ENGLISH
PORTUGUESE
LINGUISTICS & CULTURE
PORTUGUESE
LINGUISTICS & CULTURE
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ENGLISH
PORTUGUESE LINGUISTICS & CULTURE |
| Autor: | new world |
| E-mail: | não-disponível |
| Data: | 24/JUL/2003 9:40 PM |
| Assunto: | Re: Iberian vs Asian |
| Mensagem: | The thing about being Brazilian and, I guess, American is that both countries are made up of people of different origins and races. The people who came to both nations either immigrated or were forced to do so due to slavery. Immigrants struggled and led hard lives even if they were free. They were already poor in their homeland (have you ever heard of a rich immigrant?) therefore I think it to be true that they also brought with them a desire of being respected, of making money, of doing anything to obtain what they did not have at home: respectability (that they associated with money and/or a family name and/or a certain occupation, none of which the average immigrant had). I think our new world psyche was built and is still influenced by this. I often witness people (in this quest for respectability) try to diminish another person using arguments of social class and race (the old who is whiter than who as if whiteness was a stamp of aproval, which it is in all the continents I have been to, including Asia, yet it does not mean that it is true nor that having Caucasian traits is negative). I suppose all this stems from our own life experience and those of our parents who were influenced by their grandparents and so on. Which in Brazil were either immigrants or slaves. I have met Japanese-Brazilians who dislike the Koreans who despise the new Chinese arrivals (all this in São Paulo). I have met Italians who hate nordestinos (Northeastern Brazilians) and claim they are vulgar yet also forget that when they arrived in this country they were considered the same by the established Brazilian elite (which many are now part of) and were even called carcamanos (those filthy greaseballs) in American English. So this whole thing that "Iberian vs Asian" has become does not surprise me at all. I agree with the person who felt offended because he was barred entrance to Japan when if we sent back all the Japanese in Brazil they would not have where to place them. Yet the thing is that they are not Japanese anymore, they are Brazilian. So it is of no use reasoning with the Japanese back in Japan nor the Italians back in Italy nor with your granfathers part of the family that stayed in Portugal because they just don't get it. They are people who still have those tribal instincts while we are people who have these "Iberian vs Asian" situations because we are trying to get over them. |
English Made in Brazil -- English, Portuguese, & contrastive linguistics
Iberian vs Asian – Miguel Vieira 21/JUL/2003, 5:56 PM Re: Iberian vs Asian – Alexandre 22/JUL/2003, 12:39 PM Re: Iberian vs Asian – Miguel Vieira 22/JUL/2003, 3:07 PM Re: Iberian vs Asian – Jonas 22/JUL/2003, 3:18 PM Re: Iberian vs Asian – pat 22/JUL/2003, 7:08 PM Re: Iberian vs Asian – Miguel Vieira 23/JUL/2003, 3:25 PM Re: Iberian vs Asian – pat 23/JUL/2003, 9:11 PM Re: Iberian vs Asian – Miguel Vieira 23/JUL/2003, 9:31 PM Re: Iberian vs Asian – Alexandre 22/JUL/2003, 7:45 PM Re: Iberian vs Asian – Miguel Vieira 23/JUL/2003, 3:33 PM Re: Iberian vs Asian – pat 24/JUL/2003, 9:29 AM Re: Iberian vs Asian – Miguel Vieira 24/JUL/2003, 2:34 PM Re: Iberian vs Asian – 19 1/7 24/JUL/2003, 5:25 PM 
Re: Iberian vs Asian – new world 24/JUL/2003, 9:40 PM Re: Iberian vs Asian – Miguel Vieira 25/JUL/2003, 5:29 PM Re: Iberian vs Asian – José Roberto 
25/JUL/2003, 7:43 PM Re: Iberian vs Asian – Alexandre 25/JUL/2003, 11:09 PM Re: Iberian vs Asian – Miguel Vieira 26/JUL/2003, 12:04 PM Re: Iberian vs Asian – Lusófono 21/ABR/2005, 3:31 AM