Language barriers in Brazil

Hi,
I am from India and we have 22 languages officially accepted by constitution however if you go on deep then you can find "n" number of different languages in India, English is widely spoken in the country and Hindi is our official language, why I am stating this is because I had a confidence that a person who knews more than 6 languages will not have a barrier in Brazil, but the scenario is totally different from what I experienced, here the majority(almost 100%) speaks português and if you need to be a successful person in this country then you should know portuguese, there are many institutions are offering a tuition for portuguese and you can select any one of those, the alphabets are similar to English but the pronunciation is different, the best way to merge in this language is to travel, listen and meet different peoples. The people are very helpful and they extend their warm support to the foreigners, but getting  a job is a challenging one and I am also traveling on the same road☺️

It's possible to survive in the large cities (e.g., Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro) without speaking Portuguese; and it's even possible to work in large international companies located in those cities without knowing much Portuguese. The problem in Brazil is not language per se: it is cultural. A foreigner can be perfectly fluent in Portuguese but will almost never be fully trusted--I can assure everyone of this--by Brazilians in a business career. Basically, speaking Portuguese is necessary to get a job here; but it is far from sufficient to get a job working for a Brazilian company.

In the words of Brazilians, translated to English, they are worried that "a foreigner is not serious."  An example of what "serious" means here: I know an American consultant with excellent training and experience, who was essentially fluent in Portuguese. He got a job at one of the largest Brazilian banks at a salary level of about 200% of his US salary. He worked for the bank for about 10 months, then "got a better job back in the US." The managers and executives that hired him said "he was not serious."  The word serio, as used here, means a person is committed / capable / trustworthy, all at the same time. The American consultant was neither committed nor trustworthy in the view of the Brazilians, even if he was capable.  So, Brazilians don't trust foreigners because they rarely believe foreigners are committed / capable / trustworthy from the perspective of Brazilians.

So, by all means, learn Portuguese. But do not be surprised if it doesn't help you achieve your goals in Brazil.

I am not sure trust is an issue. All contractors that work for me enjoy it and always make time to fix a problem.
No I am not fluent in Portuguese (still taking lessons), but if the job was do right they receive a tip, (They looked shocked at first) but they know I am trusting.
Having friends which know the people and place also helps when I use their name as referring them.

Without speaking Portuguese you can forget about being successful here unless you own your own business or were brought here by an international company. There is an unspoken rule to hire a Brazilian first unless you can't find a Brazilian who has the skills of the foreigner. I don't think its a trust thing, most don't know what is needed to hire foreigners and with the bureaucracy of Brazil, it's probably not worth it.

The major cities will have more English speakers, but the small cities will not. You could always teach English, not much money in it unless you like working nights and weekends.

Speaking Portuguese is extremely important!

The trust factor is important, but it's not primarily driven by whether a person is a foreigner or not:  Brazil simply is an extremely low-trust society.  On consecutive World Values  and Pew Surveys, Brazil has consistently scored near the bottom on the questions "Can most people be trusted?" or, "Are most people trustworthy?"  Around 10-35% of Brazilians say "yes", as compared with 60-80% for the Scandinavian countries and China.  (http://www.pewglobal.org/2008/04/15/whe … n-are-low/ , among others)
"Foreignness" just adds one more factor to distrust in an already distrustful environment.  Good to remember, in a place where people often seem so charming and friendly.

I understand the perspective that neither "trust" nor "foreignness" are the primary problems with developing a good career in Brazil, they are important contributing factors; as is the ability to speak Portuguese.

I think one of the most important things I learned in my years here in Brazil is that, for a variety of reasons, Brazilians are unwilling to substitute trust for capability and commitment; or, capability for trust and commitment; or, commitment for trust and capability. All three things must go together in adequate amounts.

I spoke with a Brazilian M&A advisor I've known for years about these things and he said (speaking English) to me, "No. Trust is the only important thing." I gave him a scenario where an M&A counterparty had excellent capability but no strong commitment to closing the M&A transaction, etc. He said "Well, I just wouldn't trust the guy!"  I said, "Why not?"  He said, "Because the guy isn't serious!"  I said, "Why?" He said, "Because he would have to be committed to be serious." 

In short, in Brazil: sério := trust X capability X commitment.  If any one of these things low, a Brazilian will likely regard a person to be non-serious ... which is the Kiss Of Death in Brazilian business, in my experience.

Cheers, JMcL

P.S. If a foreigner is on the buy-side of a business negotiation, things are different. Money talks ... and it's especially persuasive in Brazil.  Being on the buy-side usually does not require the foreigner to be sério, except in very large transactions / contracts; but it does require one to recognize that "good-faith" disclosure and negotiating is quite different than in the US and UK. Negotiation is most often viewed as a zero-sum game here in Brazil; the ideas of synergy and win-win seems to be viewed as indicative of effeteness.  A Brazilian friend, an architect, told me: "You must negotiate very aggressively (but politely) with Brazilian business people. They will not respect you otherwise. And in that case, they will not contract with you."   JMcL