Best English Podcast - Drinking and Smoking in Brazil - Cultural Aspects III

Hello everyone, here I bring another sequence of the Brazilian cultural habits relating these two common social aspects. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Best English Podcast by Teacher Bruno Gon. Today’s episode brings other two aspects of Brazilian culture. Here, I will tell you how we handle these two aspects. Habit one relates to drinking alcohol.  Well, unlike the US for example. Bars in Brazil are open to the streets. It means that it is ok to not only carry, but also have drinks while walking around. As bars are open, it is normal to see people sitting on tables on sidewalks having a beer. Recalling that Brazil is a hot country, so the most common alcoholic drink is beer, especially cold. For Brazilian people, beer must be extremely cold, not becoming ice cold, but very cold. There is even a popular saying which in free translation is “if it is mason shin, that’s good to drink”, meaning that after taking it out of the freezer, it must have a thin cover of ice. Despite this habit, Brazilian driving code is very strict, there is a zero tolerance law which is nicknamed “dry law”, that says that even the small percentage of alcohol detected is enough to be fined, have your car towed and be sued. In addition, the fine is not cheap.  Now, for our second habit: smoking. As a non smoker, I must say. I feel great that it is no longer a huge habit. I remember about 20 years ago, a massive campaign against smoking took place all over Brazil and it started having positive effects on the population, which resulted about 10 years ago, the law forbade smoking inside places such as bars and restaurants. Yes, there is no smoking area in any place in Brazil. If you are a smoker and you want to smoke, you must get outside from wherever you are, and don’t think for a second that people are tolerant to it. Places and staff from these places will massively complain if you light up inside. In addition to that law, it was amended that not even under marquees is allowed to smoke. This law was made with the goal of disencourage people from smoking. It worked so well that it is already part of Brazilian culture. Then, you must be asking: “do people still smoke in Brazil?” and I answer. Yes. You can find them, yet these people respect the “smoking outside” law.  By that, we end this episode about Brazilian culture. If you enjoyed this episode, please forward to friends, rate me 5 stars, subscribe and hit the bell for further notifications. You can find me on instagram @bestenglish.br and on LinkedIn Teacher Bruno Gon