The was, a few decades ago, a publication for Canadians entitled How not to be mistaken for an American when abroad.
When I, a Canadian, went to Europe, I was advised not to put a Canadian flag on my backpack because people were starting to assume that people with Canadian flags were Americans…
If I had gotten one in time, I would have puit an Esperanto flag on instead…
I’ll agree with Mycroft and say that the NE is quite likely a harder place to blend in. In the big cities, there is almost as diverse a mixture as found in NYC, so even I can slip by unnoticed (I am 6’3" as well).
My wife always mentions white socks when talking about Americans.
I would definitely buy comfortable sandals. You will likely find yourself using them more than shoes. Beware: I purchased some nice looking ones once that were “in”, but were slightly uncomfortable. After a couple of days, the soles of my feet were unbelieveably tender and I had open sores under the straps.
Keep in mind that Brazilians are much more faddish than we are – there will definitely be an “in” style for just about all articles of clothing.
Another vote for no fancy jewelry. Assuming you’re married (with mother-in-law and all), you might consider doing what we did years ago: buy cheap gold-plated wedding bands on the street (50 cents) for use in the city.
Most Brazilians wear thin bands (e.g. 2-3mm). Big fat American wedding bands stand out.
Brazilians do not wear 14k gold; they only wear 18k or better. It’s a deeper yellow than your typical 14k American ring. I don’t know if they even sell 14k gold there.
I usually buy an inexpensive sports watch to wear. The Omega Speedmaster Pro stays in New Jersey while I walk around Brazilian streets wearing a Casio.
I can’t say that I agree with the recommendation to use slang. Idiomatic expressions, yes, but slang… I am always afraid of sounding like a Brazilian friend who used to say “like” too often – she probably didn’t use the word any more often than an American teenage girl would, but there’s some subtle rhythm that only a native can have, so her speech was stilted and actually drew more attention to her instead of helping her to blend in.
About those Speedos – check out the beach in question before you commit. Last time I went in the summer season (i.e. January), I wore Speedos, just like every other male on that particular beach. There were some pretty out-of-shape dudes strutting about with the same attire, so I accepted my wife’s counsel and donned the Speedos. Of course, I managed to get myself a serious sunburn, it being the peak of summer, and I wore a Speedo-shaped tan line for a couple of years :eek:.
Maybe I’m mistaken, but I feel that the diversity of their culture makes it fairly easy to blend in, at least on a superficial level. It’s possible to get along quite well without the folks at the supermarket or beach immediately identifying you as “Gringo!” Nevertheless, there is no way that one’s nationality can be conceiled for more than a few minutes of casual conversation.
Do observe the “body English” (or Portuguese for that matter) of your family carefully. A heightened awareness of the different feel to body movements and gestures may help you emulate locals better and possibly lose some of the visual gringoness.
In Rio de Janeiro, I get mistaken for being German (i.e. a Brazilian of German descent from the south). One particular day, two different store owners asked “O senhor é alemão?”
I figure that I should be satisfied with being received as a native of foreign descent.
one suggestion that i’ve heard frequently is to get rid of the daypack that makes tourists so easy to spot and carry your stuff (if you really need to carry anything) in a plastic bag from the local supermarket chain, maybe with the local newspaper poking out of the top (whether you can read it or not). a grocery bag isn’t very interesting to thieves, and even when people spot you as an american they are more likely to think that you might possibly be a local resident. but tip no. 1 is that if you are going to wear a baseball cap, THE BRIM GOES IN FRONT!
gatopescado, I don’t get the pun. I guess it has something to do with “to boot”, but I can’t think of what that means in portuguese. Does it have something to do with “boot” sounding almost like “puta”? So “to boot” would be something like “tua puta”?
Actually, the chance of them being prostitutes and transvestites were pretty low, considering that this also happened at a New Year’s Eve party at a private club (Yacht Clube do Pará in Belem). However, some of the other clubs I have been to (O Lapinha, Bora-Bora) are real “boates”, which basically means they are places to watch a nice show, but also to pick up a prostitute (or several, if that’s your inkling) and drop by a “Motel”. The “Lapinha” even has three types of restrooms, marked “mulheres”, “homens”, and “gays”. And, I must admit that some of the transvestites I saw in Brazil were absolutely stunning.
By the way, whatever you do, don’t confuse a “Motel” in Brazil with what a “motel” is in the USA. Basically a “Motel” is a hotel where you can rent a completely private room or suite for several hours or nights. These motels are very important in Brazil, because many young people still live with their parents and extended family, and there is no way they can have privacy for some nookie. Motels range from the really bad (a room with a matress and a squeaky ceiling fan) to the really luxurious (a suite with a sauna, whirpool in the enclosed garden, a huge waterbed).
Actually it can be a lot of fun (and not that expensive) to take your wife to a motel for a night. I spent something like 30 dollars for a night in a motel with whirlpool, sauna, waterbed, etc. You can order food and even buy clothes in a motel. The food (and anything else you order) is delivered by dumb-waiter, so no one ever enters your suite.
The funniest thing was that my brother-in-law was driving, and dropped us off at the motel, and at the front gate his “fusquinha” (VW beetle, the real one, not the new retro crap) died and wouldn’t start again. He said it was due to the car being embarassed, which is even funnier considering my brother-in-law is a real “mulherengo”, which means he is a real Casanova, and has spent plenty of time at various motels.
Ah! That explains the motel in City of God. I was wondering about that.
