SDLC 111: Learning Journal #2

[Elspeth Collard]

While I am still learning vocabulary and grammar, Leticia and I have recently taken some time to focus on the cultural aspects of Brazil and the United States, including similarities, differences, and what makes them unique. It has also become a larger conversation of how much Brazil has changed within her lifetime (particularly in recent years) and, as she says, “has become more like America.” It also became a conversation about what some of her first cultural shock moments in the U.S. were. She said that she was shocked by the greasy and sweet food for breakfast here and that she used to think the Brazilian breakfast of bread and fruits was unhealthy. She no longer believes this to be true, at least by comparison! She was also surprised by the overwhelming amount of medication options (apparently there is usually just 1 for each type of medication on the shelves in Brazil and when she came here she had never seen so many types of Neosporin) and the way that everyone greeted her while she was just walking around campus. We also went over the metric system, red solo cups (apparently everyone brings reusable cups to parties in Brazil!), tipping, and tax not being included in prices. A passionate conversation about how much water the U.S. wastes followed the revelation that U.S. toilets are widely considered to use much more water than other countries. Leticia said that even our toilets with two options use way more water than the toilets in Brazil. Additionally, we had an interesting conversation about the U.S. being a particularly patriotic country. We specifically discussed the number of American flags that are everywhere in the U.S. and how in Brazil, flags are almost never displayed. She said that flags have recently been flown to show support for Bolsonaro, which has made the flags into more of a political message than they used to be.
We also debunked some of the common misconceptions about the U.S. and Brazil, such as the U.S. having sweet bread (we were both confused) and that only Americans threw baby showers, ate big portions, and walked around with big coffees.
I wanted to spend the majority of this learning journal discussing these conversations we’ve had because I think they are an important unplanned part of our lessons. They are what constitute all of the topics that come up when we get sidetracked and end up looking up things like the origin of the umlaut. While unplanned, I have really enjoyed this part of the SDLC program. I am learning so much in every conversation I have with Leticia in Portuguese and not in Portuguese. We don’t rush and we take the time to follow our curiosities and hunt down these small details. It is something that shows the progress of our lessons: we have been able to have these offshoots and then get back on track to continue with whatever Leticia had planned for the day.