nts have the same level of respect from their children; the patriarchal construction is it not in use anymore. The only difference in our views when talking about family is the idea that Ezell’s culture is a little more individualistic than mine and this concept intervenes even in his family. They tend to think first about themselves than the rest. In my family, collectivism is more suitable. Even though we also have our own individual goals it usually comes right after our family’s goal. Big differences between our cultures are the nonverbal behaviors. As a Brazilian girl, when greeting a person or meeting a person for the first time you usually give two kisses, one on each side of his/her face. Guys usually give a handshake or give a hug to the other guy and give kisses to a girl. Whereas in his culture the handshake is usually appropriate in business related interaction. He said that when meeting a person for the first time or greeting someone he usually says “ Hi. How are you doing?” and does not touch the person. Also it is known that people from Brazil talk very close to each other, we usually touch the person we are talking to and eye contact is pretty long and direct. Ezell said that in his culture you only touch very close friends and the distance usually decreases according to the level of intimacy. If he is talking to a very close friend, he usually will touch that person, but if that person isn’t close he won’t touch him/her. The same rule is used for eye contact. A very interesting aspect of his culture is that usually couples do not show much affection in public, it is very rare to see a couple kissing in public or just holding hands. Sometimes you can’t even tell who are couples or not. In Brazil, showing affection in public is very common. People just kiss, hug each other, and hold hands all the time to show that they are together. These demonstrations of affection in public ar...
