This Week's CULTURE QUIZ: Connect the (Latin American) Concept with the Culture!
Simpatico in Colombia...Malinchismo in Mexico...Jeitinho in Brazil...the list goes on. But what do they mean?
We had some fun in last week’s CultureQuiz connecting some really important cultural concepts in Asia with the countries that they come from. I hope you enjoyed the CultureQuiz, and perhaps learned something useful along the way, as well. This week, our CultureQuiz asks you to connect Latin American cultural concepts with the countries they come from. (For our purposes, when we speak about Latin America, we are referring to all those countries - Hispanic or otherwise - that are geographically located below the Rio Grande River). So, below are this week’s five CultureQuiz questions, each featuring an important cultural concept from a particular Latin American country, with four possible definitions (a., b., c. or d.) of the concept. But only one definition is the correct one! Test yourself today and choose the correct multiple choice answer for each of the following five Latin American CultureQuiz questions! (The correct answers follow the quiz, so if you haven’t already subscribed to deanfosterglobal.substack.com, you can do so right here).
LATIN AMERICAN Culture Concept questions:
JEITINHO in Brazil …
a. refers to the tradition of always downing THREE caiparinhas when toasting an honored guest.
b. is a disparaging term for the racial differences that exist within the country.
c. is an expression of pride in the multi-racial make-up of Brazilian culture.
d. describes a process of fixing things or situations, a work-around, even if not quite correct, as long as the outcome solves the problem.
REPARACION in Cuba…
a. refers to the payments that the Cuban government believes must be paid by the U.S. at some future date to compensate for the decades-old U.S. trade embargo.
b. refers to the continual renewal and refurbishing of old things in order to keep them operating.
c. refers to the enduring “side hustle” that most Cubans have to undertake in order to get by.
d. refers to the immigration of Venezuelans leaving Venezuela for work in Cuba.
“MALINCHISMO” in Mexico…
a. describes an attitude of disrespecting and disparaging one’s own culture (in this case, the disparaging of Mexican culture by Mexicans).
b. refers to a form of “silent” machismo, where men in authority at work prevent equally or better qualified women from accessing positions of similar authority.
c. is a non-verbal hand signal that indicates agreement (often employed at business negotiations).
d. refers to an annual harvest festival in Chiapas that local indigenous groups have expanded into a major regional celebration of their pre-Colombian traditions.
“SIMPATICO” in Colombia…
refers to an unachievable state of perfection, used as a standard against which the quality of things, and people, is often judged.
is similar to the Asian notion of not losing “face”, but without the obligation to “make face” for others.
refers to anyone who is impeccably and fashionably dressed.
is a term used to describe a sense of shared attitude, perspective or “chemistry” between people, often used as an explanation as to why certain people are easy or difficult to work with.
“LA GAUCHADA” in Argentina …
a. is a term used mainly by residents of Buenos Aires when referring to people of the rural, interior north of the country.
b. is a term used to describe the unique and still active Fuegan culture on the extreme southern Argentinian island of Tierra del Fuego.
c. ostensibly means a “gift”, but describes the common practice of requesting someone’s help to solve a problem that requires them to go out of their way in order to do so.
d. refers to the condition (“la gauchada”) of having gained too much weight due to over-indulging in sweets and desserts.
Easy? Hard? So, how many CultureQuiz Culture Concept questions did you get right? Here are the correct answers below…and the reasons why!
Here are your correct CultureQuiz ANSWERS:
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