New Series: Riogringa Reader Profile

I am a lot less proud of my writing than I am of the amazing and fascinating readers I have managed to attract here on the blog, and I thought it would be nice to put them the spotlight once and awhile, considering that I would have stopped blogging if it weren't for them. The first person I chose was a blog/Twitter buddy who I realized I knew absolutely nothing about. [If you're interested in being featured here, please email riogringaconsult at gmail dot com. There are some newcomers I'm very curious about--I'm looking at you, Jolly--and some older readers who definitely deserve a profile.]

So for the first profile, I'm happy to present Marina!

Marina is 27 and lives in Sao Paulo. She has two college degrees: one in Advertising, and the other in Web Design and Programming. She's a freelance translator, takes French lessons, and loves photography (take a look at her portfolio--she's really good). She writes Brazinglish, and given my interaction with her I had long assumed she'd spent a lot of time abroad, probably in the United States. Her perfect English and knowledge of American pop culture could only be from personal experience, I'd thought, and I was actually curious as to whether she was Brazilian or American. So I was shocked to find out the real deal. While she is unique as far as most of the Brazilians I know still living in Brazil, she faces some of the same frustrations and struggles many Brazilians do.

1. So it looks like you're living in Sao Paulo now. Could you explain where you lived in the US and Brazil and how you wound up in each place? And maybe a bit about your experience in each place?

I've never ever been to the real US. I spent 15 days in Florida doing the whole Orlando-Tampa-Miami theme park thingy when I was 15. People spoke to me in Spanish and it drove me mad, since all I wanted at the time was to test my English. I should've started taking English lessons when I was 12, but ended up starting when I was 10, because since the age of 5 I went to my mom's classes (when we first went to Santa Catarina, she didn't know anyone, so she carried me around). So her teacher told her to bring me over, and the rest was history. That was in 1992, a year later came cable TV, and 3 years later, the Interwebz. I only spoke Portuguese in school with my friends by then. The first e-mail I ever wrote was in English. I only watched TV in English. I have to thank my parents for that, the last time we all watched Jornal Nacional was in 1993. It all snowballed to a point where all the magazines and books I buy are in English, also my cellphone, computer operating system, you name it. In fact, if you come by my house right now, I probably have more stuff in English than you do, haha. [You're probably right; about half of my little library is in Spanish and Portuguese]

I'm in São Paulo now because of my boyfriend (Chiveta) of 8 years. We met in Santa Catarina, while I was living in Porto Alegre (at university). He's always lived here, I came because I'm your typical small town girl who dreams of making it in the big city (well, technically I'm from Porto Alegre, but I was brought up in rednecky Criciúma, Santa Catarina, where I taught English for a living til last year). There was absolutely no future there. After I got my bachelor's degree I went to Criciúma for a while, completely lost, and got a call from an English course. I wanted a job so bad, felt like a burden at home, all that stuff. So I accepted the offer, thinking "I'll just do this for a while till I figure things out" and ended up staying there for 4 years.

So far there's not much of an experience here, workwise. Got here in March, work from home, translating (mostly law abstracts and now books) and take French lessons at Alliance Française.
Living with Chiveta is a blessing, he's amazing with the housework stuff that I hate, and he's ok with all my Seinfeld-like germophobia and neuroses in general. I feel right at home, it's like a bigger Porto Alegre, but without the annoying accent and loud people – gaúchos are loud as hell, I'm glad I left when I was 2 and developed a mixed accent.

