that economical strings tie us, so we are attached whether we like it or not. We buy CDs from America, we listen to the same music, we have MTV, and we wear the same clothes. We also incorporated to our vocabulary a lot of English words such as “Shopping Center” or “Sale”. This is a sign that the Brazilian culture has become “Americanized” to a certain extend. Part of the cultural aspects that is similar is the way we view women in our cultures. In Brazil as well as in the U.S., women are viewed as workers. The idea that women should stay at home taking care of the kids does not exist anymore; our capitalistic society needs every person to work in order to have a decent life. Ezell also described the way the elderly is treated in his culture. They are treated with a lot of respect and love. The younger people have no need to change their language or nonverbal behavior when interacting with an old person. They are seen as active and still useful in some ways. In Brazil, the elderly is viewed as a fragile piece of glass. They are treated with a lot of respect and love as well, but at the same time we do not give them any credit. It is very rare to see an old person being active in Brazil, maybe because our life expectation is shorter. When a person reaches a certain age, it seems like they lose all their value to our society. They are there just to tell stories and make us laugh. We usually watch our language and nonverbal behavior in order to interact with them. For instance, when talking to my grandmother, I usually try to keep a certain distance and do not make so much eye contact to show respect.Another similar aspect of our cultures is the way we value our families. For both of us our families are the most important thing in our lives. We both agreed with the idea that a person is the product of his/her environment. We can usually tell who has a well-structured family and who does not. The pare...
