... in response to Re: Can you..., posted by OkieMan on Jul 7, 2005Here is a little of what I have observed. I speak both Spanish and Portuguese fluently, and recently returned to the U.S. after living three years in Brazil, part of that time studying the language, part of it just hanging out, and part of it running a restaurant. I was in Spain (oh, go ahead and yawn if you've heard this before) for two years before that. I have done quite a bit of browsing on match.com and similar sites, and I have observed quite a difference between what brasileiras write about themselves and how the view relationships and what women from other Latin American countries write (this does not take into account what the Latin Euro address pimps compose on behalf of their female inventory).
Brasileiras are much more independent, I think. They are FAR more apt to describe themselves as having "a strong personality". Naturally, a woman who would post a personals ad on the internet is more likely to fit this description than the general population, but far fewer, e.g., colombianas describe themselves that way. The first time I met a woman who described herself that way, thinking that perhaps it meant something a little different in Portuguese, I found out that...it didn't. When brasileiras describe themselves, they tend to write about how cool they are almost in the sense of self-flattery, and their desire for a committed relationship is generally expressed as "Oh, I'd like to meet interesting people who like to do the same stuff I do, and if something more involved happens, that would be even better."
By contrast, colombianas, for example, also tend to describe themselves in positive terms, but usually use adjectives that describe how they would contribute to a committed relationship, how they are looking for a good man to commit themselves to wholeheartedly in undying devotion. And please note, these are women writing in Spanish, ostensibly looking for local men; they do not appear to be angling for a green card. They generally seem more willing to accept a wider age difference and even seek out an older man.
I have never been to Colombia. But now that I am back in the States, I am planning a casual, month-long trip there to just hang out in less-travelled cities and see if the two countries are really that different. I could have gotten married in Brazil, no problem, but for the most part the women who were interested in me and the ones I was interested in were two different groups. I'm just going to go hang out and take a relaxed vacation where most of you guys go, and be open to the idea that maybe I was a bigger part of my problem than I realize...or maybe I wasn't.
