Cultural Comparisons through Cakes and Bus Routes

Interestingly enough, I have found that two seemingly ordinary things (cakes and bus routes) really help show the major differences in thought between U.S. Americans (I'll call them Americans for short even though some Brazilians hate that...) and Brazilians. It seems that sometimes the smallest details of our lives can show huge things.

In Brazil, cakes are round. In the U.S., they are square/rectangle. When I first got to Brazil, it was almost a shock for me. Every single cake was round. It was served by cutting a circle in the middle of the larger circle and cutting pieces out from around the outside. The pieces were lopsided trapezoids and, after the outside circle was eaten, there was an inside circle still left that was cut in whatever random shape people wanted to eat. When one looked at the cut-up cake, it looked so unorganized; each piece was a different shape and size. After months here, this is a normal sight, but my first views of this were a surprise. The American cake, on the other hand, is normally much more organized. Each cake is symmetrical and people work hard to cut each piece as square as possible so that each slice of cake is the same size.

When I think about the two cultures, these cakes really show how people from each place think. In the U.S., everyone wants the most, the biggest slice. Therefore, a cake must be evenly cut so that no one "wins" but instead everyone is even. Also, we have the mentality that everything should be thought out and planned, organized and even. In Brazil, things are different. Sometimes I think for better, sometimes for worse. The cake slices aren't evenly distributed, but that's okay. Things in Brazil certainly aren't organized; they are instead usually left to chance or last minute planning. Going with the flow and taking whatever comes your way is seen as normal.

While it might seem like a bit of a stretch for this comparison, it's been something I've been thinking about for a while. It's hard for me to put on paper so I probably didn't describe it well, but it was something I wanted to share. Looking at an American cake vs a Brazilian cake after they are both cut, they are remarkably different.

Another comparison is the difference between styles of bus routes. In the United States, bus routes take a major road or route. They might follow Main street or 8th Ave. They might head from the Mall to the Eastern park. There is a particular reason each bus goes a particular route or direction. In Brazil (as in Argentina), bus routes are all but linear. Yes, you might find a rare bus or two that follows a main road, but the majority weave in and out of the small neighborhood streets without rhyme or reason. If you aren't familiar with a bus route, you might get on heading north and find that later the bus turns to go mainly south east, in a different direction than you wanted to go.

Bus routes in the U.S. follow the mindset of the people... every action has a particular reason. In Brazil, the mindset runs much more in circles, non-linear. In Brazil, business meetings start with coffee and personal chit chat. There is usually no agenda but instead, what is done, is done. What is not completed is left for another day. Power points and classes seem to be without a particular purpose for the first half because the thesis is always at the end. In the U.S., the thesis is always at the beginning, the point always clear.

Such a difference in thinking was certainly a hard adjustment to make at first. It influences every single part of life. But, after some time, I've taken a more "Go with the flow" view of life and things seem to click a bit more. Yes, things aren't as organized and seem to go in a direction of their own sometimes, without a rhyme or reason, but I suppose that's a bit of the Brazilian life.