American Guy Living In Brazil with Permanent Residents, Helping those looking for

Bill, when I retired I threw my watch away.....

john

"Bill Brown" <middlecalifornia-wdw06m> wrote in message
news:eRY4g.65859$F_3.37495@newssvr29.news.prodigy. net...
> How has it been adjusting to the Brasilian culture for you? I had toyed
> with the idea of retiring to Brasil, but after a couple month long visits,
> I found the casual attitude towards punctuality quite annoying.
> Initially, I thought it was just me. I have since heard about this issue
> from many non-Brasilians from various countries on extended stays in
> Brasil.-Bill Brown

I hear that about going off-schedule when retired, I avoid planning when I
go on vacations. However, I got annoyed with folks typically showing up 1-3
hours late, or not at all without as much as a courtesy call or
anything.-Bill Brown
"asadi" <j-s-baker@invalid.sbcglobal.invalid.net> wrote in message
news:fD15g.77700$dW3.49937@newssvr21.news.prodigy. com...
> Bill, when I retired I threw my watch away.....
>
> john
>
> "Bill Brown" <middlecalifornia-wdw06m> wrote in message
> news:eRY4g.65859$F_3.37495@newssvr29.news.prodigy. net...
>> How has it been adjusting to the Brasilian culture for you? I had toyed
>> with the idea of retiring to Brasil, but after a couple month long
>> visits, I found the casual attitude towards punctuality quite annoying.
>> Initially, I thought it was just me. I have since heard about this issue
>> from many non-Brasilians from various countries on extended stays in
>> Brasil.-Bill Brown
>
>

"Bill Brown" <middlecalifornia-wdw06m> wrote in message
news:bXc5g.105$fb2.102@newssvr27.news.. ..
>I hear that about going off-schedule when retired, I avoid planning when I
>go on vacations. However, I got annoyed with folks typically showing up
>1-3 hours late, or not at all without as much as a courtesy call or
>anything.-Bill Brown

This is cultural. If I invited friends over when I lived in Ecuador and said
"19 hors" I would not count on anyone arriving till 9 PM. This is just the
way it was, and everyone understood what it meant. They were not late, not
rude and did not need to call. I knew, they knew. Sometimes, if punctuality
was required, an invitation would say, "Hora Americana" meaning that the
time stated was the time expected.

If you can't adapt to a different culture, it is better to visit and not
consider living there.

Bill Brown schreef:
> Hence my first post in this thread, wondering how the initial poster adapted
> to the local culture after 5 years. I spent my formative years as a child
> in Germany. There, bus schedules would offer times such as 14:23 and that is
> the precise time the bus would arrive. I managed to adjust to the less
> punctual lifestyle of living in the U.S. as an adult. I imagine we can
> adjust to most any cultural norm if we want.

Right, you can adapt to almost everything, as long as it does not go
against your own set of values too much.
I lived in the Netherlands for 55 years, a country which is almost as
punctual as Germany. Or was, it is getting less. We used to arrive 5
minutes before the appointment, give or take.
Nevertheless, I had no problems with the lifestyle here in Brazil.
Perhaps because I was already used to that of Portugal, where I met
lateness of 1 or 2 hours occasionally. This did not happen here (yet?).

> I noticed a trend, though,
> that my financially better-off Brasilian friends were less concerned with
> being on time than friends of lesser means.-Bill Brown

It could be. Brazil is a very class-aware society, showing off a bit by
being late is sometimes considered "classy". Not too much though.
This reminds me of the story my wife told me. She attended a wedding of
her friend. The bride is always late, this is a habit. Half an hour or
so will do.
This one overdid it, she arrived over an hour later. Part of the guests
missed it, they were already heading home, angry.

M. van Tilburg
Petropolis RJ