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Brazil Geography and Culture

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Brazil: Geography and Culture
Geography

Brazil with a background of Portuguese colonialism back in 1500 is the largest nation in Latin America, nearly half (47%) of the South American continent, comprises slightly under half of the land mass in South America continent and share border with every South American country except Chile and Ecuador. Brazil size is almost the size of United States excluding Alaska. Brazil has 13 cities with over one million residents. The main capital is Brasilia, Brazil has 13 cities with over one million residents. Three important cities in Brazil including São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador. Brazil is a diverse country with ethnic groups including: 54% European, 39% mixed European-African, 6% …show more content…

Mulattoes ' are descendants of the Portuguese and African slaves. Despite the mixing of ethnicities, there is a class system in Brazil. Class is determined by economic status and skin colour. Few Brazilians could be described as racist, although social discrimination based on skin colour is a daily occurrence. People with darker brown skin are economically and socially disadvantaged.
Many senior and middle ranking Brazilian business executives speak excellent English and in fact, many of them may have studied abroad in the USA or Europe. However, English is not spoken when dealing with people outside the major commercial centres, an ability to speak Brazilian Portuguese is extremely useful. The official language of Brazil is Portuguese; however, there are more than 180 native languages spoken in the country. It is also important to note that Brazil is the only country in South America whose dominant language and culture comes from Portugal.
Aside from a small number of recently contacted indigenous peoples, all Brazilians speak Portuguese. Brazilian Portuguese differs somewhat in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation from the language of Portugal. Brazilian Portuguese contains a large number of indigenous terms, particularly words for native plants, animals, and place-names are not found in continental Portuguese. While regional accents exist in Brazil, they are not very pronounced and native Portuguese speakers

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