Well, its been over 20 years since I lived there, so maybe that in conjunction with my warped sense of humor, it didn’t make sense. Here’s how it breaks down:
boot = “big shoe” = “sapatone” = transvestite prostitute
“Big shoe” was how they were called when I was lurking around down there “Hey, Cara! Check out the ‘Sapatone’!” Made perfect sense, since they looked like hot runway models with huge boat feet and adam’s apples! I was staying in Campinas which was know as the “San Francisco of Brazil” at the time. Lucky me! I made a rule of never dancing with anyone with size 6 feet or bigger. I’m pretty sure I had a few drinks with one during Carnival at the beach, but he/she was intrested in the Pinga, not me, thankfully.
I still have a copy of “Manchette” magazine featuring some of the “famous” ones of the day.
Aaah, you mean “sapatão”, which literally translates as “big shoe”. However, from the Brazilian I learned, “sapatão” is actually a slang word for a lesbian with a masculine or androgynous appearance. Here you can see some Brazilian definitions of what defines a “sapatão”. there is also the great “pagode” song “Minha Sogra Parece Sapatão” from Bezzera Da Silva. Here is a translation of some of the lines from that song:
E com minha sogra eu não quero graça, a ela tenho muito respeito
I won’t argue with my mother-in-law, I respect her a lot
Ela bebe cachaça e fuma charuto, tem bigode e cabelo no peito
She drinks “cachaça” and smokes cigars, has a moustache and hairs on her breasts.
Eu não sei não minha sogra parece sapatão
I’m not sure, but my mother-in-law looks like a “sapatão”
Não sei não minha sogra parece sapatão
I’m not sure, but my mother-in-law looks like a “sapatão”
Veja que mulher danada pra gostar de confusão
Look at how much she likes to fight
Ela tocou fogo no meu barraco e também quebrou minha televisão
She set my hut on fire and broke my TV
Rasgou toda minha roupa e jogou fora o meu colchão
She tore up all my clothes and threw my matress away
Eu não sei não minha sogra parece sapatão
I’m not sure, but my mother-in-law looks like a “sapatão”
Não sei não minha sogra parece sapatão
I’m not sure, but my mother-in-law looks like a “sapatão”
Ela é de dar sugesta e por qualquer coisa ela fica invocada
She’s always giving advice and she gets mad at any little thing
Só anda pela madruga com uma pá de mulher que é da barra pesada
She only goes out at night with a bunch of women from the slums
Quando tá dormindo ronca que parece trovoada
When she’s asleep she snores like a thunderstorm
Eu não sei não minha sogra parece sapatão
I’m not sure, but my mother-in-law looks like a “sapatão”
Não sei não minha sogra parece sapatão
I’m not sure, but my mother-in-law looks like a “sapatão”
The more common slang name for transsexual prostitutes in Brazil is “travesti” See here. So I guess that’s why I didn’t get your joke. 
You alter your accent in other English-speaking nations? Deliberately? 
Doesn’t have to be deliberately. My college roomie is now living in rural Kent with her English husband, and it’s really weird to hear her talk now. She is Salvadoran by birth, U.S. citizen by naturalization (and educated here from grade 7 onward, through university), and for the past 5 years a U.K. permanent resident. Her accent actually morphs in mid-sentence sometimes, depending on who she’s talking to. I’ve see it myself; she has her usual Long Island English with a barely perceptible Salvadoran accent when she’s talking to me, and then she’ll turn around and talk to her husband or kids in perfectly idiomatic British English.
I do the same around my family; I have pretty neutral Midwestern English most of the time, but if I’m around them I pick up their South Jersey accent. When I was working with Russian speakers all day, I started to imitate them; I’m sure they thought I was making fun of them. Some of us are bigger linguistic chameleons than others.
On behalf of this thread, I was just observing people walking past in the (Dublin) street, and picking out the ones who were obviously American tourists. Of course, there may have been lots of them, but obviously the only ones I noticed were the ones who didn’t blend in.
Defining characteristics in my observation just now - none of which are exclusive to US tourists, of course, but tip the balance in favour of them being thus - appear to be:
Floppy clothing. Supersize T-shirts that come way down over the butt. Pants with elasticated waists and no definition.
Very long shorts that come down way past the knee.
White sneakers.
Baseball caps worn backwards. In fact, baseball caps worn at all, really - people do wear them here but they’re not very common, and they seem to be a slightly different shape.
Sweatshirts. Nobody really wears them here.
Women: fiddly appliqué on clothing or accessories. Obvious use of hairspray.
The classic Monty Python stereotype of the loud, camera toting, plaid wearing guy with a cap seems to have died out.
That’s because many of us have bodies with elasticated waists and asses with no definition.
Sure. I also occasionally find myself imitating other speakers’ accents, until I catch myself. I was just surprised by the three weeks thing.
Ha! I’ve always wondered why American tourists insist on wearing khakis with subdued polo shirts, they believe they are blending in!
If you really want to blend in, I’ve got this Genuine Chameleon-skin leather jacket I can let you have for a song. Really! Looks & feels just like Pleather.
And I need, oh, 5 or 10 new Anime DVDs…
I just did another spot survey in the street, and there was only one guy wearing khakis out of the maybe 200 people who passed me - and he was American.
I too have been hard at work, using the observations in this tread to change the way I see people. I watched a program on TLC about Rio. I spent more of the program picking out the Americans than I did looking at the beautiful sites. The best moment was a 45-50 year old man wearing a baseball cap, white socks and sneakers and carrying a “fanny pack” on his shoulder like a purse. I had to pause the TV and get my wife so I could point this guy out to her. As obvious as this guy was… I do not know if I would have singled him out as an American before reading this thread.
Jjimm, keep updating us on the street surveys.
Mycroft Holmes, I am trying to memorize that song so I can sing it for my mother in-law’s family… I think that it will go over real well. 
Another observation is that most ‘obvious’ American tourists are smiling, earnest, and enthusiastic.
Therefore be surly, cynical, and miserable and you’ll fit in great*.
*Might not apply in Brazil…