like to ask you a favor. I cannot eat gluten and I am trying to order some food. Could you call the restaurant and ask which dishes are safe for me?” His response: “Yes.” I thought things were going well so I stood there expecting him to make the phone call while he also stood there looking at me as if I had not finished my request. I decided to change my approach. I opened the menu and pointed to two dishes: “Could you call the restaurant to check if these two contain gluten?” He looked at the menu, then at me and responded with a question: “Gluten?” Then he took the menu from me reading the ingredients in the dishes out loud and concluded: “No, there is no gluten, Mrs.” “Oh, this is going to be harder than I thought,” I said to myself. Then I returned to my first question and stressed the part about calling the chef. He finally picked up the phone. Apparently the dishes were safe and as he put down the receiver he promised to have the food delivered in 30 minutes. I was not convinced, but I did return to my room.
Fifty minutes later I decided to inquire what was taking so long. “Do you speak English?” – I asked the man from room service. “No,” – he replied and waited. “Is there someone who does?” – I decided not to give up. I heard some commotion and then another man picked up the phone. “Hello. I am waiting on my order. It’s been 50 minutes. Do you know if it’s ready?” – I assumed he already saw my room number. “Yes,” – he answered. The previous experience with a short yes and no made me want to make sure he understood what the conversation was about. “Room 1518. Is there food coming up?” He thought for a second and corrected himself, “No.” This was going extremely well! I guessed it wasn’t the best time to make no-gluten requests so instead I just ordered the same thing again and made a mental note not to miss the regular meal hours at the restaurant downstairs – they were buffet style.
I do have to stress the fact that I do not expect people to speak English wherever I go. In fact, I wanted to come here to learn the language and, whenever possible, I do resort to my Portuguese of a 5-year-old with little shame. The only reason I find these experiences funny and maybe a bit frustrating is because they demonstrate how culture does not really translate into another language. What I mean by that is that when Brazilians say - “Yes,” despite having no clue of what they are agreeing for, they do it out of politeness. To an English speaker, however, and I mean a North American English speaker, the affirmation translates into: a) they just understood what they were told and/or asked, b) they agreed to do whatever needed to be done. The language that both parties used might have been the same and yet there was no communication. Now that’s a real challenge for language teachers!