2. What do you do (job/school)? What would you like to be doing?

Well, like I said, I'm freelance translating and learning French. I'd like to be studying photography, and like everyone else, I'd like to have a decent job. : )

3. What inspired you to start brazinglish?

Although the profile on the blog suggests Anderson (the soccer player) is "guilty" of brazinglish, what inspired me was pretty much being unemployed. Basically, I only include the mistakes of people who were paid to speak/write/understand English. Anderson's not to blame here, his publicist is. I love how he just goes for it. The blog started because I think it's so unfair that I'm here with no job in sight and there's so much crappy English going on everywhere. Woe is me, I know, but that's the truth. I have some stuff from SBT and Editora Abril that's so wrong it's just insane. I wish I could have a "video" version, only about brazinglish subtitles (those are the ones that really make me cringe), but I'd have to record everything that airs on TV and I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

4. How did you originally find my blog?

Oops. No idea, sorry. But I'm absolutely positive the first post I read was How to Speak Brazilian, I left a comment there as Chiveta. You nailed it, Vick-ee Vah-poh Roo-bee gets me everytime.

5. What other Brazil blogs do you like? What are your other favorite blogs?

I don't really read Brazilian blogs on a regular basis. But if it's sarcastic and dark, I'm there. So I could say I read tedouumdado. I love gossip blogs when they're mean (IDLYITW is my favorite, hands down, because it's written by men. It's so crass, I love it.) and I hate them when they tone things down because they're getting "famous" (Perez, Just Jared, Pink is the New Blog <--- all stuff I read in '05/'06 and gave up on since). Apart from that, lots of Apple-related blogs, Wired's Gadget Lab and Lifehacker, which is not really a blog.

6. What interests you the most when you read about Brazil? the US?

It's hard to read something about Brazil and feel anything other than disgust. Yes, I know, it's easy for me to say that because I'm here, if I were away I'd have the flag wrapped around my head. I'm not so sure about that. I do love the fact that my family can afford health insurance and pay for stuff in a million installments with a regular credit card if necessary, but the air I breathe (music, movies, arts in general) is low on oxygen here. So that pretty much tells you what I like reading (and seeing and listening) about the US. Being a fan of all things underground, not only would I be able to go to a million shows 8 days a week there, but I'd also be able to hang out with the people I admire and talk to them like regular people. Graphic designers, poster artists, photographers, musicians, craftspeople from Etsy, you name it. One thing I gotta say though, is we have the most amazing lower class/poor community in the world. Just yesterday I saw this video from Fantástico – which I never watch – of a girl who was fired (she worked as a maid) because she missed a day's work. She missed a day's work because she breastfed 6 children during a fire in a favela. Now that is a Brazil I'm proud to live in. : )

Comments

[Personne]

Sorry, but it's the kind of person most Brazilians don't fancy that much. It seems that she'd like to be American, French, anything other(/richer) than Brazilian. This type of I-hate-Brazilian-TV, I-don't-have-any-Brazilian-book attitude pisses me off. (some cute examples: "all the magazines and books I buy are in English", "I have to thank my parents for that, the last time we all watched Jornal Nacional was in 1993".
By the way, knowing about American pop culture is nothing more than vulgar: the whole world does that already. American high culture is what we must learn from this lovely, pragmatic people - from Poe to Rorty, Bloom, composer John Adams etc.
Just my opinion. It's not my intention to offend anyone.

[chiveta]

that's my (talented) girl!
:-)

[SassyNYC]

Why so defensive cause someone appreciates another culture? If I were in America and obsessed with Japan or Brazil, no one would care or give me a self-loathing lecture!!
I think it takes a close-minded person to only want to experience or appreciate their own culture.

[Personne]

It's not about appreciating another culture, it's all about alienation. I do appreciate American culture. Sondheim is one of my most estimated songwriters, I love Pollock's paintings, jazz and Whitman. My children will surely know every major Disney animation. But that doesn't mean that I disregard or ignore my own culture (plenty of oxygen here). The problem with this girl is that she acts like she wanted to live in the United States of America so bad that the mere fact of living in Brazil makes her feel like a loser to some extent.

[SassyNYC]

Personne, I totally see your point. From that perspective, I can see how it would bother you, and that would bother me, too!

[brazinglish]

Personne, just out of curiosity, where are you from and where do you live?

[Socializinrocks]

Great blog, really cool interview and YAY for people with enough guts to burst out of their bubbles and allow themselves to absorb more than what's within their reach.....