Food, School, and Language

Today I met with Marcelo for lunch at Red Cactus. He had never been there and was interested in trying the Mexican food. We started off the meal discussing the cuisine available in America and Brazil. Mexican food is not very popular in Brazil. There are not many places that serve it. However, they do have other international foods, like Chinese. The lack of Mexican food surprised me considering the proximity of Mexico to Brazil in comparison to China. He also mentioned that they had "American" food. When I asked what that entailed, all he could come up with was hamburgers and hot dogs. We spent the next five minutes trying to come up with other foods that would be considered American without much luck. I had never really thought about it before. Our discussion made me realize that the foods available in the U.S. are just a conglomeration of international foods. We eat Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Italian, to name a few. But really, America doesn't have its own cuisine besides hamburgers and hot dogs.

Marcelo described to me the native foods of Brazil. He said they ate a lot of beans and rice. The food he misses the most though is the meat. They ate meat with every meal. I didn't understand completely, but the way he described it made it seem like Brazilians have special types of meat or special ways of making it. He explained that they make different cuts of beef than are found in America. The thing he misses most about Brazil is the food.

Marcelo is considering applying to TCU for the next school year. He told me it is so much easier to get into a good college in America than in Brazil. Apparently, each university in Brazil has its own test as opposed to the universal SAT and ACT in the U.S. Students will study several subjects including Math, Science, Philosophy, Portuguese, English, Writing, and History to prepare for the tests. If they do not achieve a satisfactory score on the exam they are not accepted to the university and have to wait a whole year to retake it. During this year they study, study, study. There are universities that take lower scores on their tests, but there is a big difference between a good university and an okay university in Brazil. If you want a decent job with a good company, you better attend a good university. That is why Marcelo came to the U.S. for college. It is easier to get into and almost all the universities are high quality. I now appreciate more the opportunities I have as an American citizen.

Our final topic of discussion was languages. I asked if he was required to take English in high school. He said that while they were, it wasn't an important class. It was what we would call a "blow-off" class that no one paid attention in. He learned English through private classes he took with about five other people. To my surprise, he said that speaking is the easiest for him and writing is the hardest. When I was learning French in high school I was just the opposite. I had so much trouble speaking. However, that was partly due to the fact that we were hardly ever forced to speak French.

We are going to meet again on Thursday when I take him to Billy Bob's and teach him how to two-step. He is going to teach me how they country dance in Brazil. It should be a very enlightening experience!