Talk:Etiquette in Latin America

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[edit] Brazil: Portuguese & Spanish

Brazilians speak Portuguese, not Spanish. Addressing a Brazilian in Spanish may be considered extremely offensive.

There are two sources given for this, although only one can be read online. Anyway, is this really considered so offensive? I can imagine it being offensive if the listener's impression is that the speaker thinks everybody in South America speaks Spanish and doesn't even know that they speak Portuguese in Brazil. (Although, of course, somebody who doesn't know they speak Portuguese in Brazil isn't going to know Portuguese anyway...) But one would hope that many listeners will also realize that many tourists will know Spanish and not Portuguese, and because these languages are somewhat mutually intelligible, it wouldn't seem unreasonable for such a tourist to try his luck with Spanish, especially if the tourist already tried and failed with English. All the poor tourist wants is to be understood, right? - furrykef (Talk at me) 22:37, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

As a brazilian, I think there are much more english-speakers than spanish-ers here. If you cannot speak MY language, try speak in YOURS first. Starting with a third language is the faux pas, in my opinion. If its somehow clear that you don't think Spanish is our language, I think you will find no problems. Try to start with a excuse. ;) 200.255.9.38 11:13, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

I am a Brazilian and I don't really mind about it. You can talk to me in Spanish as much you like. I have noticed some people used to address me in Spanish over internet, I never felt offended and I even replied them in Spanish too... However, now that I just read this article, I just started worrying if the goal of these people were to offend me, hence this belief Brazilians feel offended about that... Well if that was the case, they failed. Anyway, I have always heard other Brazilians talking about how much they feel annoyed about that but I never thought it was an insult or offence for them. Again, I never minded. Gargalos 09:23, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

As a brazilian, I too dont really mind if someone try to speak to me in spanish thinking that brazilians talks spanish. Its not rude, its just a little annoying, its just a misunderstood. I think the oposite way - most of people dont know which country uses which language in the middle east. I too dont know, so why mind it? Probably the one who spoke in spanish will get an "sorry pal, we speak portuguese here in Brazil", and after 2 minutes no one will remember this (or maybe we brazilians will make an joke about this :D). After all, i dont think any brazilian would mind it too, its just something to remember. It would be a good idea writing about the brazilians/argentines "relations" :P. (sorry for my bad engRish, self learner here!) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.47.5.165 (talk) 06:44, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] A mess!

People along the way have been adding unsourced material and wantonly deleting referenced material, with the result that there are some citations now that don't have their "home" reference- that is they're pointing to nothing. It's going to take some patience to dig through the history and recover those missing references.

I also suggest we start enforcing WP:V on this and the other associated pages that developed from the list of faux pas.08:01, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I think the very fact that there is a list of "generalizations" is a problem. This section should probably go. - AKeen 19:28, 11 October 2007 (UTC)