Conversation Topics: DO & DON'T

Doing business in Brazil implies a lot of face-to-face time to have small talks in order to establish strong working relationships. In other words, it is really important to show personal interest in your Brazilian business contacts as Brazilians do business with people, not with companies or organizations. 

Nevertheless, as in many countries, you should be knowledgeable about the good topics of conversation among business people in Brazil and the ones you may wish to avoid.

First of all, when you meet someone for the first time, it is polite to say ‘muito prazer’ (‘my pleasure’).  Expressions such as ‘como vai’ and ‘tudo bem’ are common forms of saying hello once you know someone and can show you are making an effort to know them.

Many people will say that talking about soccer is a good topic to start a dialog with a Brazilian. I personally think that it may be seen as kind of cliche, but if you don’t have any subject in mind, and you are enough knowledgeable about soccer, it is still great to talk about it. Nevertheless, it is good to remember that soccer is like a love or hate thing in Brazil; not everyone is crazily passionate about it, actually a lot of people cannot stand it.

Safe topics to talk about with Brazilians could also be food, travel, arts, literature or family life. Finally, as Brazilians like to know the person they are dealing with and are very interested in foreign cultures, you could speak about you, talk about life or talk about your country, the countries that you have visited, what restaurants you visited and so on.

However, when speaking to Brazilians, avoid themes like Carnaval, samba, violence, beaches, Rio de Janeiro, women, favelas, corruption, deforestation and other things that Brazil is stereotyped about. Indeed, it could give the impression that you don’t really know the Brazilian society as you have just the basic knowledge of every foreigner.

Besides, speaking about Politics and the Economy in Brazil are also complicated and polemic matters to discuss about. Politics in . Finally, talking about too personal topics could really embarrass your counterpart, so, keep those kinds of conversations for your family or close friends.





Sources:

Mello, J. (2012, June 17). Converse like a Brazilian. Retrieved from: http://thebrazilbusiness.com/article/converse-like-a-brazilian